“Where is your mother?”
Sophie pointed toward an old apartment building down the street.
“At home. She’s sick.”
Mark didn’t ask another question.
He grabbed his briefcase and followed the five-year-old through the pouring rain.
Minutes later, Sophie pushed open a tiny apartment door.
“Mommy! I found someone who knows you!”
A weak voice came from the bedroom.
“Sophie?”
Mark stopped breathing.
He knew that voice.
Slowly, he stepped into the dark room.
Jessica Moore was lying beneath a thin blanket, pale and exhausted.
The second she saw him, the glass in her hand slipped to the floor.
“Mark?”
Silence.
Five years of unanswered questions stood between them.
Mark opened his trembling hand.
The sapphire ring was still inside.
“Why does Sophie have the ring I gave you six years ago?”
Jessica stared at it.
Then tears filled her eyes.
“She wasn’t supposed to take it.”
Mark looked toward Sophie.
Then back at Jessica.
“She’s five years old.”
Jessica said nothing.
His voice cracked.
“Jessica… is Sophie my daughter?”
Sophie’s eyes widened.
“Mommy?”
Jessica closed her eyes.
And finally whispered:
“Yes.”
Mark stumbled backward.
Five birthdays.
Five Christmas mornings.
Five years he could never get back.
“You let me believe you disappeared!”
Jessica suddenly sat up.
“I DIDN’T LEAVE YOU!”
Mark froze.
“Then what happened?”
Jessica reached beneath her pillow and pulled out an old envelope.
“You want the truth?”
She handed it to him.
Mark opened the letter.
His face slowly drained of color.
The signature at the bottom belonged to someone he knew very well.
His own mother.
The letter read:
“If Mark discovers the child is his, I will make sure you never see your daughter again.”
Mark stared at Jessica.
“My mother threatened you?”
“She told me your family would destroy me in court. She said I was nobody… and you would eventually believe her.”
Mark clenched the letter in his fist.
Then—
A voice came from behind him.
Cold.
Calm.
Familiar.
“Jessica always was too dramatic.”
Mark slowly turned toward the apartment door.
His mother was standing there.
Perfectly dressed.
Completely emotionless.
But she wasn’t alone.
Beside her stood a man carrying a thick legal folder.
Mark stared at him.
“Who is he?”
His mother smiled.
“The lawyer who has the DNA results.”
Jessica suddenly went pale.
Mark looked down at Sophie.
Then back at his mother.
“What DNA results?”
His mother opened the folder.
And the first sentence she read made Jessica scream—
Because according to the report…
Mark wasn’t Sophie’s father.
But someone else in his family was.
