My Lover Refused to Acknowledge the Newborn, but the Appearance of a Stranger Erased the Smile from Derek’s Face

On the third day after the child’s birth, Derek did not sign the birth certificate, while his pregnant lover stood beside me and smiled.

I stood barefoot in the corridor of the maternity ward and watched the sleeping baby behind the glass. Little Lea was wrapped in a pink blanket, her fist held near her cheek, and with every breath the blanket moved slightly. And I was still barely able to stand, the incision in my abdomen burned, and a blank line waited for the father’s name on the birth certificate.

“Derek, please, just sign,” I whispered.

He did not even look at our child.

“First I want a DNA test.”

I thought my ears had deceived me.

Then Brittany touched his arm.

Brittany.

The woman who had written on social media on the night I gave birth: “A new beginning together with the love of my life.” At that time I was looking at my phone between contractions and trying not to cry.

Now she stood in an expensive cream-colored dress, with one hand on her stomach.

“You know Lea is yours,” I told Derek.

He adjusted his wristwatch.

“Emma, don’t make scenes.”

“Scenes? You cheated on me during the pregnancy, brought her here, and now you are denying your own child?”

Brittany looked at the coffee cup.

“Derek has a lot to protect.”

“From what? From a newborn?”

“From mistakes.”

That word finally broke me.

“Get out of here.”

“Calm down,” Derek told me.

“Get out!”

My voice rang through the corridor. The nurse pressed the folder she was holding against her chest, while the elevator doors remained open. Derek grabbed Brittany by the arm, as if he were protecting her from me.

“I’ll sign after the test,” he said coldly. “Call me when you are able to think rationally.”

He did not look even once at the glass behind which his presumed child lay.

My knees gave way, but I grabbed the windowsill. I did not want to break down in front of him.

“He’s a coward,” a deep voice suddenly sounded behind me.

I turned around.

A tall man dressed in a black suit stood several steps away. He had a pale scar over his left eyebrow. Behind him stood another man, and the outline of a weapon hidden under his jacket was clearly visible.

All the nearby nurses suddenly looked away.

“You don’t know him,” I said quietly.

“No,” the stranger replied. “But I know men who abandon their children.”

There was something dangerous in his calmness. Not a loud threat, but a power that did not need proof.

“Who are you?”

Instead of answering, he looked toward the glass again.

Lea’s tiny fingers clutched the edge of the blanket.

The stranger changed at once. He did not calm down. It was as if he had recognized something.

He went to the reception desk and took the unfinished birth certificate from the trembling nurse. Then he took a heavy, silver-colored pen from his pocket. A small metal moon hung from the top of the pen—like the one I had seen on my mother’s necklace in childhood.

My heart stopped.

The man looked directly at me.

“I am Luka Moretti,” he said.

Then he shifted his gaze back to my child.

“And no child who has my blood will have a blank line where the father’s name should be.”

His hand moved toward the document, but before the pen touched the paper, a door opened at the end of the corridor and a woman dressed in black raised a folder…

The door opened all the way and the woman stepped into the corridor. She held a dark green folder, and a hospital stamp was visible on it.

“Mr. Moretti, this should not be opened yet,” she said.

Luka did not lower the pen.

“It must be opened now.”

“If you choose this path, there will be no going back.”

“For me, there has been no way back for a long time.”

I looked between them.

“Who are you? What is happening?”

The woman looked toward me, but Luka answered.

“Emma, Derek knew that the child might not be his.”

Something caught in my throat.

“What are you saying?”

“He knew that I had known you before you were with him.”

The sounds of the corridor seemed to go silent all at once. For the first time I saw pain on Luka’s face.

“On the night when you said you wanted a new life with Derek, I disappeared. You did not know who I really was. You did not understand either why the whole city was looking for me.”

The woman with the folder came closer to me.

“The test result is ready.”

Luka nodded.

“Open it.”

The woman checked the lock with her fingers, but just then Derek’s phone rang in the corridor. The ringing was so loud that everyone looked toward him.

Derek looked at the screen and his face changed.

“This is impossible,” he whispered.

Brittany grabbed his arm.

“What happened?”

Derek did not answer. He only looked at Luka, then at the folder, and finally at me.

“Emma, you have no idea who you are standing with.”

Luka took one step forward.

“No, Derek. You have no idea who you signed against…”

“…and what you would do on the day the truth became clear,” Luka finished.

The woman opened the green folder. The smell of fresh ink came from inside the paper. And I leaned against the wall, because I was already realizing that my life was tied to those few pages.

“Lea’s blood was used as the child’s biological sample,” the woman said. “The second sample belongs to Luka Moretti.”

Derek laughed loudly, but the laughter stopped immediately.

“This is forged.”

“The laboratory had three independent observers,” the woman replied. “The result is this: Luka Moretti is Lea’s biological father, with a probability of ninety-nine point nine percent.”

My hands began to tremble.

“No…” I said. “I didn’t know.”

Luka did not look toward me. His eyes were fixed only on the folder.

“I know.”

“Why didn’t you tell me when we were together?”

His jaw tightened.

“Because I wanted to protect you. At that time my surname meant danger. And Derek knew everything. He knew I was alive, he knew I had been with you, and he knew the child might be mine.”

Brittany lost color.

“Derek, you said it was only a rumor.”

“Shut up,” he shouted at her.

“You told me that if Emma gave birth to the child, we would control the test ourselves.”

Derek raised his hand, but Luka’s guard immediately moved in front of him.

“Don’t raise your hand,” Luka said quietly. “This time all the cameras are working.”

Derek looked toward the glass. Lea was still sleeping peacefully, as if the lies of adults could not reach her world.

I turned to Luka.

“Then why did you come here? Only to write your surname?”

“No,” he said. “You should have learned the truth before this man had the chance to use you and your child.”

The woman with the folder took out a second sheet.

“There is another recording.”

Derek immediately shouted:

“No!”

His one word answered everything.

The woman turned on the phone. Derek’s voice sounded in the corridor, clear and cold: “If the child depends on me, I will take everything from Emma. She will have neither money nor the right to come near Luka.”

I could not believe my own ears.

Then his voice sounded once more: “Brittany, I’ll sign, but we’ll arrange it so that the test never reaches court.”

Brittany looked at Derek.

“Was that you?”

Derek could not answer.

Luka moved toward me.

“Now you must decide, Emma. Will you leave with me, or will you remain in the rules written by him?”

I looked toward the glass. Lea lay in the same pink blanket. For the first time I understood that the choice was no longer only about me.

Suddenly Luka’s phone rang. He listened to several words, and his face grew grave.

“What happened?” I asked.

He looked toward me.

“Derek has not yet told you that your house and bank accounts are no longer in his name. But that is not the worst news. The police have just found a video showing who changed Lea’s medical records on the night of her birth…”