Ethan Lancaster stared at the twins for so long that Luna finally leaned toward her brother.

“Leo.”

“What?”

“Maybe Mom gave us the wrong dad.”

Ethan’s expression changed.

Leo studied him seriously.

“No. His face matches.”

The assistant standing near the door immediately looked away to hide a smile.

Ethan had negotiated acquisitions worth billions without blinking.

Yet two five-year-olds had reduced him to silence in less than five minutes.

Finally, he sat opposite them.

“Where is your mother?”

Leo opened his backpack.

“Unavailable.”

Ethan’s eyebrow twitched.

“What does that mean?”

“It means she doesn’t want to talk to you.”

Luna nodded enthusiastically.

“Mom changed her number.”

Ethan slowly closed his eyes.

Of course she had.

“What did Sofía tell you about me?”

The twins exchanged glances.

“Not much,” Leo answered.

That somehow hurt more than hatred would have.

Luna began counting on her fingers.

“She said you work too much.”

“One.”

“You don’t know how to take care of children.”

“Two.”

“You probably think money fixes everything.”

“Three.”

“And…”

She hesitated.

Ethan leaned forward.

“And?”

“Mom said we shouldn’t blame you for something you didn’t know.”

Ethan went still.

Even after raising his children alone for five years, Sofía had never taught them to hate him.

He suddenly remembered the last night he had seen her.

Rain against the windows.

His anger.

Sofía standing near the door with a suitcase.

And his own voice:

“I regret having met you.”

He had believed she left because she wanted his money.

Three days afterward, five million had disappeared from an account he had once opened for her.

That had confirmed everything in his mind.

Except now Leo pulled a folder from his backpack.

“Mom said you might ask about this.”

Ethan opened it.

His expression changed instantly.

Bank statements.

The five million had never been withdrawn by Sofía.

The money had been transferred by someone else using authorization from the Lancaster family office.

The recipient’s surname made Ethan’s face turn cold.

Lancaster.

His mother.

He stood immediately.

“Take the children to my office.”

His assistant hesitated.

“Sir, you have the board meeting—”

“Cancel everything.”

Twenty minutes later, Ethan was driving toward the Lancaster family estate.

His mother, Margaret Lancaster, was drinking tea when he entered.

“Where is Sofía?”

The cup stopped halfway to her lips.

“So she came back.”

Ethan threw the bank statements onto the table.

“You told me she took five million and disappeared.”

Margaret’s face remained calm.

“She was unsuitable for you.”

“That wasn’t my question.”

“She was pregnant.”

The room became silent.

Ethan’s hands slowly curled into fists.

“You knew?”

“I suspected.”

“You knew.”

Margaret looked away.

“She refused to tell you.”

“Why?”

“Because after your argument, she believed you hated her.”

Ethan laughed once.

There was no humor in it.

“So you transferred the money.”

“I wanted you to stop searching.”

“And you let me believe she sold our relationship for five million.”

Margaret finally raised her voice.

“I was protecting you!”

“From what?”

“From a woman who would have tied you down with children!”

Ethan stared at her.

Then he spoke quietly.

“Those children are currently sitting in my office.”

Margaret turned pale.

For the first time, her composure vanished.

“Children?”

“Twins.”

He stepped backward.

“A boy and a girl.”

His mother’s lips trembled.

“Ethan…”

“You stole five years from all four of us.”

He turned toward the door.

Margaret called after him.

“What are you going to do?”

Ethan stopped.

“Learn what their mother had to learn alone.”

The first night nearly destroyed him.

Luna refused to eat anything green.

Leo claimed he wasn’t tired and fell asleep sitting upright fifteen minutes later.

Ethan discovered that knowing how to manage twelve thousand employees provided surprisingly little assistance when trying to convince a five-year-old girl to brush her teeth.

At 2:13 a.m., Luna appeared beside his bed.

“I had a bad dream.”

Ethan sat up immediately.

She held out both arms.

He froze.

Then carefully lifted her.

Luna rested her head against his shoulder.

“Mom usually sings.”

“I can’t sing.”

“Mom can.”

“I’m sure she can.”

“She also makes pancakes shaped like rabbits.”

Ethan looked toward the ceiling.

Naturally.

By the fourth day, his executive calendar contained entries that would have shocked every shareholder in Lancaster Group.

7:00 — breakfast.

7:30 — find Luna’s missing shoe.

8:10 — school.

16:30 — Leo swimming.

18:00 — vegetables negotiation.

20:30 — bedtime.

On the sixth day, Leo became sick.

Nothing serious.

Just a fever.

But Ethan sat beside his bed all night.

At three in the morning, Leo opened his eyes.

“Dad?”

It was the first time he had called him that.

Ethan’s throat tightened.

“I’m here.”

Leo stared at him sleepily.

“Mom used to stay awake like this too.”

“How often?”

“When we were little? A lot.”

Ethan looked down.

“Was there anyone helping her?”

Leo shook his head.

“Grandpa sometimes.”

Then the boy closed his eyes.

Ethan remained there until sunrise.

For the first time, five years stopped being an abstract number.

Five years meant hundreds of nights.

Thousands of meals.

Doctors.

Fevers.

Birthdays.

First words.

First steps.

Every memory Sofía carried that he never would.

On the tenth day, he finally found her.

Not because his investigators succeeded.

Because Sofía walked into Lancaster Group herself.

She wore a cream suit and carried a folder beneath one arm.

Employees stared as she crossed the lobby.

Ethan came downstairs personally.

Their eyes met.

Five years disappeared for one second.

Then Sofía looked past him.

“Where are my children?”

“At school.”

“Good.”

She handed him the folder.

“What’s this?”

“A custody agreement.”

His expression hardened.

“You’re taking them back?”

“Eventually.”

“You said two months.”

“And it has been ten days.”

“Exactly.”

Sofía smiled.

“So you’ve survived ten days.”

“I’m their father.”

“You’re learning to be their father.”

The distinction landed exactly where she intended.

Ethan lowered his voice.

“Sofía, I know about the money.”

She stopped.

“My mother confessed.”

For the first time, something changed in her eyes.

“I also know she knew you might be pregnant.”

Sofía looked away.

“I didn’t come back to discuss five years ago.”

“I did.”

“I don’t care.”

“I do.”

“That sounds like your problem.”

She turned.

Ethan caught himself before reaching for her arm.

Five years ago, he would have stopped her.

This time, he simply asked:

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Sofía stopped walking.

“When?”

Her voice was quiet.

“The night you said you regretted meeting me?”

Ethan said nothing.

“The morning your mother offered me money to disappear?”

Still nothing.

“Or three weeks later, when I discovered I was carrying twins and saw the announcement that you were engaged to Victoria Hale?”

Ethan’s head snapped up.

“What engagement?”

Sofía turned around.

Now she looked genuinely confused.

“The engagement your family announced.”

“I was never engaged to Victoria.”

“I saw the newspaper.”

“My mother arranged a business dinner. I rejected the marriage proposal that same night.”

Sofía stared at him.

Something cold passed through both of them.

Margaret hadn’t merely separated them.

She had built two different stories.

One for Ethan.

One for Sofía.

Each designed to convince them the other had moved on.

But Sofía recovered first.

“It changes nothing.”

Ethan’s face tightened.

“It changes five years.”

“No.”

She shook her head.

“It explains them.”

Then she looked directly at him.

“But explanations don’t return them.”

That evening, Ethan took the twins to Sofía’s mother’s house.

Luna ran straight into Sofía’s arms.

Leo tried to maintain his dignity for approximately three seconds before hugging her too.

Ethan stood at the gate watching them.

He finally understood something.

He had spent ten days believing fatherhood meant proving he deserved a place beside them.

Sofía had spent five years asking for no proof from anyone.

She had simply stayed.

Ethan turned to leave.

“Dad!”

He stopped.

Leo ran toward him carrying a drawing.

Four people stood beneath a badly drawn sun.

Mom.

Leo.

Luna.

Dad.

Ethan stared at it.

“You forgot this,” Leo said.

Ethan accepted the paper carefully.

“Thank you.”

Then Leo added:

“Tomorrow is Luna’s school performance.”

Ethan looked toward Sofía.

She said nothing.

The decision belonged to him.

“What time?”

“Three.”

“I’ll be there.”

And he was.

Not with flowers.

Not with bodyguards.

Not with gifts.

He simply arrived twenty minutes early and sat in the second row.

Then he kept arriving.

School events.

Doctor appointments.

Swimming lessons.

Birthdays.

He stopped trying to buy back five years.

He started earning tomorrow.

Two months later, I returned to collect the twins permanently.

Ethan handed me their backpacks.

Everything had been washed and carefully folded.

Even Luna’s impossible collection of hair ribbons had been organized by color.

“You learned,” I said.

“Barely.”

I almost smiled.

Then Ethan handed me another folder.

Inside were documents transferring the five million his mother had stolen back into an account under my sole control.

There was also something else.

A signed statement surrendering any attempt to use the Lancaster family’s influence against me in future custody decisions.

I looked up.

“You signed this?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because five years ago, everyone made decisions for you.”

His voice was quiet.

“I won’t do that again.”

For the first time since returning, I looked at Ethan without seeing only the man from that rainy night.

I saw Leo’s father.

Luna’s father.

A man who had failed badly.

And who finally understood that regret did not automatically earn forgiveness.

“Thank you.”

It was all I gave him.

And surprisingly, he accepted it.

Then Leo came running back into the room.

“Mom!”

“What happened?”

He was holding an old envelope.

“I found this behind Dad’s bookshelf.”

Ethan frowned.

“That isn’t mine.”

I took it.

My name was written across the front.

Sofía Reyes.

The handwriting belonged to Margaret Lancaster.

But the date was from five years earlier.

One week before I left Alden.

Inside was a medical report.

I read the first page.

Then the second.

My hands began shaking.

Ethan stepped closer.

“What is it?”

I couldn’t answer.

Because the report wasn’t about me.

It was about Ethan.

And according to the test performed five years earlier, Ethan Lancaster had been told he could never biologically father children.

Slowly, both of us turned toward Leo and Luna.

The twins were arguing over a toy near the window.

Ethan looked exactly as stunned as I felt.

Because if the report was real, there were now only two possibilities.

Either the twins were not Ethan Lancaster’s children…

or someone in the Lancaster family had falsified one final piece of evidence five years ago.

And judging by the signature at the bottom of the report, I already knew who had ordered it.