But the doctor didn’t stop.
“Because of the exclusion,” he continued, “we ran a secondary verification.”
He turned to me.
“Mrs. Hale… you are not biologically related to Ethan either.”
The room collapsed.
Richard froze mid-step.
I felt my pulse roar in my ears.
“That’s impossible,” I whispered. “I gave birth to him.”
The doctor hesitated.
“The most probable explanation,” he said, “is a neonatal switch at the hospital.”
And just like that, fourteen years of certainty dissolved into air.
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