The next morning, Harrison Fletcher arrived. I heard his voice at the nurse’s station before I saw him. When he stepped into the room, the world seemed to shift into focus.
He looked exactly like me, only older. He stood in the doorway for a long time, looking at me with an expression of pure disbelief. He crossed the room and took my hand, apologizing over and over again.
I cried against his shoulder, and he didn’t pull away. He showed me folders full of court orders and payment records. He had been paying child support every single month for eighteen years.
He told me how my mother had moved us and changed our names to keep me away from him. He had hired investigators and gone to schools, but he always hit a dead end. He told me he never stopped wanting me.
My mother walked in and saw him there, and for the first time in my life, she was speechless. She tried to tell him to leave, but he refused. He told her he had eighteen years of records to prove what she had done.
Security eventually escorted her and Rick out of the building. Chloe stayed for a second and told me she was sorry, and I could tell she meant it. The next few days were a blur of recovery and legal meetings.