Ned stared at her, his face devoid of expression.
"How can you do this… how can you treat me like this…" Sophie pressed her hand hard against her chest, but she couldn't stop the dull, wrenching pain inside.
"I hate women's tears. The moment a woman starts crying in front of me, it usually means it's time to break up." Ned's voice was ice-cold. "So why are you crying?"
She stared at him in stunned silence, tears pooling in her eyes. Her face had turned deathly pale. She gazed at him as though her breathing had stopped, as though time itself had frozen.
Ned turned away, walked to the roadside, and hailed a cab. Sophie remained rooted in the shadows until he came back, grabbed her arm, and shoved her into the car…
The entire ride home, neither of them spoke a word. When they reached the small apartment, Sophie got out.
"In the future, don't ever casually say shit like 'I never want to see you again'! And don't throw around the word 'breakup' so easily!" Ned didn't get out with her. He just leaned out of the window, his tone suddenly softer. "And stop crying so easily." Then he sat back, settled into the seat, and told the driver to go.
Sophie turned and stared at him blankly until the car pulled out of the alley and disappeared down the street.
...........................
"She's really not my daughter!" Jonathan's hands shook as he clutched the paternity test report that Director Messi had just handed him.
Ned snatched the report from him. Three lines stood out in stark black and white:
Cumulative Paternity Index = 0
Probability of Paternity = 0
Conclusion: Biological relationship excluded.
An inexplicable surge of excitement flooded Ned's heart. The dark clouds that had hung over him for days finally parted, revealing dazzling rays of light.
"Director Messi, are you absolutely certain this report is accurate?" Jonathan looked up at the director.
Director Messi's expression was grave. In his other hand he held a second report. He looked solemnly at the father and son. "Finish reading this one first, then we'll talk."
A sudden unease gripped them both. Director Messi was an extremely responsible doctor; he never used this kind of expression or tone unless something extraordinarily serious had come up.
They opened the second report. Another paternity test. Without thinking, father and son flipped straight to the final page:
Cumulative Paternity Index ≥ 10,000
Probability of Paternity ≥ 99.999999%
Conclusion: Biological relationship supported.
After reading the conclusion, they immediately flipped back, carefully checking the names.
Test subjects: Lady Victoria Harrington & Sophie Davies.
At that moment, both father and son froze, reports trembling in their hands.
How could this be… how could this possibly be?
Sophie was actually his wife Victoria's biological daughter…
My mother is Sophie's real mother… then whose son am I? Who is my mother?
The measuring rod inside Ned's heart snapped completely.
Jonathan's hands shook uncontrollably as he collapsed onto the sofa. He stared at Director Messi in agony. "Why… why did this happen? Can we test who the child's father is?"
At those words, Ned whipped his head around to stare at the director.
Director Messi shook his head. "I already broke protocol by running a paternity test between your wife and this young lady without your authorization."
"So… Mother gave birth to fraternal twins, a boy and a girl… but with two different fathers?" Jonathan's voice cracked. "Is that even possible?"
Both father and son turned to Director Messi in unison.
"Medically speaking," the director replied, spreading his hands, "the probability of heteropaternal superfecundation (twins with different fathers) is extremely low. In everyday life, 99.9999% of twins share the same father. That said, such cases do exist. To date, there are roughly forty DNA-confirmed instances worldwide." He delivered the final verdict calmly.
Father and son stared at each other, dumbfounded. "No way it's that much of a coincidence…"
Ned recovered first. "Twin infants—unless one died immediately after birth, how could only one have been brought home while the other was adopted out from an orphanage? Our family could easily afford two children. So Mother definitely wasn't carrying twins."
Director Messi immediately pulled up the records on his computer and answered with certainty, "You're right, Ned. Lady Victoria Harrington's pregnancy was singleton."
"Then who is my real mother? Could it be Sarah?" Ned suddenly asked.
"No, absolutely impossible," Jonathan said frantically. "Sarah told me she had an abortion in Manchester. If she had her own child, why would she adopt one from an orphanage? There must be a mistake—there has to be!"
"Father," Ned said coldly, "exactly how many lovers did you have back then? Besides Sarah, how many women were you hiding from Mother?" He racked his brain, finding the whole story full of inexplicable holes. "Was the baby switched at the hospital? How could everything line up so perfectly? Is someone behind this?"
"I'd rather believe you and Sophie were fraternal twins with different fathers," Jonathan muttered, shaking his head. He could no longer tell cause from effect. He admitted he had betrayed his marriage and fallen for another woman, only to helplessly return to his family in the end.
"No—it must have been your mother," Jonathan said through clenched teeth, gripping the report so hard his knuckles went white. "She switched the babies. I wasn't the only one who cheated—she did too, and she gave birth to a daughter. That woman is vicious. She abandoned her own flesh-and-blood daughter to an orphanage and raised someone else's son for her entire life."
Slowly he lifted his head. His cold eyes were filled with shards of ice.
"Why couldn't it have been one of your lovers who bribed a nurse or doctor in the delivery room ahead of time and switched the babies?" Ned's voice was eerily calm. "Have you forgotten? I was born in Manchester, too. Mother was in a terrible state back then—Grandfather and Grandmother were worried she might harm herself or the baby, so they suggested taking her away to clear her mind. Their last stop was Manchester. Something there shocked her so badly that she went into premature labor. The baby in her womb—me—was only eight months along, not full-term."
Ned continued with absolute certainty, "In that short window of time, Mother had no chance to bribe anyone in the hospital to pull off something like this. I remember her telling me that when I was born I was extremely frail—malnourished, skinny, weak. I spent ten days in an incubator. Father, think about it: Mother had always lived a pampered, privileged life. How could she possibly give birth to a malnourished child?"
"Stop with your wild guesses!" Jonathan shouted, clutching his chest as a dull ache began to spread. "Even if Victoria didn't switch the babies, it absolutely, positively was not Sarah. Never! She is the kindest woman in the world! Back then I was ready to abandon my family for her. It was she who refused. She didn't want to destroy my home. She chose to suffer alone and disappeared from my life for twenty years. How could it possibly be her? She is good, she is pure!"
The room fell into a heavy silence that lasted nearly ten minutes.
Finally, Ned let go of the question of who his real mother was and asked in a low, grave voice, "So, Father, what do you plan to do now that we know the truth?"
Jonathan lowered his eyes, then said heavily, "Now that the truth is out… I want to spend Sarah's final two years with her. I'll take her to America and stay by her side until the end. We've already lost too much time. As for Sophie… I don't care whose child she really is. Even if she's not my biological daughter, I'm willing to treat her as my own. After all, she spent twenty years by Sarah's side…"
"You can't do that. You can't be this selfish!" Ned suddenly cut in.
"What did you just say?" Jonathan's head snapped up.
"If you do this, you will instantly lose both your son and your wife. You only get to choose one family."
"Mother will never accept it. She will absolutely never accept you leaving the family to take care of a former lover, even if it's only for two short years." Ned's eyes were colder and harder than his father's, his tone even more resolute. "If you insist on walking away from this family to take Sarah and Sophie to America, that means you're choosing to abandon your wife and son—even if Sophie turns out to be Mother's biological daughter. Once you make that choice, there's no coming back."
"I can arrange a paternity test between you and Sarah right away. That way…"
"Impossible. I will never agree to it!" Ice flashed in Ned's eyes. "I refuse to let you manipulate me again, refuse to go through another damn paternity test."