5!

MABEL

I charged towards them, running to get my son back before the press got in his face.

"Ethan!" I wailed, and my voice echoed through the house. I saw him as he gestured to the security to stop me.

As I got close, they held me back. "My son, don't take my son!"

Hailey looked back with a triumphant look on her face.

She got what she always wanted, my son and my husband. Somewhere in all of this, I realized I hadn't cried. Not once.

I looked at them as the guards held me. The press took pictures of the three of them. I gasped as I saw Ethan's hand on Hailey's waist.

If this was what he wanted all along, why kiss me last night?

Was that like a last kiss or something? How could he do this to me after everything we'd been through?

I jerked myself away from the security as I walked towards the kitchen. I wasn't going to leave until I had my son.

The perfect family portrait was happening in the garden. I could see them through the massive windows. Ethan, Hailey, and Jason.

Cameras flashing. Reporters smiling. Everyone eating up the perfect picture.

The perfect lie.

I sat at the kitchen counter, the unsigned divorce papers spread in front of me, watching through the window as they played happy family.

Ethan's hand never left Hailey's waist.

Jason, our son, laughing in Hailey's arms.

Everyone applauding the heir to the Hoss empire.

My chest felt hollow. Like someone had reached in and scooped out everything that mattered.

"Mabel Hoss?"

I looked up. A courier stood in the doorway, holding an envelope.

Not from any delivery service I recognized. No return address.

Just my name, written in sharp, precise handwriting.

"Sign here," he said, offering me a clipboard.

I signed without thinking, and he was gone before I could ask any questions.

I stared at the envelope in my hands. It was thick. Official-looking.

My fingers trembled as I tore it open.

Inside: DNA test results.

Three names listed at the top: Mabel James-Hoss. Jason Hoss. Hailey Brooks.

My vision blurred as I scanned down to the conclusion.

Probability of Maternity (Mabel James-Hoss and Jason Hoss): 0%

Probability of Maternity (Hailey Brooks and Jason Hoss): 99.9%

The paper slipped from my fingers and floated to the counter.

No.

No, no, no, no….

I grabbed it again, reading it over and over, hoping the words would change.

They didn't.

Jason wasn't mine.

Jason was Hailey's.

Biologically. Scientifically. Undeniably.

My hands started shaking so badly I had to grip the edge of the counter to stay upright.

"How is this possible?" I whispered to the empty kitchen.

I looked back out the window at them in the garden. Hailey and Jason were playing, like mother and son.

Because they were.

"Oh my goodness. I have been such a fool."

My eyes met Ethan's across the lawn. He was playing with them, with Hailey and their son.

Their son.

He knew.

He had to know.

How long? Since birth? Since the hospital?

Had they been lying to me this entire time?

The hospital. That feeling. That wrongness when they handed me the baby.

The kind nurse who disappeared.

The different woman with the tight smile.

The anonymous messages. The security footage of the babies being switched.

It all made sense now.

They took my baby from me.

And they gave me Hailey's.

A sob caught in my throat, but I swallowed it down.

No. I wouldn't cry. Not for them. Not anymore.

I grabbed a pen from the counter. My hand didn't shake anymore.

I signed the divorce papers. Every single page. My signature is bold and clear.

Then I folded the DNA results and tucked them into my purse.

Evidence. Proof. Ammunition.

I walked to the window one last time, standing where they could see me if they looked.

Ethan glanced up. Our eyes met across the garden.

I didn't cry. Didn't scream. Didn't break.

I just held up the signed divorce papers against the glass.

Then I mouthed two words:

I know.

His face went white. The smile dropped from his lips.

Good.

Let him panic. Let him wonder what I knew. Let him feel even a fraction of the fear I'd felt for the past six months.

I turned away, grabbed my purse, and walked toward the front door.

Claire appeared in the hallway, blocking my path. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Out of your house," I said coldly. "Out of your family. Isn't that what you wanted?"

She raised an eyebrow. "The papers are signed?"

I pulled them from under my arm and threw them at her feet. "Every single page. You won. Congratulations."

For a moment, something flickered across her face. Surprise, maybe. She hadn't expected me to go quietly.

"Good," she said, recovering quickly. "Then you can leave through the back. We don't need you making a scene in front of the press."

"Don't worry," I said, stepping around her. "I wouldn't dream of embarrassing the precious Hoss name."

I walked past her, my heels clicking against the marble floor.

Each step felt lighter than the last.

I was leaving with nothing. No son. No husband. No family.

But I was leaving with something they didn't know I had.

The truth.

As I reached my car in the driveway, I pulled out my phone and looked at the DNA results one more time.

Jason wasn't mine.

But that meant somewhere out there, my baby existed.

The baby I gave birth to. The baby they took from me.

The baby I thought was Jason.

Where was he?

Who had him?

Was he safe? Was he loved?

I climbed into my car and sat there for a moment, hands gripping the steering wheel.

The rage that had been simmering beneath the surface for six months finally erupted.

They stole my child.

They made me think I was a failure, a terrible mother, when all along they had taken my baby and replaced him with Hailey's.

Every sleepless night. Every moment of self-doubt. Every time I wondered what was wrong with me.

It was all a lie.

A calculated, cruel, deliberate lie.

I looked back at the house one last time. At the garden party still in full swing. At the family I'd been pushed out of.

"You took everything from me," I whispered. "But I'm going to find him. I'm going to find my son."

I started the car and pulled out of the driveway.

I didn't know where I was going. I didn't have a plan.

But I had something now that I didn't have an hour ago.

Purpose.

They thought they'd broken me. Thought they'd won.

But they'd just made the biggest mistake of their lives.

Because now I know the truth.

And I was going to burn their perfect little world to the ground.

One way or another, I would find my baby.

And when I did, God help anyone who tried to stop me from taking him back.