A year later, he looked increasingly pale and could barely stand, yet he wanted to marry the maid—40 years his junior.

My father-in-law was 70. After my mother-in-law passed away, he lived alone. So we hired a young maid named Esmeralda, 29 years old, from a village—bright, gentle, and soft-spoken.

At first, I thought, “It’s good to have someone take care of him, as long as there are no problems.”

But, to my surprise, in just a few months, Esmeralda “shed her skin”: from being a maid, she became my father-in-law’s confidante.

A year later, he suddenly announced:
— “I want to marry Esmeralda; she is carrying my child. You can object, but I won’t regret it!”

The family was in shock!

My brother-in-law was so angry he cried, and my husband jumped up, saying he couldn’t believe it.

We all assumed Esmeralda was a “gold digger,” taking advantage of an old man who already had one foot in the grave.

But just a month later, while he insisted on organizing the wedding, he collapsed in the yard.

After a week in the hospital, he breathed his last, leaving a handwritten will in shaky, scribbled handwriting:

— “My assets are divided equally among my children, except for this house, which I leave to Esmeralda and her son as a belated wedding gift…”

I thought that shock had been the last straw… but, to my surprise, when we went to process the baby’s birth certificate, Esmeralda silently handed over a piece of paper with a DNA test.

No one expected it: the baby in her womb… wasn’t his child.

It was someone else’s.

It turned out that, seeing he was rich and lived alone, she had planned to fake the pregnancy to make him believe she was still “strong.”

Afraid of losing her trust, he secretly went for a medical checkup and was diagnosed with long-standing infertility, caused by complications from a previous prostate surgery.

But instead of speaking up, he remained silent.

Perhaps he knew everything… but he still wanted one last illusion of being loved, of living as a husband once more.

As I finished reading the will and holding the old medical report he had kept in a drawer, I couldn’t hold back my tears.

All the frustration I had felt toward the maid faded, leaving only a deep sadness for an old man who had spent his entire life caring for his children and, in the end, still longed to be loved.