I stared at him.

“Your son?”

He nodded, shame folding his face. “Eleanor and I divorced when Julian was five. She erased me from his life. Told him I left because I didn’t want him. I spent years trying to reach him. Every letter came back. Every call blocked.”

“Why didn’t he recognize you?”

“He did,” Marcus said. “He just hates the truth.”

I looked down at my son. “Then why did you cry?”

Marcus swallowed. “Because your baby has the same birthmark Julian had. The same one I had.”

“And because I realized my grandson had been brought into the world by a woman my own family tried to destroy.”