My father-in-law was 70 years old when he decided to hire a young domestic worker.
After my mother-in-law’s death, he was living alone, and the family thought it would be good to have someone to help him with daily chores. Thus came Esmeralda , a 29-year-old young woman from a village, with a sweet nature and a soft voice.

At first I thought, “As long as I take good care of it and there are no problems, it’s fine.”

From Employee to Confidant

To my surprise, in just a few months, Esmeralda went from being just another employee to becoming his confidant . They shared conversations, went out together, and seemed to have a very special connection.

A year later, my father-in-law surprised the entire family with an announcement that left us speechless:
“I want to marry Esmeralda; she’s expecting my child. You can object, but I won’t regret it.”

The Family Impact

The news caused a real earthquake.
My brother-in-law burst into tears of rage, and my husband couldn’t believe what he was hearing. We all thought Esmeralda was an opportunist , interested only in money and taking advantage of an older man.

Even so, he insisted on going ahead with the wedding. But a month later, before it could even take place, he collapsed in the backyard of his house.

The Last Will

After a week in the hospital, he died. Among his belongings, he left a will written in shaky 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…”

We thought that would be the final emotional blow… but we were wrong.

The Secret of Pregnancy

When we went to process the baby’s birth certificate, Esmeralda silently handed us an envelope containing a DNA test.

The result was clear: the child she was carrying in her womb was not my father-in-law’s son .

We discovered that, seeing that he was rich and lived alone, she had planned to fake a pregnancy to convince him that she still had “strength” as a man.

The Medical Truth

Secretly, my father-in-law had undergone a medical examination and received a devastating diagnosis: long-standing infertility, the result of complications from prostate surgery performed years earlier.

He never told anyone. Maybe he knew everything all along, but chose to keep quiet. Perhaps he just wanted to preserve the illusion of being loved and feeling like a husband again, even if it was for the last time.

An Ending That Hurts

As I read his will and held the medical report he’d tucked away in a drawer, I couldn’t hold back my tears. All the anger I felt toward Esmeralda faded, giving way to a deep sadness for a man who had dedicated his life to his children and who, in the end, only desired love.

What do we learn from this story?

That sometimes, beyond the truth or the lies, what an elderly person yearns for in their later years isn’t wealth or recognition, but rather the feeling of love and companionship. It reminds us of the importance of caring not only for the physical health of our loved ones, but also for their hearts and dignity.