Jonathan drove straight to his mother’s estate.
Margaret Reed sat in her immaculate sitting room, pearls at her throat.
“What did you do to Sophia?”
“I protected you,” she replied coolly. “She was beneath you.”
“You forged my name. You paid her to vanish. I have a son who grew up without a father.”
“You have Ethan.”
“Ethan doesn’t replace Lucas!”
He walked out knowing something fundamental had broken.
Days later, a box appeared on Sophia’s doorstep. Letters. Dozens of them.
Jonathan’s handwriting.
She ignored them at first. Until Lucas asked, “Mom, what’s in the box?”
“Letters,” she said quietly.
“From who?”
“From Ethan’s dad.”
Lucas insisted on reading them aloud. Page after page revealed Jonathan’s grief. His confusion. His belief that she was dead.
He never stopped loving you, Lucas whispered one night.
The next day, Sophia called.
They met at a modest café. Five hours of truth. Tears. Long silences.
“I want to be Lucas’s father,” Jonathan said.
“Then prove you’re not your mother.”
“I’ll step away from her. From the company if I have to.”
Margaret retaliated with a custody claim, using money and influence. But forged documents resurfaced. Financial trails. Threats.