Nancy’s life is turned upside down at her husband’s funeral when she encounters an older woman holding a baby. The woman claims the child she is carrying is Nancy’s late husband’s. Is she lying? Or do more shocking revelations await Nancy?
Nancy looked at the final traces of her husband’s funeral service. She couldn’t believe Patrick was gone. He had died in a car accident. It had been a week, but she could still feel him around her. How could he be dead?
With a heavy heart, she headed toward the cemetery’s exit, telling herself she had to start figuring out the rest of her life.
Suddenly, an older woman with a baby blocked her path.
“Are you Nancy?” the woman asked while the baby in her arms cried.
Nancy didn’t recognize her. Who was she?
“I am. Who are you?” Nancy replied.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
Nancy’s heart wasn’t ready when the woman, Amanda, revealed the baby in her arms was Patrick’s child.
“Only you can look after this child now,” she told Nancy. “Her mother can’t provide for her.”
A shiver ran down Nancy’s spine. She stared at the baby and backed away.
“No, it can’t be! Patrick was a loving husband. He would never do this to me!”
Nancy turned around and left. She would never doubt Patrick.
“Watch out!”
Nancy bumped into one of Patrick’s old friends, Mike. She was too lost in her thoughts to notice where she was heading.
Mike started chatting with her, offering his condolences. Nancy didn’t want to talk to anyone, but she had to be courteous. She finished the conversation as soon as she could and headed to her car.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
The baby’s thoughts replayed in her mind, but she dismissed them. However, as Nancy opened her car door, she was shocked. The same baby lay in her back seat, crying.
Nancy looked around. Amanda was nowhere to be seen. “How did this baby even get here?” she wondered.
It was cold, so Nancy removed her jacket and began wrapping it around the little one.
But she froze when she noticed a birthmark on the baby’s neck. “It can’t be,” she muttered to herself.
The birthmark was exactly like Patrick’s. Nancy didn’t want to suspect her late husband of cheating. But now, she needed the truth. She needed to know if Patrick had been unfaithful to her.
Nancy drove home with the baby, took Patrick’s hair strands from his hairbrush, and went to a hospital.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
“Hello, I’d like to get a paternity test done,” she told the receptionist at the counter.
“OK, ma’am. Normally, it takes a few days to get the results,” the woman said.
“Can it be done quicker?” Nancy asked. “I’ll pay extra.”
“Well, we do have expedited service. Let me see what I can do. But it will cost you more.”
“I’ll take it,” Nancy replied. She submitted Patrick’s samples and paid for the test.
Sitting in the hallway, she was awaiting the results when the baby started crying. Nancy sniffed the baby’s clothes. Her diaper didn’t need a change.
Nancy guessed she must have been hungry. There was still time before the results came in, so she drove to a supermarket and bought baby formula, bottles, and a few diapers — just in case she needed them.
She returned to the hallway and sat there, feeding the formula to the baby. After what seemed like an eternity, a nurse approached her with the results.
The woman handed her an envelope and walked away.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Unsplash
“This is the truth, and I’ll have to accept it whether I like it or not,” Nancy thought as she opened the results.
Her head seemed to spin when she read the words, “Paternity rate – 99%.”
Nancy looked at the sleeping baby in her arms and swallowed the tears in her eyes. Patrick had cheated on her and kept her in the dark.
Nancy decided she would not live with the proof of his infidelity forever. She would find the baby’s mother and give the baby back to her.
Pulling herself together, Nancy drove home and began going through Patrick’s things. But she didn’t find anything that could point her to his lover. She moved to his office next, searching his drawers, files, and cabinets. But nothing.
Nancy sighed. The baby was asleep in the living room. Grabbing the baby monitor, she headed to Patrick’s car. She searched under the seats, in the glove compartment, and in all the nooks and crannies of the vehicle. But she didn’t find anything significant.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
Nancy sank into the driver’s seat when her eyes landed on the GPS. And it was then it hit her. Patrick was terrible at directions and always used the navigator. If he had ever visited his mistress’ house, that is where she would find her address.
Nancy went straight to recent destinations on the navigator. The list wasn’t long, mostly familiar places: local restaurants, the hardware store, and Patrick’s office. But then, one address caught her eye—it appeared more frequently than others, and she didn’t recognize it.
“This is it,” she thought. She took the baby with her and drove to the address.
***
Arriving there, Nancy found herself in front of a modest house. She scooped the baby in her arms, walked to the front door, and knocked.
“Hello? Anyone home?” she asked.
After the tenth knock, when nobody answered the door, Nancy concluded the house was empty. She looked around and decided to approach the neighbors. She started with the house next door and rang the doorbell.
The door opened with a creak, and Nancy’s eyes widened when Amanda stepped out.
“You?” Nancy asked.
“How…how did you find me?” Amanda stuttered.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
“I was trying to find my husband’s…” Nancy paused. “His other woman. I wanted to return her baby.”
A strange sadness flashed across Amanda’s face. “The woman who lived next door… died a few days ago. She had a heart attack when she learned about your husband’s accident. Emma is no more.”
“Wait…did you say Emma?” Nancy asked, shocked.
“Yes,” Amanda nodded. “Did you know her?”
“Was…Was her last name Warren?”
When Amanda nodded, Nancy hung her head in shame. “Can-Can I come inside?” she asked. “There’s something I’d like to tell you. I feel I could use some talk.”
Amanda opened the door wider for her, and Nancy stepped inside. They settled in the living room. “Emma was my classmate,” Nancy began recounting her past. “She was also my friend. But I wronged her and…Patrick…”
20 years ago…
Nancy and Patrick were in their school’s hallway. She was standing next to her locker when Patrick approached her.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
“Hey, Nancy,” he said quietly, and she looked at him.
“I…I need to tell you something,” Patrick added anxiously.
“Hey,” she smiled. “Yes?”
“I…I’m in love with someone else, Nancy,” he confessed. “I know you’ve been really kind and everything, but I’m sorry.”
Nancy was shocked. “Tell me it’s a joke, Patrick,” she cried. “You can’t be serious!”
But Patrick was serious. Patrick was head over heels in love with Emma, and Emma loved him, too.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
Nancy was so distraught that day that she returned home in tears.
“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Her mother immediately sensed something had happened at school.
Nancy sobbed as she told her how Patrick had broken up with her.
“I want to break them up!” she yelled. “I won’t let them be together!”
“Nancy, you won’t be able to create your own happiness by destroying someone else’s,” her mother advised her. “Revenge is never an option. Forget about him.”
But Nancy was fueled with the desire for revenge.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
In the next few days, Nancy tried everything she could to drive Patrick and Emma apart—she spread silly rumors, planned coincidental run-ins where she’d flaunt newfound confidence, and even stooped to sending anonymous notes, trying to stir up jealousy.
However, nothing worked. Emma seemed happy, wrapped up in her and Patrick’s world and Nancy was left on the outside, her plans crumbling uselessly around her.
But Nancy wasn’t the one to give up. One night, she had the perfect idea to drive a wedge between Emma and Patrick.
“Hello, Nancy, how are you?” Nancy visited Patrick, and the door was answered by this mother.
“I’m fine, Mrs. White. Is Patrick home?”
“Yes, dear. Let me get him.”
Patrick was confused to see her on his doorstep. “Nancy? What’s going on?”
“I know this will come as a shock to you, Patrick, but…I’m-I’m pregnant!” she announced.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
Patrick was shocked and terrified. “What…but…Are you sure?”
When she nodded, Patrick invited her inside. She told him she hadn’t told her parents yet because she was scared. Nancy said her father would definitely be against it and force her to terminate the pregnancy. So she begged Patrick not to tell anyone about it and noticed how easily he succumbed to her lie.
Patrick was a responsible guy. Nancy knew that. He held her hands and said, “I’m the child’s father, so I’ll take the responsibility for our baby. And yes, don’t worry; this will stay between us.”
Present-day…
“I used him. I lied to him. I wasn’t pregnant,” Nancy told Amanda. “I was hurt, and I couldn’t stand losing him to Emma. So I told him a lie that changed everything. He was ready to step up, leave Emma, and be…a father.”
“Lies ruin everything, dear,” Amanda shook her head. “And what after that? Did he never find out the truth?”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
“He didn’t,” Nancy revealed. “I kept up the act, the morning sickness, the whole thing. But after a couple of months, I…I couldn’t carry on with it. So, I told him there was a mistake with the test and that the doctor was wrong. And by then, Emma had…moved. She was heartbroken and had left town with her parents. Patrick and I stayed together. He never went back to her, never tried to find her. We just moved on. Or pretended to…” Nancy added, looking at the sleeping baby in her arms. Now she knew Patrick had returned to Emma.
“And I guess it’s time to correct what I couldn’t back then,” Nancy said and rose to her feet.
She was leaving Amanda’s house with the baby when the older woman stopped her.
“What are you going to do with the baby?” Amanda asked.
Nancy turned around and smiled at Amanda. “I will raise her as my own child. Maybe that’ll help me seek forgiveness from Patrick and Emma.”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Shutterstock
And Nancy followed through on her words. She raised baby Catherine with love. When Catherine turned 16, Nancy told her everything about her past. She was expecting Catherine to hate her. And she was prepared for it.
But Catherine smiled and said, “Nothing changes how I feel about you, Mom. You raised me. You were there for every scraped knee, every fever, every heartbreak. You’re my mom in every way that counts.”
Nancy cried silently and hugged her daughter. Catherine’s words had not only relieved her heart, but they’d also made her believe that Emma and Patrick had forgiven her.
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Woman Spots Bracelet She Made for Missing Son on Waiter’s Hand After Two Years & Confronts Him Before Paying the Bill
For two years, Elena replayed the last words her son said before he mysteriously vanished. She clung to hope for a sign he was still out there. Then one day, she found it — a bracelet she’d made for him, now on a stranger’s wrist. That discovery brought her closer to the answers she longed for.
The faint scent of lavender clung to Elena’s coat, a reminder of the fabric spray she’d spritzed on before leaving her hotel room. She sat by the café window, staring at the misty drizzle streaking the glass. This new city wasn’t home; it never had been. She was here on yet another last-minute business trip. Normally, she could distract herself with work, but today her thoughts wouldn’t settle.
They were stuck on Aaron. It had been two years since her son vanished. No goodbye, no explanation… just gone.
An emotional senior woman lost in deep thought | Source: Midjourney
He was 20 when he left, an age when he should have been figuring out life, not running from it.
The only thing he left behind was haunting silence.
And Elena? She was left with sleepless nights and memories that cut sharper with every passing day. She’d looked for him everywhere, even on social media. But in vain.
Grayscale shot of a young man walking on the road | Source: Pexels
Her phone buzzed with another message from her sister Wendy. “Any news?” she asked, like clockwork. Every morning, same question, same hope.
“Nothing,” Elena typed back, her fingers trembling slightly. “Just another day of wondering if he’s even alive.”
“He is,” Wendy replied instantly. “You’d know if he wasn’t. A mother always knows.”
A teary-eyed woman holding her phone | Source: Midjourney
Elena closed her eyes, remembering the last conversation they’d had before he disappeared. “I’m going out,” Aaron had said, casual as ever. “Don’t wait up.”
“Text me when you get home,” she’d called after him.
“I will, Mom. I will.”
But he never did. That text never came.
On her nightstand back home, there was a picture of him at ten, his face beaming with pride as he showed off the bracelet she’d made for him. Blue and green leather braided tightly, with a small silver charm etched with his initial.
A blue and green braided leather bracelet bearing an initial in a heart-shaped ornament | Source: Midjourney
She remembered tying it around his little wrist, telling him, “It’s one in a million. Just like you.”
“Really, Mom?” he’d asked, eyes sparkling. “You mean that?”
“With all my heart, sweetie. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
And now? Two years without him, and all she had left were those words echoing in her head.
A soft clink of plates pulled Elena out of her thoughts. The waiter set her order down — a plate of eggs and toast she’d barely looked at on the menu. The warm smell of coffee and pastries filled the air, but her appetite was nowhere to be found.
A plate of egg and toast on a table | Source: Pexels
She picked at the crust of the toast, her mind wandering. Where is he? Is he safe? Does he even know how much I love him?
The sound of footsteps brought her back again. The waiter, a young man with a friendly smile, returned with the bill. She handed him her card without looking up. But as he reached for it, something caught her eye.
A bracelet.
Braided blue and green leather with a small silver charm.
Her breath hitched. “It’s… Oh my God, it’s the SAME BRACELET — AARON’S.”
A man wearing a leather bracelet | Source: Midjourney
She stared, her hand trembling. “Where… where did you get that?” Her voice barely made it past the lump in her throat.
The waiter paused, looking at his wrist. “Oh, this?” He laughed nervously. “It was a gift.”
Her heart raced. “From who?”
His smile faded, replaced with confusion. “My fiancé.”
The room felt like it had tilted. Elena clutched the edge of the table, her voice trembling. “Who is he? What’s his name?”
“Ma’am, are you okay?” he asked, genuine concern in his voice. “You’re shaking.”
An anxious man | Source: Midjourney
“That bracelet,” she whispered, reaching out to touch it but stopping herself. “I remember every knot and every thread. I spent hours making it perfect because… because he deserved perfect.”
The man’s brows knitted together defensively. “I don’t see why that’s any of your business.”
She pointed at the bracelet, her voice cracking. “Because I made that. FOR MY SON.”
A silence fell between them, heavy and uncertain.
The waiter — Chris, his name tag read — studied her, his face shifting from confusion to realization. “Wait,” he said slowly, “you’re Adam’s mom?”
Elena stared at him, hardly able to breathe. “Adam? No, my son’s name is Aaron. You know my son?”
A woman shaken to her core | Source: Midjourney
The waiter shook his head. “No. But he told me he left everything behind, including his name. I… I never knew why. And he doesn’t go by Aaron anymore. He’s Adam now.”
The name hit her like a slap. Adam. Why would he change his name? Why would he leave his life behind?
“Why?” Elena whispered. “Why would he do that?”
“Please,” she begged, “I need to understand. Every night for two years, I’ve imagined the worst. Car accidents, kidnapping, murder. Do you know what it’s like to wake up every morning wondering if your child is dead?”
A shocked woman | Source: Midjourney
Chris glanced around, lowering his voice. “Look, I don’t know everything. He’s never talked much about his past. But he said… he said he didn’t think you’d accept him.”
“Accept him? For what?”
Chris shifted uncomfortably, then glanced at his wrist. “For me. For us.”
“Us?” she repeated, the word heavy on her tongue. “You mean…”
“We’re engaged,” Chris said softly, touching the bracelet. “He gave me this the night I proposed. Said it was the most precious thing he owned.”
A man flaunting his engagement ring | Source: Pexels
The words landed like bricks, crushing and unrelenting. All the tiny moments she’d overlooked over the years came rushing back: Aaron hesitating before telling her about certain friends, dodging questions about who he spent time with. Her heart twisted. He’d been scared. Scared of her.
“All those times,” she whispered, more to herself than Chris. “All those times he started to tell me something important, then changed the subject. Was he trying to…?”
Chris nodded gently. “He told me that he’d tried to tell you many times. But the words wouldn’t come. He was afraid.”
Tears blurred Elena’s vision. “I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I never knew he thought that.”
A heartbroken woman | Source: Midjourney
Chris’s eyes softened. “He doesn’t talk about it much, but it’s clear he’s still carrying that fear. Look, I’m not trying to make you feel bad… he loves you, in his own way. He kept this bracelet with him all the time before he gave it to me. It means something to him.”
“Did he ever…” she swallowed hard. “Did he ever talk about me?”
“All the time. He keeps your photo in his wallet — the one of you holding him on his first birthday. Sometimes I catch him looking at it when he thinks I’m not watching.”
Grayscale shot of a mother holding her child | Source: Pexels
The room felt like it was closing in on Elena. “Please,” she said, clutching Chris’s arm. “Tell me where he is. I just want to see him. I need to tell him…” Her voice faltered. “I need him to know I love him. No matter what.”
Chris hesitated. “He might not be ready for that.”
“Please. Two years, Chris. Two years of empty holidays, of setting a place at the table just in case, of jumping every time the phone rings. I can’t do it anymore.”
A hesitant man | Source: Midjourney
After a long pause, he sighed and pulled out a receipt, scribbling an address. “He’s scared, but… maybe this will help him, too.”
Elena clutched the address in her hand, standing outside a modest brick apartment building. The soft hum of the city filled the air, but it was drowned out by the sound of her heartbeat.
She stared at the buzzer. Her hand hovered over the button for Apartment 3B. What if he didn’t want to see her? What if he told her to leave?
A woman standing outside an apartment | Source: Midjourney
Her phone buzzed again. “Did something happen?” Wendy asked. “You’ve been quiet all day.”
“I found him,” Elena typed back, hands shaking. “Wendy, I found him.”
“Oh my God,” she replied instantly. “Where are you? Do you need me there?”
“No,” Elena wrote. “This is something I need to do alone.”
Before she could talk herself out of it, the door creaked open.
He stood there, looking at her like he was seeing a ghost. His hair was longer, his face thinner. He wasn’t a boy anymore. Before her stood a man, carrying an exhaustion and wisdom far beyond his age. But his eyes — those brown eyes that used to light up with mischief — were still the same.
“MOM?”
A stunned man standing at the doorway | Source: Midjourney
“You kept the photo,” she blurted out, remembering what Chris had said. “The one from your first birthday.”
Aaron’s hand instinctively went to his back pocket, where his wallet sat. “How did you…?”
“Chris,” Elena said softly. “He told me everything.”
Tears streamed down her face. “Aaron,” she said, choking on the name. “Or Adam. Whatever you want to call yourself. I don’t care. I just… I need you to know I love you. I always have.”
A heartbroken senior woman | Source: Midjourney
He blinked, his face crumpling. “You don’t… you don’t care?”
“Care?” She stepped closer, her voice breaking. “The only thing I care about is that you’re alive, that you’re safe. Do you know how many times I called hospitals? Morgues? How many times I walked past homeless people, wondering if one of them was you?”
She reached for his face, touching it gently, making sure he was real. “I don’t care who you love. I don’t care where you’ve been. I just want my son back.”
“But I’m different now,” he whispered. “I’m not who you wanted me to be.”
A sad man with his eyes downcast | Source: Midjourney
“You’re exactly who you’re supposed to be. And I’m so sorry if I ever made you feel like you couldn’t tell me that.”
For a moment, he stood frozen. Then he threw his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Mom,” he sobbed. “I was so scared. I thought if you knew…”
“No, baby,” she whispered, holding him tight. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you carried that fear alone.”
The next morning, Elena sat at their kitchen table, a mug of coffee warming her hands. Aaron sat across from her, his hand clasped in Chris’s. They looked happy, comfortable, and so clearly in love.
Two men holding hands | Source: Pexels
“So, wait,” Chris said, laughing. “You painted the cat?”
Aaron groaned. “I was six! It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“In his defense,” Elena added, smiling, “the cat did look rather festive in purple.”
“Mom!” Aaron protested, but he was grinning. “I thought we agreed never to tell anyone about that!”
“Oh, sweetie,” she laughed, “I have years of embarrassing stories to catch up on. Chris needs to know what he’s getting into.”
A delighted woman | Source: Midjourney
Chris squeezed Aaron’s hand. “I think I already know exactly what I’m getting into.” He glanced at Elena. “And who I’m getting as a mother-in-law.”
She smiled, her chest lighter than it had been in years. The bracelet was back on Aaron’s wrist, glinting in the morning sunlight.
“You’re still one in a million, you know,” she said softly.
He reached across the table, his eyes full of emotion. “So are you, Mom.”
A man smiling | Source: Midjourney
“We have so much to catch up on,” she said, wiping away a tear. “So many moments to make up for.”
“We have time,” he said softly. “All the time in the world.”
And for the first time in two years, Elena believed it.
A woman looking up at someone and smiling | Source: Midjourney
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
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