\n
\u201c\u2026if we should tell him the truth now, or after it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at the screen, my heart pounding so loud it felt like it filled the room.<\/p>\n
The truth?<\/p>\n
What truth?<\/p>\n
My hands shook as I scrolled up, reading the earlier messages I wasn\u2019t meant to see.<\/p>\n
Her: \u201cHe still believes it. After all these years.\u201d<\/em> My chest tightened.<\/p>\n Stepped in.<\/p>\n I felt like the ground had disappeared beneath me.<\/p>\n When she walked into the room and saw my face, she froze. She knew.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is this?\u201d I asked, my voice barely holding together.<\/p>\n She tried to speak, but nothing came out at first.<\/p>\n Finally, she whispered, \u201cYou weren\u2019t supposed to find out like this\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFind out what?\u201d I snapped.<\/p>\n Tears filled her eyes. \u201cHe\u2019s not your stepson.\u201d<\/p>\n The words hit like a punch.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s yours.\u201d<\/p>\n Everything went silent.<\/p>\n All those years\u2026 raising him, loving him, believing I was just filling someone else\u2019s place.<\/p>\n \u201cYou left,\u201d she said to the empty space between us, as if speaking to her past. \u201cAnd when you came back\u2026 it was too late.\u201d<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know whether to feel betrayed\u2026 or broken.<\/p>\n Because the truth wasn\u2019t simple.<\/p>\n It changed everything.<\/p>\n And yet\u2026 it explained it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201c\u2026if we should tell him the truth now, or after it\u2019s done.\u201d I stared at the screen, my heart pounding so loud it felt like it filled the room. The truth? What truth? My hands shook as I scrolled up, reading the earlier messages I wasn\u2019t meant to see. Her: \u201cHe still believes it. After …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6254,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252\/revisions\/6254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Him: \u201cYou should\u2019ve told him sooner.\u201d<\/em>
Her: \u201cI couldn\u2019t. He stepped in when you didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n