He had not been sinned against.

He had been the instrument.

His mother had built the lie, but he had been the one who carried it out, who threw the woman into the cold, who let four years of a child’s life pass unmarked.

In that quiet office, with the bank record trembling in his hands, Desmond Merrick finally met himself, and there was nowhere left to look away to.

Chapter 16 — No Right

“I need to see her.