I stared at her until my vision blurred.
“She looks like me.”
Thomas smiled through his tears.
“No.”
He looked toward Clara.
“You look like her.”
I broke.
Grant held me while I cried for a woman I couldn’t remember.
A father I had never known.
A childhood stolen so completely that I hadn’t even realized it was missing.
But it didn’t end there.
Three months later, Diane pleaded guilty to identity theft, fraud, falsifying records, and custodial interference connected to my disappearance.
Investigators uncovered nearly six hundred thousand dollars taken over the decades.
Most of it was gone.
But the trust wasn’t.
Not completely.
Because my biological father had included one protection Diane never discovered.
The largest portion couldn’t be released until I had a living child of my own.
The day Clara was born, $2.8 million legally became mine.
That was the real reason Diane had come to the hospital.
