Chapter 10 - Garrett Had to Face His Own Failure Too
Lorraine manipulated the test.
But Garrett had still accepted it.
That truth mattered.
Hannah told him to retest.
He delayed.
She said:
“Your mother controlled both samples.”
He answered:
“She wouldn’t fake something this serious.”
Hannah had looked at him with an expression he remembered now.
Not anger.
Disappointment.
After her death, Garrett could no longer apologize to her.
That became one of the hardest parts.
He had loved Theo regardless.
Changed diapers.
Stayed awake through fevers.
Learned which stuffed animal stopped his crying.
But inside himself, he had allowed a question to remain because confronting his mother seemed harder than living with uncertainty.
The new DNA report confirmed biology.
It did not erase the year Garrett spent letting Lorraine’s lie exist.
He promised himself Theo would never grow up hearing:
“I loved you even when I thought you weren’t mine”
as though that made Garrett heroic.
Theo had always been his responsibility.
May you like
The real failure was ever allowing someone else to convince him the child’s right to belong depended on a document.
---
