The room froze.
Diane stood up so fast her chair scraped the floor. “Don’t you dare,” she snapped. “Not here. Not now.”
Richard closed his eyes for a moment.
Then opened them again.
“No,” he said quietly. “Especially now.”
Caleb stepped forward. “Dad… what are you talking about?”
Richard swallowed.
Then he said the one sentence that shattered everything I thought I knew.
“Caleb isn’t your father’s son.”
Silence exploded.
“What?” Diane’s voice came out sharp, almost feral.
Richard didn’t look at her.
“He’s mine,” he said. “But not the way you think.”
My heart dropped.
Hard.
“What does that even mean?” Caleb demanded, his voice rising.
Richard ran a shaking hand over his face.
“Years ago… before you were born…” he started, looking at Caleb, “your mother and I… we couldn’t have children.”
Diane’s eyes burned into him. “We fixed that.”
“No,” Richard said. “You forced that.”
The room tilted.
Richard looked at me again.
Then at the babies.
