Chapter 1 - THE SCRATCHED PLASTIC CUP
For thirty-three years, Daniel Reyes drank from a scratched blue plastic cup while his family used fine crystal. When his younger brother Ivan announced he was moving his pregnant girlfriend into Daniel’s bedroom, Daniel asked for three weeks to relocate. Ernesto, the father Daniel had financially supported through back injuries and bills, threw a glass of water in Daniel's face, sneering that he was “always the wrong son,” while Ivan recorded and doctored the footage to ruin Daniel’s reputation. Teresa, Daniel's mother, said nothing, clutching an old blue battered suitcase. Days later, Daniel’s estranged aunt Yolanda summoned him to her home where Teresa had secretly delivered the suitcase. Inside lay a hospital bracelet, thirty-three unread birthday letters from a woman named Lucia Ramirez claiming to be Daniel’s real mother, and an envelope marked to be opened only after Ernesto cast him out. Teresa called in sheer terror as Ernesto hunted the missing case, urging Daniel to look inside envelope thirty-three. Tearing it open, Daniel uncovered his original birth certificate, revealing the name of a powerful biological father Ernesto had feared his entire life.
