My life turned upside down at my husband’s funeral when I encountered an older woman holding a baby. She claimed the child she was carrying was my late husband’s. Was she lying? Or did more shocking revelations await me?
I stood, staring at the final traces of my husband David’s funeral service. I couldn’t believe he was gone. He had died in a car accident. It had been a week, but I could still feel him around me. How could he be dead?
With a heavy heart, I headed toward the cemetery’s exit, telling myself I had to start figuring out the rest of my life.
Suddenly, an older woman with a baby blocked my path.
“Are you Luna?” she asked while the baby in her arms cried.
I didn’t recognize her. Who was she?
“Yes, I am. Who are you?” I replied.
My heart wasn’t ready when the woman, Margaret, revealed the baby in her arms was David’s child.
“Only you can look after this child now,” she told me. “Her mother can’t provide for her.”
A shiver ran down my spine. I stared at the baby and backed away.
“No, it can’t be! David was a loving husband. He would never do this to me!”
I turned around and left. I would never doubt David.
“Watch out!”
I bumped into one of David’s old friends, Tom. I was too lost in my thoughts to notice where I was heading.
Tom started chatting with me, offering his condolences. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, but I had to be courteous. I finished the conversation as soon as I could and headed to my car.
The thought of the baby replayed in my mind, but I dismissed it. But when I opened my car door, I was shocked. The same baby lay in my back seat, crying.
I looked around. Margaret was nowhere to be seen. “How did this baby even get here?” I wondered.
It was cold, so I removed my jacket and began wrapping it around the little one.
But I froze when I noticed a birthmark on the baby’s neck. “It can’t be,” I muttered to myself.
The birthmark was exactly like David’s. I didn’t want to suspect my late husband of cheating, but now I needed the truth. I needed to know if David had been unfaithful to me.
I drove home with the baby, took David’s hair strands from his hairbrush, and went to a hospital.
“Hello, I’d like to get a paternity test done,” I told the receptionist at the counter.
“Okay, ma’am. Normally, it takes a few days to get the results,” she said.
“Can it be done quicker? I’ll pay extra,” I asked.
“Well, we do have expedited service. Let me see what I can do. But it will cost you more.”
“I’ll take it,” I replied. I submitted David’s samples and paid for the test.
Sitting in the hallway, waiting for the results, the baby started crying. I sniffed her clothes. Her diaper didn’t need a change.
I guessed she must be hungry. There was still time before the results came in, so I drove to a supermarket and bought baby formula, bottles, and a few diapers—just in case I needed them.
I returned to the hallway and sat there, feeding formula to the baby. After what seemed like an eternity, a nurse approached with the results.
She handed me an envelope and walked away.
“This is the truth, and I’ll have to accept it whether I like it or not,” I thought as I opened the results.
My head spun when I read the words, “Paternity rate – 99%.”
I looked at the sleeping baby in my arms and swallowed the tears in my eyes. David had cheated on me and kept me in the dark.
I decided I wouldn’t live with the proof of his infidelity forever. I would find the baby’s mother and give the baby back to her.
Pulling myself together, I drove home and began going through David’s things. But I found nothing that could point me to his lover. I moved to his office next, searching his drawers, files, and cabinets. But nothing.
I sighed. The baby was asleep in the living room. Grabbing the baby monitor, I headed to David’s car. I searched under the seats, in the glove compartment, and in every nook and cranny of the vehicle. But I didn’t find anything significant.
I sank into the driver’s seat when my eyes landed on the GPS. It hit me then. David was terrible at directions and always used the navigator. If he had visited his mistress’s house, that’s where I’d find her address.
I checked recent destinations on the navigator. The list wasn’t long, mostly familiar places: local restaurants, the hardware store, David’s office. But one address caught my eye—it appeared more frequently than others, and I didn’t recognize it.
“This is it,” I thought. I took the baby with me and drove to the address.
When I arrived, I stood before a modest house. I scooped the baby into my arms, walked to the front door, and knocked.
“Hello? Anyone home?” I called.
After the tenth knock, with no answer, I concluded the house was empty. I looked around and decided to approach the neighbors. I started with the house next door and rang the doorbell.
The door opened with a creak, and my eyes widened when Margaret stepped out.
“You?” I asked.
“How…how did you find me?” Margaret stuttered.
“I was trying to find my husband’s…” I paused. “His other woman. I wanted to return her baby.”
A strange sadness flashed across Margaret’s face. “The woman who lived next door… died a few days ago. She had a heart attack when she learned about your husband’s accident. Sarah is no more.”
“Wait…did you say Sarah?” I asked, shocked.
“Yes,” Margaret nodded. “Did you know her?”
“Was…was her last name Carter?”
When Margaret nodded, I hung my head in shame. “Can I come inside?” I asked. “There’s something I’d like to tell you. I feel I could use some talk.”
Margaret opened the door wider, and I stepped inside. We settled in the living room. “Sarah was my classmate,” I began, recounting my past. “She was also my friend. But I wronged her and…David…”
Twenty years ago…
David and I were in our school’s hallway. I was standing by my locker when he approached.
“Hey, Luna,” he said quietly, and I looked at him.
“I…I need to tell you something,” David added anxiously.
“Hey,” I smiled. “Yes?”
“I…I’m in love with someone else, Luna,” he confessed. “I know you’ve been really kind and everything, but I’m sorry.”
I was shocked. “Tell me it’s a joke, David,” I cried. “You can’t be serious!”
But David was serious. He was head over heels in love with Sarah, and Sarah loved him, too.
I was so distraught that day, I returned home in tears.
“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” my mother asked, sensing something had happened at school.
I sobbed as I told her how David had broken up with me.
“I want to break them up!” I yelled. “I won’t let them be together!”
“Luna, you can’t create your own happiness by destroying someone else’s,” my mother advised. “Revenge is never an option. Forget about him.”
But I was fueled with the desire for revenge.
In the days that followed, I tried everything to drive David and Sarah apart—I spread silly rumors, planned coincidental run-ins where I’d flaunt newfound confidence, and even stooped to sending anonymous notes to stir up jealousy.
But nothing worked. Sarah seemed happy, wrapped up in her and David’s world, and I was left on the outside, my plans crumbling uselessly around me.
I wasn’t one to give up, though. One night, I had the perfect idea to drive a wedge between Sarah and David.
“Hello, Luna, how are you?” I visited David, and his mother answered the door.
“I’m fine, Mrs. Green. Is David home?”
“Yes, dear. Let me get him.”
David was confused to see me on his doorstep. “Luna? What’s going on?”
“I know this will come as a shock to you, David, but…I’m-I’m pregnant!” I announced.
David was shocked and terrified. “What…but…are you sure?”
When I nodded, he invited me inside. I told him I hadn’t told my parents yet because I was scared. I said my father would definitely be against it and force me to terminate the pregnancy. I begged David not to tell anyone, and I noticed how easily he believed my lie.
David was a responsible guy. I knew that. He held my hands and said, “I’m the child’s father, so I’ll take responsibility for our baby. And yes, don’t worry; this will stay between us.”
Present-day…
“I used him. I lied to him. I wasn’t pregnant,” I confessed to Margaret. “I was hurt, and I couldn’t stand losing him to Sarah. So I told a lie that changed everything. He was ready to step up, leave Sarah, and be a father.”
“Lies ruin everything, dear,” Margaret shook her head. “And what after that? Did he never find out the truth?”
“He didn’t,” I revealed. “I kept up the act—morning sickness, the whole thing. But after a couple of months, I couldn’t carry on with it. So I told him there was a mistake with the test, that the doctor was wrong. By then, Sarah had moved. She was heartbroken and had left town with her parents. David and I stayed together. He never went back to her, never tried to find her. We just moved on. Or pretended to…” I added, looking at the sleeping baby in my arms. Now I knew David had returned to Sarah.
“I guess it’s time to correct what I couldn’t back then,” I said and rose to my feet.
As I was leaving Margaret’s house with the baby, she stopped me.
“What are you going to do with the baby?” Margaret asked.
I turned around and smiled at her. “I’ll raise her as my own child. Maybe that’ll help me seek forgiveness from David and Sarah.”
And I followed through on my words. I raised baby Sophie with love. When Sophie turned 16, I told her everything about my past. I expected her to hate me, and I was prepared for it.
But Sophie smiled and said, “Nothing changes how I feel about you, Mom. You raised me. You were there for every scraped knee, every fever, every heartbreak. You’re my mom in every way that counts.”
I cried silently and hugged my daughter. Sophie’s words not only relieved my heart but also made me believe that Sarah and David had forgiven me.
