Chapter 3 - THE NAME ON THE CONTRACT.
Ethan called his attorney before confronting anyone else.
Sofia begged him not to.
“Please. Not yet.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
She sat in the library with Noah asleep against her shoulder.
“My name wasn’t Sofia Reyes on the paperwork.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What name?”
“Sofia Marquez.”
Her mother’s surname.
The surrogacy contract listed a woman named Sofia Marquez.
Ethan had never paid attention beyond medical reports and legal approvals.
His wife had managed most of the process before she died.
He opened the digital file.
There it was.
Sofia Elena Marquez.
Twenty-seven years old.
Healthy pregnancy.
No complications until delivery.
Ethan looked at the woman sitting ten feet away.
“You carried my son.”
Sofia’s tears began again.
“Yes.”
“Why are you working in my house?”
She kissed Noah’s hair once before answering.
“Because they told me I could never see him.”
“That was the agreement.”
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
“That was not the agreement I signed.”
Ethan stopped.
Sofia said the original arrangement allowed one supervised update each year if both sides agreed.
The final copy she received removed that clause.
She complained.
The agency stopped returning calls.
Then, three months after Noah’s birth, she saw an advertisement for a housekeeping position at the Cole estate.
“I only wanted to see if he was okay.”
Ethan stared at her.
“And you lied to get inside.”
“Yes.”
May you like
Then Sofia looked up.
“But someone lied to both of us first.”
