Lucas froze on the spot, his mouth hanging open. “What did you say?”
“I was planning to show it to you right after signing,” I explained bitterly. “But then Alyssa called you, and you were in such a desperate rush that you told me not to ask childish questions.”
His face lost all its defensive posture as the painful memory registered. “Nora, I honestly had no idea.”
“You did not know because you were entirely blind to everything around you,” I retorted. “You did not even bother to read the agreement where you declared we had no children, because you only wanted to run away.”
“If you had just spoken up and told me…” he began desperate words.
“What exactly would you have done differently back then?” I interrupted directly.
He opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out of his throat.
“Exactly,” I said firmly, shutting down his hypothetical excuses.
He turned his gaze toward Mason, who was posing for photos across the room. “I want to talk to him right now.”
“Not today, Lucas,” I declined immediately.
“I am his father,” he insisted, stepping closer.
“Biologically, yes, but nothing more,” I reminded him coldly.
His jaw tightened in frustration. “You cannot legally prevent me from meeting my own son.”
“I will never stand in the way of anything that is genuinely good for Mason,” I explained clearly. “However, I will not let you show up after nine full years to ease your personal guilt.”
Lucas lowered his voice, looking genuinely distressed. “Does he even know who I am?”
“He knows his father was not around, but he does not know your name,” I answered truthfully.
“Were you planning to hide my existence from him forever?” he asked softly.
“I planned to tell him the truth when he was old enough to hear it without feeling forced to hate you,” I replied.
My response left him completely speechless, stripped of his usual corporate arrogance.
For the very first time, I saw the vulnerable man I had known long before wealth and power took over his life. “Please just let me speak with him for five short minutes.”
“No, not today,” I held my ground firmly.
“Nora, I am begging you,” he pleaded quietly.
“Today he won the most important award of his young life,” I reasoned sternly. “I will not let him remember this day as the chaotic moment his father suddenly appeared.”
I gathered my purse and adjusted my coat. “If you truly want to build a relationship with him, you need to do it properly by seeking family counseling and talking to my lawyer first.”
I turned on my heel and walked out of the auditorium without looking back.
Late that evening, while we were sharing dinner in our quiet apartment, Mason suddenly placed his fork down on the table. “Mom, is that donor Mr. Lucas Albright actually my father?”
I felt a sudden pang in my chest as I looked across at him. “Yes, he is.”
He did not cry or throw a tantrum. “Did he know that I existed all these years?”
“No, he did not know,” I answered carefully.
“Did you choose not to tell him about me?” he asked directly.
I offered him a gentle, honest version of the past, explaining that we were divorcing when I discovered the pregnancy and that our final separation was too painful to navigate.
Mason remained silent for a long time before asking the question I feared most. “So did my dad abandon me, or did you hide me from him?”
Before I could answer his heavy question, the doorbell suddenly rang through the quiet apartment.
I checked the wall clock and saw that it was already past nine in the evening.
I approached the front door cautiously and looked through the small peephole.
Lucas was standing in the dimly lit hallway outside, but he was not alone.
A woman stood directly beside him, and I recognized her face instantly as Alyssa.
When I noticed the thick document folder she held in her hands, I realized our past contained secrets I had never even imagined.
PART 3
I unlatched the safety chain and opened the door just a few inches. “Why are you here at this hour?”
Lucas looked deeply uncomfortable standing in the narrow hallway, while Alyssa stepped forward holding a beige folder. “Nora, we truly need to speak with you.”
My body tensed instantly at her voice. “I will not have this conversation in front of my child.”
Mason suddenly appeared right behind me in the entryway. “Mom, it is okay, I am right here.”
Lucas caught sight of the boy and took a step back, looking almost terrified of causing harm. “I am so sorry, Nora, I should not have shown up unannounced like this.”
“Then please leave right now,” I demanded firmly.
Alyssa quickly intervened before I could close the door. “Nora, I was the one who asked him to bring me here.”
I stared at her in disbelief, wondering why the woman who had haunted my marriage was standing at my doorstep.
“You have two minutes to explain yourselves,” I said, stepping out into the hallway and pulling the door shut behind me.
Alyssa opened the beige folder to reveal printed emails, financial statements, and text records from nearly ten years ago. “When I returned from London years ago, Lucas foolishly assumed I wanted to restart our past romance.”
Lucas lowered his head in silence as she spoke.
“That was never my intention,” Alyssa continued honestly. “My father was critically ill, and I only returned because I desperately needed help managing our family enterprise.”
I felt a confusing mix of lingering anger and deep disbelief. “He walked away from our marriage to rush to the airport for you.”
“I know he did,” Alyssa acknowledged sorrowfully. “I am not going to pretend I was completely innocent back then, because I was selfish and enjoyed his support while I was scared.”
I kept my gaze fixed on her as she turned a page in the file.
“However, when I realized he had actually finalized a divorce, I asked him for the real truth,” she explained. “Three weeks after your separation, Lucas confessed he wanted to try building a future with me, but I refused him immediately.”
She handed me a printed email dated months after my departure.
I scanned the short paragraph where Alyssa had written clearly to Lucas that their past feelings were dead and that he should never have destroyed his marriage over a memory.
“Why are you bringing all these old records to me today?” I asked, looking up from the paper.
“Because Lucas called me in complete panic after the school ceremony today,” Alyssa explained softly. “He was beside himself after discovering he had a nine-year-old son, so I brought him these records to remind him of what really happened.”
She pulled out a printed transcript of a message sent by Lucas’s mother, Victoria Albright, just four days after our divorce.
The text clearly showed his mother encouraging him to move on with someone from a wealthy family and warning him never to answer if I ever came looking for more money.
Directly below it was Lucas’s short reply: It is completely over, and I do not want to hear her name ever again.
My stomach churned at the familiar cruelty of his family. “His mother always disliked me, so this changes nothing.”
“Please read the rest of the file,” Alyssa urged gently.
She showed me a bank transfer receipt dated six months after our divorce, showing a massive payment made to a private investigation firm.
I looked directly at Lucas in confusion. “What is this payment for?”
“I hired them to search for you,” Lucas confessed quietly.
