#Chapter Eighteen: The Call

Agnes The phone felt like ice in my hand as I stood in the secluded clearing, my heart hammering against my chest. The words from the DNA testing center still echoed in my ears, but they didn’t make any sense. Thea isn’t your child. There is no biological connection between you. I wanted to scream. To deny it. How could that be true? I had believed in my bones that Thea was mine. I had been so certain. The instinctual bond I felt with her was too strong to be false, wasn’t it? And yet, science didn’t lie. I had no connection to the little girl I loved as my own. My legs buckled, and I reached out to steady myself against a tree. The world around me felt surreal, as though everything had shifted in an instant. How could my love for Thea—my fierce, protective love despite only having just met her—be based on nothing? I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to calm the panic surging inside me. Before I could make sense of the storm raging in my mind, a shrill laugh and a