Alex’s voice came out rough, barely recognizable.
“Who is he?”
Sofia did not answer immediately. She crouched and began picking up shards carefully, as if the act gave her something solid to hold onto. Her movements were slow and deliberate.
“His name is Daniel,” she said quietly. “He’s five.”
Alex felt the timeline lock into place. Five years.
That meant Daniel had been conceived just before Alex left. Just as his company began taking off. Just as he convinced himself he had no room for anything but work.
His stomach turned.
“Is he… mine?” he asked, though his heart already knew.
Sofia straightened and looked him directly in the eyes.
“Yes, Alex,” she said. “He’s yours. He’s our son.”
The words landed with a quiet force that left Alex dizzy. He sat down hard, the room tilting slightly as the weight of it settled on him.
A son.
A child he had never known.
A life he had missed entirely.
The Conversation She Never Forgot
Alex’s mind scrambled, searching for reasons, explanations, anything to lessen the blow.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked. “Why would you keep this from me?”
Sofia let out a small, bitter laugh, the kind that holds years of disappointment.
“Tell you what?” she said. “That I was pregnant? I tried.”
Alex frowned, confused.
Sofia’s voice sharpened, not with screaming, but with clarity.
“When I told you I thought I might be expecting, do you remember what you said?” she asked. “You said it was a distraction. You said your future was your company. You told me to handle it and not ruin your momentum.”
Alex’s face went cold.
He wanted to deny it. He wanted to claim he never would have said something so harsh.
But the memory, buried for years, surfaced with brutal accuracy. He remembered his own words. His own tone. The way he had made Sofia feel small, inconvenient, disposable.
“I was under pressure,” he whispered. “I was young. I didn’t think.”
Sofia shook her head.
“You weren’t confused, Alex,” she said. “You were ambitious. And you were selfish.”
She told him that after that conversation, she decided Daniel would not grow up feeling unwanted. She chose to protect her child from a father who had already rejected him before birth.
Alex felt a sharp pain in his chest that no wealth could soothe.
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