Diego stared at the yellow letters.
His brow furrowed. His lips parted, then closed again.
“Seventeen… weeks?” Diego muttered, his eyes darting from the screen to the doctor’s name badge, then to the calendar pinned to the bulletin board beside the sink. “That’s… that’s a software malfunction. That’s impossible. November? She didn’t test positive until two weeks ago! She showed me the test two weeks ago!”
“Pregnancy tests detect urinary human chorionic gonadotropin,” Dr. Salinas stated with clinical detachment, wiping the transducer across my skin to bring up the profile of a fully formed miniature spine, complete with tiny, interlocking vertebrae illuminated in sharp, chalk-white clarity. “In cases of cryptic implantation, irregular luteal bleeding, or atypical placental hormone release, a patient can carry a viable pregnancy for months without registering standard urinary concentrations on retail immunoassays.”
Dr. Salinas turned the monitor thirty degrees toward Paula.