Chapter 13 - WHO GETS TO BE A PARENT?
The living room was small.
Warm.
Family photographs covered the walls.
Noah smiling.
Noah sleeping.
Noah in a tiny Halloween pumpkin costume.
Daniel stared at the pictures.
Every image hurt.
These were moments he had lost.
Across the room, Rosa held Ethan.
Megan held Noah.
Claire sat between them with empty hands.
Four adults.
Two babies.
One crime that had destroyed all of them differently.
Megan wiped her eyes.
“I was told my daughter died.”
Rosa whispered:
“So was I.”
Megan looked at her.
For a moment, neither woman needed an explanation.
They understood each other.
“What happened to your daughter?” Daniel asked.
Mitchell answered softly.
“We believe she was placed with another family.”
Megan’s face collapsed.
“You found her?”
“Not yet.”
Megan kissed Noah’s head.
“I love him.”
Daniel swallowed.
“So do I.”
Claire looked at him.
“You’ve never met him.”
Daniel turned.
“And you barely knew Ethan before claiming him as yours.”
Claire flinched.
Daniel immediately regretted the cruelty.
But he didn’t take it back.
Megan looked at Claire.
“You really thought he died?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Noah had a heart problem?”
Claire shook her head.
Megan laughed through tears.
“Of course you didn’t.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I sat beside him through two surgeries.”
Claire’s face crumpled.
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
Those two words were more brutal than yelling.
Daniel asked quietly:
“Is he okay now?”
Megan nodded.
“Doctors say he should have a normal life.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
He looked at his son.
His real son.
Then at Ethan.
The child he had loved for six months.
Something inside him tore in two directions.
Rosa saw it.
“He’s still your family.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not his father.”
Rosa shook her head.
“DNA tells us where children come from. It doesn’t erase who stayed up when they were sick.”
Daniel couldn’t answer.
Claire began crying harder.
Rosa looked at her.
“But love doesn’t erase what you did either.”
Claire nodded.
“I know.”
Megan stared at Noah.
“What happens now?”
Nobody had an answer.
Then Mitchell’s phone rang.
She stepped outside.
When she came back, her face was grim.
“Evelyn agreed to talk.”
Daniel stood.
“What does she want?”
“She’ll give us the locations of every child.”
Rosa’s breath caught.
“In exchange for what?”
Mitchell looked at Claire.
“A deal.”
Claire stood.
“What kind of deal?”
May you like
Mitchell hesitated.
“She wants Claire to take the blame.”
