A man in a dark suit stepped inside.
Behind him came two uniformed officers.
Ethan stopped breathing.
“No…” he whispered.
Vanessa looked between them.
The man walked calmly toward the altar.
“Ethan Calloway?”
Ethan swallowed.
“Yes?”
The man handed him a file.
“You’ve been difficult to find.”
The room had gone so quiet people could hear cameras recording.
Vanessa looked down at the papers in her shaking hands.
DNA results.
Probability of paternity: 99.99%
Her knees nearly gave out.
Sophie had told the truth.
The little girl slowly looked up at Ethan with red, exhausted eyes.
“Daddy…”
Ethan stared at her.
Then at Vanessa.
Then at hundreds of guests watching his perfect life collapse.
But the man in the suit wasn’t finished.
“There’s another issue,” he said.
Ethan looked up slowly.
“What issue?”
The man opened the file.
“For the last five years, the child support payments weren’t made from your account.”
Ethan frowned.
“What?”
“They were made,” the man continued, “from your father’s private trust.”
Confusion spread across Ethan’s face.
Vanessa whispered:
“What does that mean…?”
The man looked directly at him.
“It means your father knew Sophie existed.”
Ethan’s eyes widened.
Then a weak voice came from behind the crowd.
“Because I told him not to tell you.”
Everyone turned.
And Sophie’s mother was crying.
