Chapter 31

Miranda

Despite the constant rain outside, my children and I have fun inside the house. We’ve run through plenty of indoor activities such as a plethora of board games, hide and seek, a dress-up runway show where Noah was the judge, and we even made a warm batch of chocolate chip cookies. It’s been a great day!

I’m glad I stayed home with Noah and Ella. If I had gone to work, I would have most definitely had another “coincidental” run-in with Sebastian. A run-in, that I can only assume, would have ended with us screaming at each other, ready to tear each other’s heads off.

So yes. I am very thankful I stayed home instead of being forced to see Sebastian’s face, but I suppose there are worse fates than having to see him. I could have had a screaming match with Lily or her insufferable mother instead. That would have been much worse.

“Mommy!” Noah’s voice snaps me out of my thoughts. I turn to him and smile. He runs towards me with two comically large monster trucks in his hands. I catch him before he can use me as a crash pad and help steady him.

“What’s up, Noah?” I chuckle. My son whines and gently stops his foot, showing me his monster trucks.

“Ella put tutus on them again! She said she would stop but she clearly hasn’t!” Noah whines and stomps his feet. He wears a huge frown on his face and I can’t help but laugh inwardly at his reaction.

I tilt the monster trucks and inspect the tutus. One is a bright pink color with a lot of volume to the tutu. The other one is a sparkly purple that shimmers under the kitchen lights. I pluck the tutus off the monster trucks and hand them back to Noah. He takes them and runs off down the hallway.

“Ella? Honey? Can you come here, please?” I yell down the hall. In a matter of seconds, Ella appears with a big smile. I look down at her and hold the tutus out. They hang on my pointer finger. She quietly grabs them while I stir our dinner. “What did we say about putting tutus on your brother’s toys?”

“We said to not do it anymore because his toys are his and not mine to dress up,” Ella dramatically sighs. I nod and pull her into a quick hug.

“Good girl. Now go get your brother, dinner will be ready soon,” I kiss the top of her head and pat her back as she runs off. I turn to the stove where soup simmers in a large pot.

It’s a simple soup, one that my mother made me whenever it rained. It’s a meal that I hope they’ll enjoy as much as I do.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

I lean backward and look in the direction of the front door. I turn off the stove and step away, moving to the front of the house. The slow knocks continue as I inch down the hallway, unsure of who would even be here at this hour.

The knock definitely did not come from Sebastian nor did it come from Lily or Harper. Could it be Jessica? Did I forget something at the lab? Did something go wrong?

“Jessica?” I ask when I swing open the door. At eye level, there’s nobody there. My brows furrow and I move to turn around when something grabs my leg. I look down and see a small child.

His whole body trembles and he clings to me as if I’m the only source of heat. I gasp and grab his ice-cold arms, bringing him inside. I kick the door closed behind me, leaning down to look at him.

His bottom lip is pale, almost a blue color. He looks at me with big, purple eyes, and I freeze. I slightly lean back and my jaw drops.

This boy…he looks exactly like Noah. Even their freckles are the same. My stomach turns and leaves me feeling nauseous. Could this boy be…be the boy that Lily took from me all those years ago?

“Mommy! When is—” Noah comes barrelling from around the corner. His voice quickly shuts up when he sees me leaning down with his doppelgänger. His eyes are wide and big, his body frozen in place. Ella quickly comes up from behind him, not even being able to get a word in.

“Can you two help us out?” I ask. They nod. I nod in return and pick up the trembling child into my arms. “Okay good…go grab every blanket you have from your bedroom, please. And be sure to check the closet! We need to warm him up as soon as possible!”

Noah and Ella sharply turn on their heels and they run away, their footsteps filling in the silence. Without wasting another second, I take the child into the guest room and set him on the bed. I remove his wet clothes and toss them to the side.

I lunge into the bathroom and grab all of the dry towels I can find. Going back to the boy, I wrap him in the towels. His trembling hands hug the towel to his tiny body. I use one of them to help dry his dripping hair.

“What happened to you?” I murmur to myself. He looks at me through teary eyes and begins to silently cry. He turns away from me and buries his face into the nearby pillow.

Noah and Ella stumble into the bedroom and they toss their blankets onto the space next to us. I take one of the towels and help the boy sit up. I wrap the blanket around his shoulders, quietly telling him to get comfortable. I glance at Noah and Ella, a frown forming on my lips.

They shift in place and play with their hands. The two of them can barely look at me. They know what’s happening, it’s written all over their faces. I sigh and rub my hands back and forth on the boy’s back to try and warm him up.

“Will Evan be okay?” Ella nervously asks. When I don’t immediately respond, Ella’s voice pops up again, “is our brother going to be okay?”

I weakly nod and wave them over to the bed. They skip over and grab blankets to wrap around Evan’s body. They mimic my hand movements and a faint smile flashes across Evan’s face, but it quickly disappears.

Their nervousness isn’t a priority right now, though. We need to help Evan feel better…that’s our family’s priority right now. I peel away from the trio, telling Noah and Ella to continue warming Evan up.

From the bedroom’s doorway, I watch my three children huddle together. Ella and Noah talk to Evan in hushed voices. Ella hugs Evan and Noah sits on the other side of him, rubbing Evan’s arms from over the blanket.

My family…my children. Is Evan truly the child that was torn from my arms five years ago? I thought he was dead…that Lily had subjected him to a fate worse than I could ever imagine.

Had Lily taken him captive all of these years? Was he forced to believe that she was his mother instead, or has she been using him as a pawn in her twisted game of politics? The thought sends chills down my spine, leaving me feeling unsettled.

About an hour later, Evan finally falls asleep. Noah and Ella leave him alone in the room, helping Anna with putting the wet and cold blankets into the dryer so they can warm up for the young boy’s sake.

I sigh and watch over him for a brief moment. I run my hand over his hair, running my fingers through his tangled and damp locks. Some strands of hair catch on my fingers and break free from his head. I stare down at the hair and bite the inside of my cheek.

I leave the guest room and head into my office. I hold the hair in the palm of my hand, carefully sliding it into a nearby test tube. I seal it and repeat the process but with strands of my hair. The tubes slide into a machine I keep at home and I press the button for the test to start.

I have to know if Evan is my son. I can’t sit here and delude myself into thinking that he is. He could be anyone’s son.

But his eyes…he has my eyes.