Chapter 5
Everyone turned.
I let out a breath-finally, she was here.
I looked at the newcomer.
Sophia.
With some gold chain-wearing businessman right beside her.
There she was-finally showed up!
Couldn’t control the nerves building inside me. After more than a decade, she looked the same but different. These past years wore her down.
Compared to me? She looked rough-wrinkles showing through her heavy makeup.
She walked over holding the middle-aged dude’s arm. My son William frowned hard. “Who are you?”
“This is your Aunt Sophia.”
I jumped in.
Sophia got all worked up. “NO! Kid, I’m your real mother!”
The whole room exploded. Everyone stared at me in shock.
My son raised an eyebrow. “You’re lying. You’re the one who had a baby and ran off-Grandpa and Grandma are raising that
kid.”
I’d never hidden Sophia’s existence.
When the kids were little and asked about their grandparents. I told them straight up their grandparents were alive. But I
didn’t wanna go back there.
Also told them about Sophia having a baby and them trying to force me to adopt it. So Marcus’s whole family knew about the bad blood between Sophia and me.
Now Sophia started crying: “Son, she’s lying! After I had you, I had the doctor take you to the Hartley house so your grandparents could watch you. But your mom stole you away.”
“All these years, she hasn’t come back ’cause she was afraid you’d be found!”
“Sister, why would you do this? I’ve been searching for my child this whole time. You can’t keep tearing us apart like this.”
Everyone watched her sob like crazy. But quickly realized something was off.
She looked up and around. Saw everyone staring at her with disgust. She panicked: “Why don’t you believe me? It really was
her!”
“That’s not right!” Mrs. Rodriguez stepped up. “Sophia, don’t you dare spread lies. When Harold Ming brought that baby over? He said it was Mia’s son. After Mia beat the crap outta him, he changed his story and said it was your baby.”
“Then we called the cops. He finally admitted you had the baby and ran off. Dumped the kid on your parents.”
“How were two old people supposed to raise a baby? So they got rid of it!”
Sophia was shook!
Mom jumped up: “I didn’t get rid of him! I had someone take him to Mia’s work!”
Mrs. Rodriguez snorted: “I went to Mia’s wedding and never saw any kid!”
“Yeah, Mr. Hartley, you and your wife can’t just make stuff up!”
Mom got desperate: “I had someone take him to Mia’s company! Sophie, don’t be confused-your sister helped raise your child all these years. You should be thanking her!”
‘Look how well the boy turned out-he got into Harvard!”
Mom was really scared this whole thing would blow up. Especially seeing the look in my eyes. For some reason she was errified and quickly switched up.
Sophia wiped her tears and turned to me: “Sister, I guess I misunderstood. But son, I really am your birth mother!”
My son looked at her all confused, then at me: “Stop lying. I’m not your son!”
My mother-in-law stepped forward and slapped Sophia across the face: “What bullshit are you talking!”
Jailbird!
