CHAPTER 2: THE TRUTH THAT DESTROYED EVERYTHING
Three weeks later, a DNA test confirmed it.
99.99%.
Dr. Julian Mercer was my biological father.
My entire life had been built on a lie.
My mother had become pregnant with me during her engagement to Julian.
But my grandfather hated him because he was poor back then, still a medical student.
He forced my mother to leave and marry the wealthy businessman who raised me.
My mother never stopped loving Julian.
She simply surrendered to family pressure.
Suddenly, decades of silence made sense.
So did my father's emotional distance growing up.
He had known.
He had always known.
One evening, Julian came over carrying groceries.
My son slept peacefully beside him.
“I missed thirty-two years,” he said quietly. “But if you'll let me… I don't want to miss another day.”
I cried.
Because nobody had ever chosen me before.
Not completely.
Not without conditions.
Then, unexpectedly, another person arrived.
Adrian.
My ex-husband stood outside my apartment holding flowers.
He looked terrible.
Exhausted.
Ashamed.
“Can we talk?”
I stared at him coldly.
“No.”
“Please.”
He lowered his eyes.
“The woman I left you for stole money from my firm and disappeared. I lost my partnership. I lost everything.”
I said nothing.
He swallowed.
“My parents found out the truth. The DNA test I secretly ordered before the divorce proved our son is mine.”
Anger surged through me.
“You questioned your own child.”
Tears formed in his eyes.
“I know.”
“You abandoned me while I was pregnant.”
“I know.”
“You left me to drive myself to the hospital.”
His voice broke.
“I know.”
For the first time in my life, I didn't feel hurt.
I felt nothing.
And somehow, that was worse.
“Adrian,” I said calmly, “you didn't lose your family.”
May you like
“You threw it away.”
Then I closed the door.
