The child’s features… they did not resemble him at all. In fact, the boy’s skin was unnaturally pale, marked by a faint scar-shaped birthmark beneath his eye.

His voice trembled. “Who… whose child is this?”

She turned her head away, tears streaming down. “Please… don’t ask.”

He clenched his fists. “After all these years—you owe me the truth.”

Her shoulders quivered. At last, she whispered: “He isn’t yours. He belongs to someone I could never escape.”

Confusion burned into dread. “What do you mean?”