“Stay with me.”
But the stranger had already vanished.
Minutes later, they sat inside a private room above a luxury hotel.
The boy stared at the floor.
“What happened to my sister?” the woman asked.
The boy slid a small envelope across the table.
“Mom told me to give you this if anything happened to her.”
Her hands shook as she opened it.
Inside was a letter.
And a DNA test.
The woman began reading.
If you’re reading this, they finally found me.
Tears blurred her vision.
I never abandoned you. I was forced to disappear.
The woman continued reading.
Then she froze.
Her eyes widened.
“No…”
The boy looked up.
“What is it?”
The woman stared at him.
The letter slipped from her fingers.
Inside, Lily had written one final secret.
A secret she had hidden for twelve years.
The woman slowly sat down.
Unable to breathe.
Unable to speak.
Finally, she whispered:
“You aren’t Lily’s son.”
The boy’s face turned white.
“What?”
The woman slid the DNA report toward him.
The results were undeniable.
The boy wasn’t her nephew.
He was her son.
The child she had been told died moments after birth.
The child stolen from her by the same man who had destroyed Lily’s life.
The boy burst into tears.
The woman wrapped her arms around him.
For the first time.
A mother holding her son.
Then a loud knock echoed through the hotel suite.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
A voice came from the other side of the door.
Cold.
Calm.
Terrifying.
“Open the door.”
The woman recognized that voice immediately.
The man she had loved.
The man she had trusted.
The man who had stolen her child.
And now…
He knew exactly where they were.
