He became convinced she would never recover from losing the baby she had waited years to have.
He told himself he was protecting her. But somewhere along the way, protecting her became stealing someone else's child.
And once the lie existed, he couldn't find a way to stop it.
Or maybe he simply didn't want to.
Olivia asked him to leave shortly afterward. Some betrayals are simply too large to survive, and this was one of them.
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The hardest part came next: telling the girls.
We gathered in my living room a week later. Emma and Lily immediately sensed something was wrong. At first, they assumed someone was sick. I almost wished that were true.
The story came out slowly — the hospital, the DNA tests, the altered records, and the truth about what had happened years earlier. As the picture became clear, both girls grew quieter.
Finally, Emma broke the silence.
