Chapter 18
Mrs. Reed went completely still. She opened the test results Blake handed her and slowly read the bottom line-
[Based on current data and DNA analysis, Linda Reed is confirmed as the biological mother of Stella Parker.]
She shot up from the couch, gripping the paper with trembling hands.
“This is from five years ago? But back then it clearly showed…”
Blake cut her off: “rive years ago Sophia conspired with Dr. Thompson to switch the samples. He admitted everything. We’ve got proof.”
All the color drained from Sophia’s face.
Mrs. Reed looked like she’d been hit by a truck, her eyes filling with pure devastation.
Her voice broke with unbearable pain as she dropped to her knees, clutching the report, completely losing it.
Are you telling me… Stella…”
he could barely get the words out: “Are you saying Stella was my actual daughter?”
lake looked absolutely exhausted, his eyes welling up despite himself.
le nodded.
Irs. Reed took a shaky breath and managed to ask: “So what… what did I do?”
ive years ago when Stella was diagnosed with leukemia, she’d frozen all her bank accounts and kicked her out of the country to “atone for her sins.”
Then Stella had no money for treatment and called her in agony, she’d said: “Stella, I don’t give a shit if you live or die. You should go die like your trashy
other.”
Then Stella was literally dying, even though she could see how skeletal her once-precious princess had become, even though part of her felt sorry-
er heart was completely consumed by hatred.
he’d said the cruelest things to Stella, told her not to die in Riverside.
he didn’t even go to Stella’s funeral.
hat was her daughter. Her little girl who she used to stay up all night with when she had just a cold, making her soup.
ella had never suffered a day in her life growing up. And now… what had she done to her own daughter?
ophia’s face was ghostly white as she dropped to her knees in front of Mrs. Reed.
Mom… I’m so sorry…”
he started slapping herself hard across the face, over and over: “I’m sorry, I just wanted a family so badly.”
I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
ophia couldn’t think of anything else to say except sorry.
Her birth mom hadn’t died of leukemia-she’d drowned herself.
The night before she died, she drank a whole bottle of liquor and kept apologizing, saying she wished she’d actually gone through with switching Sophia with he Reed family…
That’s what gave Sophia the idea.
She’d been living in hell for so long, she was desperate for any glimpse of light.
Mrs. Reed pointed at Sophia, speechless for what felt like forever.
16:32
Dving? Perfect Now Watch Mr.
She just kept pushing her away. “Get out! Get the hell out!”
She collapsed to the floor, completely losing it: “My Stella, my baby…”
“What the fuck did my Stella ever do to you? Why did you ruin her life like that? If you’d just kept your mouth shut about your shitty past, we would’ve loved
her like our own!”
“You made us blame her for everything! How do you fucking sleep at night?”
“What was my poor Stella supposed to do? How did she make it through all those years…”
Blake turned to Sophia: “Even when she was dying. Stella was still apologizing to you. She kept saying all that trauma was supposed to be hers, but you got stuc with it.”
“She felt guilty about your life.”
When Sophia heard that, the tears just wouldn’t stop.
