Chapter 4

Mom gasped and swayed. Dad caught her just before she hit the floor.

"Mom!" I rushed to her side.

"She's just overwhelmed," Dad said, his voice tight. He glared at Mark.

A man stepped out from the edge of the crowd. Quiet, unassuming.

Michael Davis. Mark's old college roommate. The one Mark always called a loser, a nobody.

The one who'd warned me about Mark, all those years ago. The one I hadn't listened to, in my first life.

Michael came to stand beside me. He offered Dad a supportive hand.

Just then, the doors to the patio opened.

Kevin and Kate swaggered in. Late, as usual.

Kevin was already on his phone, sneering at something. Kate was reapplying lipstick, looking bored.

"What'd we miss?" Kevin asked, not looking up.

"Your father was just finalizing some... family business," I said.

Kate finally looked at me, her eyes cold. "Don't call him our father in that tone. You're not our mother."

"No," I agreed. "I'm not."

Emily rushed to them. "My darlings! It's all over. We can finally be a proper family!"

Kevin grunted. Kate just rolled her eyes at Emily's enthusiasm.

Mom, recovering slightly, pushed herself up from Dad's support.

"How could you?" she whispered, looking at Kevin and Kate. "After everything Sarah did for you? She raised you! She loved you!"

Kevin finally pocketed his phone. He looked at me, a cruel smirk on his face, so much like his father's.

"Love? She just threw money at us. We knew she wasn't our real mom. We knew you were, Emily. Dad told us years ago."

"And we know about the money," Kate added, her voice sharp. "It's ours now. Rightfully."

The paternity tests Emily had so thoughtfully included with the divorce papers lay on the table. Proof, if anyone needed it, that Mark and Emily were their biological parents.

The crowd murmured again, a wave of pity washing over them, all directed at me. Poor Sarah. Duped and discarded.

I looked at Kevin, then at Kate.

"You're right," I said, my voice calm. "You're not my children. And I want nothing more to do with you."