Later that afternoon, while Oliver slept peacefully in his room, Evelyn finally had a quiet moment to check her work.
She sat at her office desk, opened her laptop, and began scrolling through the crucial emails waiting for her reply.
She barely managed to read the first two messages when a sudden knock broke her focus.
Her eyes shifted to the time on the corner of her screen.
Only ten minutes had passed since she tucked Oliver in.
Her brows lifted. ’Did he wake up already? That fast?’
"Come in," she called.
Laura peeked into the room. Strangely, she carried no tray of snacks or fruit this time, which immediately put Evelyn on alert. No tray meant something unusual.
"Yes, Laura?" Evelyn asked.
"Ma’am... someone requests to see you."
Evelyn was surprised. Meetings were not part of her schedule today.
"Is it Eleanor and Andrew? Did they come earlier than planned?"
"No, ma’am."
"Then who?"
Laura hesitated a moment. "It’s Ms. Alicia."
Evelyn blinked. "Alice? With Stella?"
"No, ma’am. Alone."
That alone was shocking enough to make Evelyn sit straighter. Alicia never visited without her daughter. Alicia never visited unannounced. Alicia never did anything unplanned. So this, by default, was suspicious.
"Alright. Let her in. I will meet her in the living room."
Once Laura left, Evelyn grabbed her phone. She found a missed call from Alicia and a text she somehow overlooked.
"Eve, I’m on my way to your house."
"No warning? No explanation?" Evelyn muttered under her breath.
Before she could complain further, a notification popped up on the corner of her laptop screen.
She glanced at it.
Then she held her breath, and her eyes caught it.
The email subject read:
[Important Notice: The DNA test result: Match!]
Her pulse instantly quickened. She blinked and reread the words, half curious and half afraid they would disappear.
"Match? Someone matches my DNA..." Her voice trembled before fading to a whisper.
For a moment, she could only stare at the glowing subject line. She had been waiting months for this. She had sent her blood sample earlier this year in hopes of finding her maternal family. A family she had never known. A family that her mother and father never spoke about.
Her hand moved to click the email.
But before she could, her phone buzzed.
It was Alicia again.
"Eve, I’m here."
Evelyn’s breath was still shaky. Her heart hammered as if fighting its way out of her chest.
She wanted to open that email. She wanted to know who it was. She wanted to know everything.
Evelyn tried not to laugh. Not because it was funny, but because Alicia’s face showed pure horror, and laughing might terrify her even more.
"No, Alice. Lana did not try to kidnap me."
Alicia frowned. "If not you?"
"It was Stella..."
Alicia’s relief disappeared instantly. Her face became ghostly white. "Stella?"
"Yes." Evelyn nodded gently. "That bitch Lana tried to kidnap Stella."
Alicia pressed a hand to her chest as if she needed support to continue breathing. "Stella... so that bitch Lana tries to kidnap Stella?"
"Technically, an attempt to kidnap. She failed." Evelyn tried to soften it. "Also, she didn’t do it alone. Someone help her."
Alicia’s jaw dropped. Then her eyebrows furrowed in anger. "Stella! She could have told me that!"
In Evelyn’s mind, she could already imagine Stella rolling her eyes at her mother’s panic and refusing to explain anything.
Evelyn sighed softly and continued. "Maybe she didn’t want you to worry, Alice..."
"That girl is driving me crazy. She needs to tell me what bothers her. Especially something like this. Why is she silent about something this horrible?"
Alicia’s voice trembled, unable to hide her worry and anger.
"Don’t be upset with her, Alice. At least she’s okay now," Evelyn said with a smile to comfort Alicia.
"Yes, I feel relieved. But you should know, Eve, that I was prepared to go to the police station if anything had happened to you." Alicia’s smile finally returned.
Evelyn smiled again, but deep inside, her heart slowly pounded at the memory of the email waiting upstairs.
There was another truth she still needed to face. A truth she had been waiting for her entire life. A truth that could change everything.

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