People screamed and scattered as officers chased the woman in the red dress through the crowded summer streets.
Daniel held Lily tightly.
But now every touch from his daughter felt unfamiliar.
Heavy.
Calculated.
The dirty boy stood nearby, breathing hard.
An officer approached Daniel carefully.
“Sir… we need you to come with us.”
Daniel blinked in confusion.
“Why?”
The officer hesitated.
Then handed him a photograph.
Daniel nearly dropped it.
It was Lily.
Standing.
Walking.
Entering a pharmacy alone three nights earlier.
No cane.
No sunglasses.
Daniel slowly turned toward his daughter.
She looked terrified now.
Not scared of strangers.
Scared of him knowing.
“You lied to me?” he whispered.
Tears filled Lily’s eyes instantly.
“I had to…”
Daniel stepped backward.
“For YEARS?!”
The dirty boy interrupted.
“She made her do it!”
He pointed again toward the direction where the woman had escaped.
“She told Lily you’d stop loving her if she got better!”
Daniel’s breathing became uneven.
The woman in red wasn’t a stranger.
She was Sofia.
Daniel’s fiancée.
The woman he planned to marry in two weeks.
Then the truth hit him all at once.
The fake treatments.
The endless medications.
The doctors Sofia recommended.
The documents she kept asking him to sign.
His company.
His fortune.
Everything.
Lily grabbed his hand desperately.
“She said you’d send me away if I could see again…”
Daniel’s face shattered.
He dropped to his knees and pulled his daughter into his arms.
“Oh God… Lily…”
But suddenly—
the dirty boy stepped backward slowly.
Daniel looked at him.
“Wait… how do you know all this?”
The boy’s expression changed.
Not scared anymore.
Guilty.
Then police officers nearby started shouting.
“She’s gone!”
The woman in red had escaped.
At that exact moment, the boy whispered something almost too quiet to hear.
“She said nobody would believe a homeless kid anyway…”
Daniel stared at him.
And finally noticed the silver necklace hanging around the boy’s neck.
A necklace Daniel had seen before.
In Sofia’s apartment.
The same necklace.
The boy saw Daniel recognize it.
Tears filled his eyes.
Then he whispered the sentence that changed everything forever:
“She’s my mother.”
