The woman smiled.
“Tell him.”
The boy stood frozen.
Ethan’s heart pounded.
“Tell me what?”
The woman folded her arms.
“That boy is your son.”
The world stopped.
“What?”
The boy lowered his eyes.
Sixteen years earlier, before Ethan became famous, he had fallen in love with a young waitress named Sarah.
One day she disappeared.
He never saw her again.
The woman laughed bitterly.
“You searched for her for six months before you met me.”
Ethan felt sick.
“Sarah had your child.”
The boy’s eyes filled with tears.
“My name is Noah.”
Ethan couldn’t breathe.
“Your mother?”
Noah swallowed.
“She died last year.”
The rooftop lights blurred before Ethan’s eyes.
For sixteen years he had never known.
Never known he had a son.
Never known that his son had spent years living in poverty while he built an empire.
Noah looked at Lila.
“When my mom worked for your wife, she discovered what she was doing to Lila.”
The crowd gasped.
“She collected evidence.”
Noah pulled a thick envelope from the sack.
“She hid everything before she died.”
Inside were medical records, photographs, recordings, and emails.
Enough evidence to destroy everything.
The woman’s confidence vanished.
Police sirens echoed from below.
Her face turned pale.
“You called them?”
Noah nodded.
“They’ve seen everything.”
Minutes later, officers stepped onto the rooftop.
The woman tried to run.
She didn’t make it three steps.
As handcuffs clicked around her wrists, Lila ran into Ethan’s arms.
For the first time in years, she smiled.
A real smile.
Then Ethan looked at Noah.
His son.
The boy he should have known his entire life.
Slowly, he held out his hand.
Noah stared at it.
“What happens now?”
Ethan’s eyes filled with tears.
“Now?”
He pulled Noah into a hug.
“Now we become a family.”
And for the first time since arriving on the rooftop, Noah allowed himself to believe that his life was finally changing.
