I’m not saying you’re not alive.
"Then why are you talking about me as if I were furniture to be put away when they're too old?"
The judge didn't interrupt me.
"You said the child was your biological," he remarked.
My lawyer stood up.
Yes, Your Honor. Mrs. Mileva and Mr. Stoyanov used a medical procedure, legally performed abroad, with an egg that Mrs. Mileva stored many years ago for personal reasons. The pregnancy was worn by a surrogate under a contract that was settled under the laws of the country concerned. There is full medical and legal documentation.
The hall burst into noise.
Sylvia covered her mouth.
Mikhail hit the table with his palm.
"That's madness!"
The judge raised his tone:
Silence in the room!
Emilia moved.
I started swinging it lightly.
She was so small.
And around it, elderly people were screaming, arguing and trying to decide whether they had the right to exist.
"I don't owe you with an explanation for every step of my personal life," I said. "But I owe you the truth because you're my children." And the truth is, I wasn't cheated. I wasn't forced. I wasn't confused. I made this decision after months of medical consultations, conversations with Todor, lawyers and specialists.
"You're seventy-nine!" Michael shouted.
"Yes.
She will be twenty when you are almost a hundred!
You will be fifty-three when she is twenty. That doesn't make you incapable of being a brother.
He looked at me.
I am not her brother.
You are in blood.
"That means nothing.
My tears flowed.
Not because his words surprised me.
