She read the name again.
Then again.
Her lips trembled.
“No…”
Daniel watched her carefully.
“Yes.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“That can’t be right.”
Daniel looked at her.
“His DNA matched mine at 99.9%.”
Michael quietly closed the studio door.
Evelyn whispered the name:
“Thomas Reed.”
Daniel nodded.
Thomas Reed had been Robert’s best friend.
His business partner.
His best man.
And for most of Evelyn’s adult life—
Her closest family friend.
Thomas had held her hand at Daniel’s funeral.
He had helped carry the coffin.
He had visited every Christmas.
And he had never said a word.
Evelyn stepped backward.
“He knew?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“That’s what I came to find out.”
Evelyn grabbed her phone.
She called Thomas.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Daniel reached into his pocket.
“He won’t answer you.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because he knows I found the test.”
Evelyn frowned.
“How?”
Daniel held up his phone.
“He called me this morning.”
Evelyn froze.
“What did he say?”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“He told me not to come here.”
“Why?”
“He said Robert wasn’t the person who arranged my disappearance.”
Evelyn’s face changed.
“What?”
Daniel continued:
“Robert paid for the fake funeral.”
“But someone else chose where I went.”
Evelyn whispered:
“Who?”
Daniel stared at her.
“Thomas.”
The room went silent.
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
“He knew I was his son.”
“No.”
“He knew before Robert did.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“How?”
Daniel pulled out another letter.
“Because you told him.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“I never told Thomas anything.”
Daniel handed her the letter.
It was written in Evelyn’s handwriting.
Dated forty years earlier.
Thomas, I think Daniel may be yours. I don’t know what to do.
Evelyn stared.
“I didn’t write this.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“I never wrote that.”
Daniel looked at the handwriting again.
“It’s identical.”
Evelyn whispered:
“Robert could copy my handwriting.”
Daniel went still.
Then everything changed.
If Robert had forged the letter…
Then maybe Thomas had believed Evelyn wanted Daniel hidden.
Maybe Thomas had been manipulated too.
Evelyn said:
“We need to find him.”
Daniel nodded.
“I already did.”
He showed her an address.
A retirement home outside Seattle.
They drove there immediately.
Thomas Reed was sitting alone beside a window.
Eighty-one years old.
Thin.
Weak.
But unmistakable.
The moment he saw Evelyn and Daniel together—
He started crying.
Daniel stood in front of him.
“Are you my father?”
Thomas looked at him.
“Yes.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Did you know?”
Thomas shut his eyes.
“Yes.”
Evelyn stepped forward.
“You let me bury him.”
Thomas looked at her.
“I thought you hated me.”
Evelyn froze.
“What?”
Thomas began crying harder.
“Robert showed me your letter.”
Daniel placed the forged letter on the table.
“This one?”
Thomas nodded.
“He said you wanted Daniel gone.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Thomas continued.
“He said if I ever contacted you, you’d tell police I kidnapped him.”
Daniel stared at him.
“So you stayed away?”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
Daniel frowned.
Thomas looked at Evelyn.
“I came back three months later.”
Evelyn’s heart pounded.
“What happened?”
Thomas stared at the floor.
“Robert was waiting for me.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“And?”
Thomas whispered:
“He had a gun.”
The room went silent.
Thomas continued:
“He told me Daniel was already gone.”
Evelyn asked:
“Gone where?”
Thomas looked at Daniel.
“I didn’t know.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“But someone did.”
Thomas nodded.
“Margaret.”
Evelyn froze.
“Margaret?”
Thomas reached inside a drawer.
He pulled out an old cassette tape.
“Robert recorded everything.”
Evelyn stared.
Thomas placed the tape on the table.
“I found this after he died.”
Daniel asked:
“What’s on it?”
Thomas looked at Evelyn.
“Your husband and Margaret arguing.”
They found an old cassette player.
Thomas pressed play.
Static.
Then Robert’s voice.
ROBERT:
“You said Henry would take the boy and disappear.”
Margaret answered:
MARGARET:
“Henry changed his mind.”
Evelyn gripped the chair.
Then Robert said:
ROBERT:
“So where did you send Daniel?”
Silence.
Then Margaret’s voice:
MARGARET:
“Somewhere Evelyn will never find him.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Robert asked:
ROBERT:
“You did this without telling me?”
Margaret laughed.
And then she said the sentence that changed everything:
MARGARET:
“You still don’t understand, Robert. Daniel isn’t the child we needed to hide.”
Evelyn stared at the tape player.
Daniel whispered:
“What does that mean?”
The recording continued.
Robert’s voice:
ROBERT:
“What other child?”
Then Margaret answered:
MARGARET:
“Ask Evelyn what happened to Daniel’s twin.”
Evelyn went completely still.
Daniel turned toward her.
“Twin?”
Thomas looked at Evelyn in shock.
Daniel’s voice shook.
“I have a twin?”
Evelyn could barely breathe.
Because she suddenly remembered something she had spent forty years trying to forget.
The night Daniel was born—
The doctor had told her there were complications.
She had heard two babies crying.
Then a nurse had said she imagined the second cry.
Evelyn slowly covered her mouth.
Daniel stared at her.
“Mom…”
Thomas whispered:
“If Daniel survived…”
Evelyn looked at him.
Thomas finished:
“…then who was the other baby?”
At that exact moment, Evelyn’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A man’s voice said:
“Mrs. Parker?”
“Yes?”
“My name is David Reed.”
Thomas stood up so quickly his chair fell backward.
The voice continued:
“I think we need to talk.”
Evelyn’s heart stopped.
“Why?”
The man answered:
“Because I just received a DNA result.”
A pause.
Then:
“Daniel Parker is my identical twin brother.”
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