Chapter 4: The Man Who Called Him Son
“Son, there's something about the night you were born that your mother has never told you.””
Thomas stood beneath the chapel's bright entrance, his charcoal-gray suit slightly wrinkled, his hands trembling at his sides. Sunlight illuminated the silver at his temples and the deep lines around his eyes. He looked neither like a wedding guest nor a stranger who had wandered into the wrong building.
He looked like a man who had spent years rehearsing a conversation he had never dared to have.
Adrian stared at him.
“Don't call me son.””
Thomas stopped.
Behind Adrian, Margaret pressed one hand against the altar to steady herself. Serena stood beside her fallen bouquet, tears streaking her cheeks, while Daniel Price held the brown envelope tightly against his chest.
Nobody in the chapel moved.
Thomas swallowed.
“My name is Thomas Reed.””
Adrian glanced at Daniel.
“Is he related to Marcus?””
“Yes,” Daniel answered carefully.
“Marcus is his son.””
Adrian turned back toward Thomas.
“So the man who kissed my bride is your son, and now you're standing here calling me yours?””
Thomas lowered his eyes.
“I know how this looks.””
“You have no idea how this looks.””
Adrian pointed toward the chapel doors.
“You walked into my wedding without an invitation. You know something about my birth. Your son was kissing Serena outside a courthouse yesterday. And you expect me to stand here and listen while you call me son?””
Thomas didn't defend himself.
That silence irritated Adrian more than an argument would have.
“Answer me!””
Thomas lifted his head.
“I came because I promised someone I would tell you the truth before your wedding day ended.””
Margaret made a strangled sound.
“You promised me you would never come near him.””
Thomas turned toward her.
“And you promised me he would never grow up believing a lie.””
Margaret's face twisted with pain.
“I was protecting him.””
“From what?”” Adrian demanded.
“From his own family?””
Thomas looked at him.
“From what happened in that hospital.””
Adrian stepped forward.
“Then tell me what happened.””
Thomas opened his mouth, but Margaret suddenly moved between them.
“No.””
Adrian stared at his mother.
“Mom, move.””
“Please, Adrian. Whatever he tells you, you need to understand that I had no good choices that night.””
Thomas shook his head.
“You had a choice.””
Margaret turned on him.
“You weren't there when they told me I could lose him!””
“And you weren't there when I spent years looking for the child I was told had died!””
The words exploded through the chapel.
A woman in the front pew began to cry.
Adrian felt his heartbeat pounding in his ears.
“Who died?””
Neither adult answered.
He looked at Thomas.
“Who was the child?””
Thomas's eyes filled with tears.
“Your twin brother.””
For several seconds, Adrian couldn't understand the sentence.
He heard the words. He understood each one separately. But together, they refused to make sense.
“My what?””
“Your twin brother,” Thomas repeated.
“You were born minutes apart. Two boys. Two healthy babies, according to the records I was shown.””
Adrian slowly turned toward Margaret.
She covered her mouth.
“You had a twin?””
Margaret nodded.
Adrian took a step backward.
“No. My mother would have told me.””
Thomas's voice softened.
“Your mother was frightened.””
“Stop explaining her choices!””
Adrian struck the side of the altar with his palm. The officiant flinched.
“You don't get to walk in here and tell me I had a brother who died without giving me proof.””
Thomas nodded.
“That's fair.””
He reached inside his jacket and removed a small, faded photograph.
“I've carried this since the day you were born.””
He offered it to Adrian.
The photograph showed two newborn boys wrapped in white blankets. One had a tiny dark mark near his left ear. The other had a faint line across his forehead.
Adrian stared at the picture.
Then he lifted his hand to his own forehead.
He had a thin scar there, barely visible beneath his hairline. He'd received it as a child when he fell against a coffee table. Margaret had always told him that.
“Why are you showing me this?”” Adrian whispered.
“Because I need you to look at the second boy.””
Adrian looked again.
The infant on the right had a small crescent-shaped mark behind his left ear.
Thomas touched the photograph.
“That was your brother.””
Adrian felt sick.
“What's his name?””
Thomas hesitated.
“His name was supposed to be Daniel.””
Daniel Price looked up sharply.
“No,” he said.
“My name is Daniel Price.””
Thomas glanced at the attorney.
“I wasn't talking about you.””
Adrian held the photograph so tightly that the edges bent.
“What happened to him?””
Thomas looked toward Margaret.
She was crying openly now.
“Ask her,” Thomas said.
Adrian's face hardened.
“I've asked her enough.””
Margaret stepped closer.
“Adrian, I was told your brother didn't survive the delivery.””
“By whom?””
“By a nurse.””
“Where was his body?””
Margaret squeezed her eyes shut.
“They told me he had already been taken away.””
“Did you see him?””
“No.””
“Did you see a death certificate?””
Her silence answered him.
Adrian shook his head in disbelief.
“You buried a child you never saw?””
“I buried what I was told was your brother.””
“And you never questioned it?””
“I did! I questioned everything. I called the hospital.
I demanded records. They told me the paperwork was complete.””
Thomas's voice cut through hers.
“Because someone had changed the paperwork.””
Daniel opened the envelope and removed another sheet.
“There's evidence that the hospital's original records were amended shortly after the delivery. I can't tell you why yet, but two infant identification numbers were assigned, and only one was listed in the final discharge paperwork.””
Adrian looked at the document.
“Who amended it?””
“We're still verifying the signatures,” Daniel said.
Thomas stepped closer.
“I know who signed the original form.””
Adrian stared at him.
“Then say the name.””
Thomas's lips trembled.
Before he could answer, Serena spoke.
“It was my father.””
Everyone turned toward her.
Thomas looked as if she'd struck him.
“Serena, you weren't supposed to know that.””
“I found the records!””
Adrian stared at his bride.
“You knew about my twin?””
“I found out six months ago.””
“And you still agreed to marry me?””
Serena began to sob.
“I didn't know what to do!””
“You could have told me!””
“I was afraid!””
“Of what? The truth?””
She shook her head.
“My father said that if I told you before we got married, everything would be taken away from us.””
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Taken away? What does that even mean?””
Serena looked at the photograph in his hand.
Then she whispered, “Your brother might still be alive.””
Thomas closed his eyes.
Margaret sank into the nearest pew.
Adrian turned slowly toward the older man.
“Is that true?””
Thomas's jaw tightened.
“I don't know for certain.””
“Then why did you come here?””
“Because yesterday, Marcus received a message from someone claiming to know where your brother is.””
Daniel immediately looked down at his phone.
“Who sent it?””
Thomas shook his head.
“The message contained one photograph and one sentence.””
Adrian stepped toward him.
“What photograph?””
Thomas reached into his jacket again.
This time, he produced a photograph of a grown Black man standing outside a brick building.
The man appeared to be in his mid-thirties.
He had Adrian's broad shoulders, Adrian's eyes, and the same distinctive scar-like line across his forehead.
Adrian's breath caught.
Beneath the photograph, someone had written a name.
*DARIUS REED.*
Thomas looked directly at him.
“If that photograph is genuine, your brother may have spent his entire life believing he was someone else.””
Adrian stared at the image.
Then his phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent him a message.
You want to know who your brother is? Ask Serena why she met him before she ever met you.
Adrian slowly lifted his eyes toward his bride.
Serena stopped crying.
And for the first time since the wedding began, she looked more frightened of Adrian than of the secret itself.
“Serena,” he said, “what have you done?””
She took one trembling step backward.
May you like
Then another.
And finally, she whispered, “I didn't know it was him.””
