Nancy’s world is flipped upside down at her husband’s funeral when she sees an elderly woman holding a baby. The woman claims that the child she is carrying is Nancy’s late husband’s. Is she lying? Or will Nancy face even more devastating revelations?
Nancy examined the last traces of her husband’s burial service. She couldn’t believe Patrick had gone. He had d.i.e.d in an automobile accident. It had been a week, but she could still feel him close to her. How could he have died?
With a heavy heart, she walked toward the cemetery’s exit, telling herself she needed to start planning the rest of her life.
Suddenly, an older woman with a baby blocked her path.
“Are you Nancy?” the woman inquired, as the baby in her arms cried.
Nancy did not recognize her. Who was she?
“I am. Who are you?” Nancy responded.
Nancy’s heart was not prepared when Amanda revealed that the baby in her arms was Patrick’s child.
“Only you can look after this child now,” she told Nancy. “Her mother can’t provide for her.”
Nancy felt a shudder run down her spine. She backed away from the infant after staring at it.
“No, it can’t be! Patrick was a loving husband. He would never do this to me!”
Nancy turned around to leave. She never doubted Patrick.
“Watch out!”
Nancy ran into one of Patrick’s old acquaintances, Mike. She was too buried in her thoughts to observe where she was going.
Mike began conversing with her, expressing his sympathy. Nancy didn’t want to talk to anyone, but she had to show courtesy. She finished the talk as fast as she could and went to her car.
The baby’s ideas echoed in her head, but she rejected them. Nancy was astonished when she unlocked her car door. The same baby lay wailing in the back seat.
Nancy looked around. Amanda was nowhere to be found. “How did this baby even get here?” she asked.
It was cold, so Nancy took off her jacket and began wrapping it around the child.
However, she froze when she observed a birthmark on the baby’s neck. “It can’t be,” she said to herself.
The birthmark was identical to Patrick’s. Nancy did not want to suspect her late husband of infidelity. But now she needed the truth. She needed to know whether Patrick had been unfaithful to her.
Nancy drove home with the infant, removed Patrick’s hair strands from his hairbrush, and visited a hospital.
“Hello, I’d like to get a paternity test done,” she told the receptionist at the counter.
“OK, ma’am. Normally, it takes a few days to get the results,” the woman said.
“Can it be done quicker?” Nancy asked. “I’ll pay extra.”
“Well, we do have expedited service. Let me see what I can do. But it will cost you more.”
“I’ll take it,” Nancy responded. She turned in Patrick’s samples and paid for the test.
Sitting in the corridor, she was waiting for the results when the baby began crying. Nancy sniffed the baby’s clothing. Her diaper did not require a change.
Nancy assumed she must have been hungry. There was still time before the results arrived, so she drove to the grocery store and purchased baby formula, bottles, and a few diapers in case she needed them.
She returned to the hallway and sat down to feed the baby the formula. After what felt like an age, a nurse approached her with the results.
The woman handed her an envelope before walking away.
“This is the truth, and I’ll have to accept it whether I like it or not,” Nancy thought as she opened the results.
Her head spun as she read the words, “Paternity rate – 99%.”
Nancy swallowed her tears as she looked at the sleeping baby in her arms. Patrick had ch.e.a.t.e.d and kept her in the dark.
Nancy felt she couldn’t live with the evidence of his infidelity forever. She would locate the baby’s mother and return the infant to her.
Nancy drove home and started rummaging through Patrick’s belongings after gathering her thoughts. But she couldn’t locate anything that led her to his lover. She then went to his office and searched the drawers, folders, and cabinets. But there’s nothing.
Nancy sighed. The infant slept in the living room. She grabbed the baby monitor and hurried to Patrick’s car. She looked under the seats, in the glove compartment, and in every corner and cranny of the car. But she found nothing important.
Nancy slipped into the driver’s seat as her gaze fell on the GPS. And suddenly it struck her. Patrick was poor at following directions and always utilized the navigator. If he had ever been to his mistress’ place, she would know where to find her address.
Nancy moved straight to recent destinations on the navigator. The list was short, and largely included of recognizable locations such as local restaurants, the hardware shop, and Patrick’s office. However, one address struck her attention—it showed more frequently than others, and she didn’t recognize it.
“This is it,” she thought. She took the baby with her and drove to the address.
***
Nancy arrived and found herself in front of a small house. She gathered the kid into her arms, marched to the front door, and knocked.
“Hello? Anyone home?” she asked.
Nancy concluded that the house was empty after the tenth knock and no one opened the door. She looked around before deciding to approach the neighbors. She began with the house next door, ringing the doorbell.
The door creaked open, and Nancy’s eyes widened as Amanda came out.
“You?” Nancy asked.
“How…how did you find me?” Amanda stuttered.
“I was trying to find my husband’s…” Nancy paused. “His other woman. I wanted to return her baby.”
A strange sadness flashed across Amanda’s face. “The woman who lived next door… d.i.e.d a few days ago. She had a heart attack when she learned about your husband’s acc:ident. Emma is no more.”
“Wait…did you say Emma?” Nancy asked, shocked.
“Yes,” Amanda nodded. “Did you know her?”
“Was…Was her last name Warren?”
When Amanda nodded, Nancy dropped her head in shame. “Can-Can I come inside?” she asked. “There’s something I’d like to tell you. I feel I could use some talk.”
Amanda opened the door wider for her, and Nancy stepped inside. They settled in the living room. “Emma was my classmate,” Nancy began recounting her past. “She was also my friend. But I wronged her and…Patrick…”
20 years ago…
Nancy and Patrick were in the school’s corridor. She was standing by her locker when Patrick approached her.
“Hey, Nancy,” he said quietly, and she looked at him.
“I…I need to tell you something,” Patrick added anxiously.
“Hey,” she smiled. “Yes?”
“I…I’m in love with someone else, Nancy,” he confessed. “I know you’ve been really kind and everything, but I’m sorry.”
Nancy was sh0cked. “Tell me it’s a joke, Patrick,” she cried. “You can’t be serious!”
But Patrick was serious. Patrick was madly in love with Emma, and she loved him back.
Nancy was so upset that day that she came home in tears.
“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Her mother was instantly aware that something had transpired at school.
Nancy sobbed as she told her about Patrick’s breakup with her.
“I want to break them up!” she yelled. “I won’t let them be together!”
“Nancy, you won’t be able to create your own happiness by destroying someone else’s,” her mother advised her. “ʀᴇᴠᴇɴɢᴇ is never an option. Forget about him.”
But Nancy was driven by the urge for vengeance.
Nancy did everything she could to push Patrick and Emma apart over the next few days, spreading ridiculous stories, planning coincidental run-ins when she’d display her newfound confidence, and even resorting to sending anonymous messages to incite envy.
Unfortunately, nothing worked. Emma appeared pleased, engrossed in her and Patrick’s world, while Nancy was left on the outside, her plans shattering around her.
But Nancy was not the one who gave up. One night, she had a perfect idea to cause a rift between Emma and Patrick.
“Hello, Nancy, how are you?” Nancy visited Patrick, and the door was answered by this mother.
“I’m fine, Mrs. White. Is Patrick home?”
“Yes, dear. Let me get him.”
Patrick was confused to see her on his doorstep. “Nancy? What’s going on?”
“I know this will come as a sh0ck to you, Patrick, but…I’m-I’m pregnant!” she announced.
Patrick was sh0cked and terrified. “What…but…Are you sure?”
When she nodded, Patrick invited her inside. She told him that she hadn’t told her parents yet because she was terrified. Nancy stated that her father would undoubtedly oppose it and compel her to terminate the pregnancy. So she begged Patrick not to tell anyone about it and observed how readily he fell for her deception.
Patrick was a responsible person. Nancy was aware of that. He grabbed her hands and stated, “I’m the child’s father, so I’ll take the responsibility for our baby. And yes, don’t worry; this will stay between us.”
Present-day…
“I used him. I lied to him. I wasn’t pregnant,” Nancy told Amanda. “I was hurt, and I couldn’t stand losing him to Emma. So I told him a lie that changed everything. He was ready to step up, leave Emma, and be…a father.”
“Lies ruin everything, dear,” Amanda shook her head. “And what after that? Did he never find out the truth?”
“He didn’t,” Nancy revealed. “I kept up the act, the morning sickness, the whole thing. But after a couple of months, I…I couldn’t carry on with it. So, I told him there was a mistake with the test and that the doctor was wrong. And by then, Emma had…moved. She was heartbroken and had left town with her parents. Patrick and I stayed together. He never went back to her, never tried to find her. We just moved on. Or pretended to…” Nancy added, looking at the sleeping baby in her arms. Now she knew Patrick had returned to Emma.
“And I guess it’s time to correct what I couldn’t back then,” Nancy said and rose to her feet.
She was leaving Amanda’s house with the baby when the elderly woman stopped her.
“What are you going to do with the baby?” Amanda asked.
Nancy turned around and smiled at Amanda. “I will raise her as my own child. Maybe that’ll help me seek forgiveness from Patrick and Emma.”
Nancy followed through on her words. She reared baby Catherine with love. Nancy told Catherine everything about her history when she reached the age of 16. She was expecting Catherine to despise her. And she was ready for it.
Catherine smiled and added, “Nothing changes how I feel about you, Mom. You raised me. You were there for every scraped knee, every fever, every heartbreak. You’re my mom in every way that counts.”
Nancy cried quietly and cuddled her daughter. Catherine’s comments had not only soothed her heart but also convinced her that Emma and Patrick had forgiven her.