Chapter 10 - The Name on Leo’s Birth Certificate
Legal proceedings surrounding Leo took months.
Anna was his biological mother.
No biological father was listed.
She eventually revealed his identity.
David Chen.
An architect from Seattle.
Not criminal.
Not wealthy.
Not dead.
He had left after Anna told him she miscarried.
Another lie born from fear.
Anna contacted him.
He came to Chicago.
Adrian hated him immediately.
Not because David did anything wrong.
Because Leo smiled at him.
Mara noticed.
“You’re jealous.”
“No.”
“You’re glaring.”
“I have eyes.”
“Dangerously.”
David was kind.
That made it worse.
He wanted involvement.
Anna agreed.
Adrian had no legal claim through biology.
Only through the fraudulent birth certificate naming him father.
He expected to lose Leo.
That fear nearly destroyed him.
One night he sat beside the crib.
“I don’t know what I am to you.”
Mara stood behind him.
“He knows.”
“What?”
“You’re the man who gets up at three.”
He looked at her.
“That’s enough?”
“For babies? More than blood.”
Adrian’s eyes filled.
The court eventually recognized the unusual circumstances.
Adrian did not remain legal father automatically.
He withdrew false claims voluntarily.
Then Anna and David did something unexpected.
They requested Adrian be named a permanent guardian figure with extensive custodial rights.
“Why?” Adrian asked.
Anna smiled.
“Because you’re his father too.”
David nodded.
“I don't need to erase you to become part of his life.”
Adrian looked at the man he had unfairly hated.
“Thank you.”
David smiled.
“You’re still terrifying.”
“Good.”
Leo’s official name became:
Nicholas Leo Ellis-Chen.
Adrian protested the absence of Moretti.
Then stopped himself.
Mara laughed.
“Growth?”
“Painful growth.”
May you like
Privately, everyone still called him Leo.
He answered to all of it.
