My heart stopped. The room spun. Before I could even process the words, the front door clicked open. It was Lily, returning to drop off Eli’s backpack she’d forgotten in the car. Her face went ghost-white when she saw the look on my face.
“Lily,” I choked out, my voice trembling. “Who is the ‘other dad’?”
She froze, looking from me to Eli. “I… I can explain,” she stammered, tears instantly welling up.
“Explain what? That you’ve been seeing Mark? The man who abandoned us before his son took his first breath?”
“He didn’t leave because he didn’t want the baby,” she cried, the facade finally breaking. “He left because… because we fell in love. We’ve been together for five years. We got married last month. We wanted to be in Eli’s life, but we were too cowardly to tell you the truth, so I brought him to the park every Saturday to bond.”
The betrayal hit harder than the abandonment ever did. The sister who had been my rock was actually the reason my foundation had crumbled in the first place. She had been playing “happy family” with my ex and my son behind my back for years.
I looked at Eli, innocent and confused, and then at my sister, who now looked like a complete stranger.
“Get out,” I whispered, pulling Eli close to me. “And don’t you dare come back.”
