Elias was the one who finally spoke. “Are you our dad?” Marcus opened his mouth, but nothing came out. His mother turned toward him and whispered, “You told us she lost the baby.” That was when I learned the lie had gone farther than I ever knew. Marcus had not merely disappeared from me. He had told his entire family there was no child to find. Nobody had known there were four.
I did not ask the children to hug him or call him Dad. Eight years could not be repaired during Christmas dinner. I simply explained that Marcus had questioned the pregnancy and left before the babies were born. Their birth records, medical history, and everything else had been preserved. If he wanted certainty now, proper DNA testing could confirm what I had known from the beginning. His girlfriend quietly picked up the ring box from the floor and placed it on the table instead of handing it back to him.
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