Angola, Luanda: 18 years ago.
When Danilo entered the room, he had a tired expression. He loosened his tie and smelled the food. It was 5 p.m., almost 6. The room was quiet, which was unusual for a house with six children. The last thing you would expect is silence. A day without crying is impossible, let alone silence. He concluded that the children must be hiding.
With a quick glance around the room, he found almost all of them. After all, at their age, they weren't very original or creative. Two were under the dining table. Another was behind the sofa. One was behind the front door he had just passed. And the two chubby two-year-olds were the boldest. They simply hugged their mother's legs, who was sitting at the dining table waiting for him, and hid their faces.
Besides their great creativity in hiding, what they all had in common was muffling their laughter and moving around a lot.
"Hi, love," Danilo said as he reached his wife and kissed her forehead. "Where are the children?"
He asked, feigning the most confused expression he could.
Upon hearing that their father hadn't found them, they could no longer suppress their laughter and shouted loudly in unison:
"Surprise!"
As they ran to their father, Nzinga, watching the scene, felt her heart fill with tenderness and affection. But then, an overwhelming sense of regret took over her.
"What the hell have I done?" she thought.
She remembered the time when she gave birth to the twins. She had a postpartum complication. Her life had been hanging by a thread. At that time, the entire family was in panic. But her husband was simply lost. She had never seen anyone so helpless.
She recalled her husband's words back then:
"You are my light, Nzinga. Without you, I don't know what I would do."
Since her teenage years, she had always been in love with Daniel. He was her first love, her first everything. She dreamed of marrying him one day and having a big family, but over time, she understood Daniel's character. Despite being amazing and intense, he obviously wasn't husband material. Even while dating, he cheated on her multiple times, and she had suffered immensely.
Their relationship was tumultuous, full of ups and downs, until they finally broke up. She also knew Daniel's twin, Danilo—they had all grown up in the same neighborhood. Danilo was completely different from his brother: much more focused on his goals and determined. Anyone who spent time with him would recognize his potential.
Daniel was charismatic, loved by everyone around him, but his shine was limited to those around him, and he was satisfied with his audience, which was limited to family and close friends. Danilo was the opposite: reserved, unshowy, the type who knows his limits, knows what he says, and extremely focused on his future.
After breaking up with Daniel, Nzinga dated other people. But the two were like fire—they always met in secret to extinguish the flame that only the other could ignite. Until one day, Nzinga's period was late. She was single at the time, so there was only one possible culprit.
Daniel immediately denied paternity and forced her to have an abortion.
Disappointed and with her self-esteem in ruins, she went to a party and got drunk until she collapsed. The next day, when she woke up, she was in an unfamiliar place—a small, but tidy, room.
She got up and looked at the sofa. There was a man sleeping deeply. It must have been around six o'clock. She recognized him: it was Danilo. Danilo had already been living apart from his parents for some time.
She checked her clothes and realized she had not been undressed or touched. She felt relieved. Then she remembered her condition—pregnant, abandoned—and began to cry quietly.
She hated Daniel. She hated herself for being so foolish that she always fell for his words.
Then she looked at Danilo, lying there, and rage surged through her. His brother treated me like disposable trash. Since Daniel did this to me, don't blame me for taking it out on your brother.
Danilo heard a loud scream and quickly woke up. He found Nzinga, Daniel's girlfriend, whom he had rescued yesterday while leaving her house. She was in a deplorable state, extremely drunk, vomiting, with people around her clearly having bad intentions. Since it was late at night and he couldn't take her home in that state, he let her sleep in his bed so she could go home the next day.
But upon waking, the image he saw terrified him: Nzinga was naked on top of him on the sofa.
He couldn't even focus when a strong slap hit his face.
"I'm pregnant," Nzinga said, looking at Danilo with fear.
After that day, Nzinga spread the story that he had raped her while she was drunk. Danilo lost his girlfriend, lost the little faith his parents still had in him—and things worsened when they discovered she was the ex of the "golden son." Danilo felt his life implode.
Nzinga looked at her husband with tenderness, but also with terrible guilt. He played with the children, all of them happy. It was a perfect scene, worthy of a fairy tale.
At that time, after shifting her pregnancy from Daniel onto Danilo, she managed to force a marriage. After that, knowing she couldn't expect much from Daniel because he wasn't worth it, she enjoyed the best of both worlds: Daniel's wild and adventurous side and Danilo's stable side. She already had a husband at home, so she could enjoy the best of both.
She remembered her dream of having a huge family with him and decided to build a large family with her great love. She saw their story as an exciting and forbidden tale.
Over time, everyone found out except the husband. But favoritism and narcissism led them to protect Danilo from ignorance, "for the sake of family peace." Until she fell ill after giving birth to the twins, the youngest.
The desperation on her husband's face was so evident that anyone who saw him would feel pity. He went to work and then returned to the hospital to take care of her. He did all the chores—bathing her, cleaning—and always held her hand, as if afraid that if he let go, she would leave forever.
One night in particular, she had a relapse, became very weak, and fainted. When she woke up in the middle of the night, she heard whispers. When she turned, she saw her husband kneeling, his face on the ground. He begged God to save her, saying he couldn't live without her, that she was his light.
Seeing that, her heart broke. For the first time in years, she asked herself: What the hell have I done? What kind of monster am I?
The guilt she felt was so immense that she began to cry. After that, for a while, whenever she saw her husband's face, she cried in regret. She regretted what she had done, deceiving her husband, betraying him constantly, and giving birth to all of Daniel's children. She began to hate herself and fell into deep depression.
The cruel thing was, the worse she felt, the more desperate her husband became.
There was one particular night when she was so desperate that she looked at her husband with tears in her eyes and said she wanted to die. Gently, he held her face with both hands and lifted it toward the sky. He closed his eyes, and she felt tenderness envelop her. Then he said:
"Nzinga, did you know the most grateful day of my life was the day I caught you at the party? If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have what I have today: the love of my life and our children. You are everything to me. You are my light, the angel I know God put in my path. You are my anchor. Without you, I don't know what I would be."
Nzinga looked at her husband while eating. The children talked about their day, and others complained about their siblings. Kiala and Pancho, the two little ones, also tried to stand out, but they were too small, so they just clung to their father.
After that scene at the hospital, two years ago, she ended everything with Daniel. She felt disgusted just thinking about him. Her relationship with her in-laws cooled because she hated them for allowing her to betray her husband.
She looked at the children and thought how wonderful it would be if they were that man's biological children. But they weren't. Her stupidity had made her commit the greatest atrocity. Now, she could only try to make it up to this man for the rest of her life.
"Children, how would you like to have more little brothers and sisters?" she asked.
Yes, she wanted her husband's children. She needed something to solidify their love.
Two years later.
"Mrs. Afonso, according to the tests, after your last pregnancy, your body experienced significant strain, resulting in nutrient deficiencies. Your body cannot handle another pregnancy. You and your husband already have six children, so it is advisable to stop," the doctor said seriously in his office, looking at Nzinga.
"No. I need to get pregnant. I have to get pregnant, no matter what," Nzinga said, her voice trembling, almost desperate.
Since that day with the family, she had been trying to conceive but had been unsuccessful. She visited numerous doctors, but the answer was always the same: she was risking her life. Pregnancy would be dangerous both for her and the baby.
Three months later.
Her period was late. She took a test and discovered she was pregnant. The joy was so overwhelming that she cried with emotion. Finally, her husband would have his children. She would have her husband's babies.
During this pregnancy, she took every precaution. She attended every class and took all precautions. When Danilo saw this, he found it both cute and funny. After so many children, during this pregnancy, she suddenly became paranoid.
When she found out they were triplets, she couldn't contain herself and knelt, crying for hours. Finally, she would give her husband three children. Finally, they would have their beloved babies.
In the fifth month, with her huge belly, she went to visit her mother. She hadn't been there for quite some time. Since she decided to dedicate herself to her husband, she had distanced herself from everyone.
That day, she went to see her mother about some matters. While parking her car on the road…
When she woke up, she smelled the characteristic scent of a hospital. She felt dizzy and heavy. She looked around and saw her husband sleeping while holding her hand.
"What happened? Are you telling me a drunk driver hit my car?" she asked the nurse the next day, right after waking up.
"Yes, that's what happened, Mrs. Afonso," the nurse replied.
Then, she remembered something. She touched her belly, and the familiar swelling wasn't there.
"And… my babies?"
Everyone looked at her with sorrow.
A week later, after returning home, she grabbed her husband's hand, knelt in tears, and begged:
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Forgive me for not being able to protect our babies."