Chapter 6 - THE TRUTH BEHIND THE LULLABY|
Samantha agreed to the DNA test only after Franco signed a document promising that the results would remain private and that he would never use his position to force a custody arrangement.
Her own attorney reviewed the paperwork. The test was performed by an independent laboratory, with both adults present and the child's identity carefully protected.
Tyler treated the appointment as an adventure involving cotton swabs and stickers.
“Are they checking if I'm sick?” he asked.
“No, buddy,” Samantha said. “They're checking something about families.”
Tyler considered this.
“Like Grandma's hair?”
“Something like that.”
Franco sat several chairs away, hands clasped, his face giving nothing away.
Samantha knew he was frightened.
She recognized the signs because she had once seen him awake at three in the morning, staring at a dark kitchen window after a nightmare. Back then, he had told her that he sometimes dreamed of losing people before he even knew their names.
She had thought it was poetic nonsense.
Now she wondered how much of his life had been shaped by loss.
The results arrived four days later.
Franco asked Samantha to read them first.
She opened the sealed envelope in the safe apartment's kitchen. Tyler was at a nearby table drawing a bridge, and Luca was in the hallway speaking with a security guard.
The report confirmed paternity with a probability exceeding 99.99 percent.
Samantha read the sentence twice.
Then she sat down.
Franco did not reach for the paper.
“It's true,” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“You're his father.”
“Yes.”
“You could have told me who you were.”
“I should have.”
“You could have come back.”
“I should have.”
“You could have given me a chance to decide whether I wanted you in his life.”
Franco's jaw tightened.
“You're right.”
She stared at him.
“I prepared myself for you to defend every terrible thing you did.”
“I've spent six years finding reasons to defend them myself. I'm tired of hearing them.”
Samantha looked toward Tyler.
He was humming the melody again.
“Why does that song matter so much to you?”
Franco drew a slow breath.
“My mother sang it to me and my younger sister when we were children. My father was unpredictable. When the shouting started, my mother would take us into her room and sing until we stopped shaking.”
He paused.
“My sister died when she was nineteen. The song was the last thing she sang to me before she left for the hospital.”
Samantha's eyes softened.
“Nico hummed it when he couldn't sleep,” she said. “He told me it was the only thing that made him feel like a child again.”
Franco nodded.
“That was me.”
“You said you didn't have a family.”
“I was trying to protect you from mine.”
“By making sure I couldn't find you?”
“I thought if you knew nothing, they would have nothing to threaten you with.”
Samantha's voice trembled.
“You left me alone with a baby I didn't know how to raise, a job that barely paid for food, and a thousand questions about whether the man I loved was dead.”
Franco looked down.
“I know.”
“No, you don't. You don't know what it feels like to sit beside a crib at four in the morning and wonder how you're going to buy formula. You don't know what it feels like to pretend you're not hungry so your child can eat.”
He did not try to interrupt.
“I can't give you those six years back,” he said when she finished. “I won't pretend that money can repair them. All I can do is be here now and let you decide what that means.”
Tyler looked up from his drawing.
“Are you leaving?”
Franco turned toward him.
“No, buddy. Not unless your mom asks me to.”
Tyler nodded, apparently satisfied, and returned to his bridge.
Samantha wiped her cheeks.
“You don't get to call him your son in public yet. You don't get to take him anywhere without me. And you don't get to make promises you can't keep.”
“Agreed.”
“You will tell me the truth, even when it's ugly.”
“Agreed.”
“And if you ever disappear without explaining why, I will spend whatever it takes to make sure you never find us again.”
For the first time that day, Franco smiled.
“That's fair.”
He was about to say more when Luca entered holding a tablet.
“Boss, we have a problem.”
The screen displayed a live news broadcast. Brandon Wells stood outside a courthouse, announcing a new charitable initiative for disadvantaged children.
At his side stood a young woman holding a folder of documents.
Samantha recognized the face.
May you like
Her former landlord.
And the papers in the woman's hands appeared to be an application for emergency custody of Tyler.
