That morning, Lucía led her daughter, Sofía, barely six years old, to elementary school by the hand, as usual. Sofía was lively, charming, and very bright, so all her classmates loved her. But that day, as soon as they crossed the school gate, Lucía felt something… strange.
In the middle of the playground, another girl was walking hand in hand with her mother, chatting happily. What stopped Lucía in her tracks was that this girl was identical to Sofía: the same shoulder-length hair, the same large, round eyes, even the same dimple at the corner of her mouth. From a distance, it was like looking in a mirror.
Sofía also opened her eyes in surprise, let go of her mother’s hand, and ran forward:
“Mommy, look! Why is there another me here?”
The two girls stared at each other, astonished, and then burst out laughing. As if they had known each other all their lives, they immediately held hands, laughing and asking each other questions. Lucía and the other woman, Carolina, stood face to face, their eyes filled with bewilderment.
The teacher couldn’t contain his laughter:
“If they tell me they’re twins, I’ll believe it without a doubt.”
The playground filled with children’s laughter, but a restlessness settled in Lucía’s heart that didn’t leave her all day. That night, during dinner, Sofía excitedly told her how she had met “another girl just like me.” Lucía smiled weakly, but the scene from the morning haunted her relentlessly.
A daring thought crossed her mind: what if there had been some confusion in the past?
A few days later, Lucía and Carolina ran into each other again after school. The conversation progressed slowly, until, unable to contain herself, Lucía asked:
“Have you thought about doing a DNA test on the girls?”
Carolina was surprised, but doubt also appeared in her eyes. Finally, the two agreed to take the little girls to a lab, “just to be on the safe side.”
But when they received the results… they both gasped.
The report said: “Sofia and Ana have the same genetic profile – a 99.9% match.”
That didn’t just mean they were similar: they were twin sisters.
Carolina shuddered, asking in a trembling voice:
“It can’t be! I only had one girl; the doctor handed her to me…”
Lucia was also in shock. Six years ago, she had had a complicated C-section in a Guadalajara hospital. She barely caught a glimpse of her baby before losing consciousness. When she awoke, a nurse had already brought Sofia to her. How could there be another girl?
Over the following nights, Lucía couldn’t sleep. She looked up her medical records, called her old doctor, and contacted nurses she knew. Little by little, the truth emerged: that day there had been several births at the same time; the maternity ward was overcrowded and chaotic. Was it possible that the newborns had gotten mixed up?
Meanwhile, Sofía and Ana were becoming inseparable. They shared a classroom, came and went together, and seemed connected by blood. The teachers commented:
“They think alike, they do their homework alike, they even play as if they were one.”
One day, Carolina sighed as she picked up her daughter:
“If the hospital really made a mistake… what are we going to do? Who is the biological mother?”
The question left Lucía breathless. What if the girl she had raised with so much love for six years wasn’t her biological daughter? But looking into Sofía’s eyes, she told herself: “Whatever she is, she will always be my daughter.”
Lucía and Carolina decided to return to the hospital where they had given birth. After insisting, they were given the original files. There was the key: that same day there had been a twin birth. The mother was in critical condition, and one of the babies was rushed to an incubator. The records were confusing and incomplete.
A retired nurse, reviewing the documents, put her hand to her mouth and confessed:
“That day there was a mix-up… one of the babies was given to the wrong mother.”
The two women were paralyzed. Finally, the truth: Sofía and Ana were twins, mistakenly separated at birth.
The news filled them with pain, but also with relief: they finally understood why the girls were identical. Fate had been cruel, but now they had the chance to make amends.
Lucía returned home and, watching her daughter sleep, was afraid of losing her. But the next day, seeing Sofía and Ana laughing together, she understood something: love cannot be divided, it must be shared.
After talking it over, the two families decided to raise them together, as true sisters. There would be no “my daughter” or “your daughter”: only “our daughters.”
From then on, on weekends, Sofía slept at Ana’s house, and Ana at Sofía’s house. The families united as one. The wounds gradually healed, replaced by the joy of watching the girls grow up in a loving environment.
