Chapter 9 - The Sailboat and the Star
Sterling moved to block the stairs, but Marcus roughly shoved the old billionaire aside.
Adrian slowly climbed the carpeted steps, terrified that any sudden movement would make the boy disappear like a ghost.
The boy named Thomas stepped back nervously, his green eyes darting between Adrian and Sterling.
"Who are you?" the boy asked, his voice cracking slightly.
Adrian stopped three feet away from him, completely overwhelmed by the sheer reality of the moment.
"When you were very little," Adrian began, his voice breaking violently.
"You had a wooden sailboat."
"You painted it blue with your mother on the back porch, and you refused to sleep without it."
The boy’s eyes widened slightly, a flicker of a deeply buried memory crossing his face.
"You had a chocolate Labrador named Buddy," Adrian continued, tears streaming freely down his face.
"He had a white patch on his chest shaped exactly like a jagged star."
The boy gasped softly, taking a hesitant step forward.
"I remember the dog," the boy whispered, his hands trembling.
"I drew pictures of him at the orphanage, but everyone told me he was just a dream."
Adrian reached out a shaking hand, desperately wanting to touch his son but terrified of scaring him.
"When you were three, you fell off the dock at the beach house," Adrian sobbed softly.
"You have a small, crescent-shaped scar on your left shoulder."
The boy slowly reached up, touching the fabric of his sweater exactly over his left shoulder.
He looked at Sterling, who was now weeping quietly at the bottom of the stairs, defeated.
Then, the boy looked back at Adrian, his bright green eyes filling with sudden tears.
"You never stopped looking for me," the boy whispered, his voice full of absolute wonder.
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"I will never stop," Adrian replied, completely breaking down.
Noah lunged forward, wrapping his arms around his real father for the first time in ten years.
