C14 THE REAL FATHER IS BACK

I put it on speaker with a trembling finger.

Alexander's head snapped up. He stared at my phone. Leo was asleep on his chest, drooling a little on his $800 shirt. He didn't care. For the last six months, since Chapter 13 "The Man Who Stayed," Alexander had stayed. Even though I told him Leo was not his, even though I told him Daniel left me, even though I told him I was damaged goods. He stayed.

"Ms. Miller? Are you still there?" The woman's voice was cold and professional. Not Dr. Patel. Not nice.

"Yes, yes I'm here. What error? What discrepancy?" I was whispering even though Leo was asleep.

"As I said, this is St. Mary's Hospital, Records Department. This is Mrs. Jenkins. We need you to come in tomorrow 9 AM with your son. The audit was triggered because the father on the birth certificate, Mr. Daniel Miller, came back yesterday and filed a formal complaint and requested a paternity test and a record correction."

My blood which had already gone cold, went frozen.

Daniel Miller.

My ex-husband. Leo's father on paper. The man who left when Leo was three months old because he said and I quote, "Sarah, that baby doesn't look like me, you cheated on me while I was in Mombasa, I'm not raising another man's bastard." And then he disappeared. No child support. No calls. His phone went off. His mother said he went to Dubai.

Now he was back.

Alexander slowly stood up, still holding Leo, and his face changed. I had seen that face only once before, when he found out his business partner had tried to steal from his company. Ice. Pure ice.

"He's back?" Alexander asked into the phone, his voice dangerously low. "Daniel Miller is back in town?"

"Who is this? Is this Mr. Miller?"

"This is Alexander Sterling. Ms. Miller's partner. What exactly did Daniel Miller claim in his complaint?"

A sigh, papers shuffling.

"He claimed that according to our original lab file from March 3rd, 2023, the night his son was born, there is a biological impossibility. Mother Sarah Miller, Blood Type O positive. Father Daniel Miller, Blood Type O positive. Child Leo Miller, Blood Type AB positive. He says this proves the child is not his and he wants his name removed from the birth certificate and he wants a refund of the hospital fees he paid that night."

I sat down hard on the sofa. My legs couldn't hold me.

O and O cannot make AB. Every high school student knows that. I am O. Daniel is O. How is Leo AB? Dr. Patel told me at birth Leo was AB and I just said "Oh cute, he got a special blood type!" and no one questioned it. I was too tired from 20 hours of labor to question it.

"And there is more, Ms. Miller," Mrs. Jenkins continued. "Mr. Miller is not coming alone tomorrow. He is coming with a lawyer. And he is coming with... his new wife. Who is also pregnant. He says he needs the correction for his new child's documents."

His new wife. Pregnant.

Daniel left me for being a "cheater" and now he is back with a pregnant new wife, wanting to erase Leo.

Leo woke up at that moment, maybe because Alexander's chest got tight with anger. He looked up with his big grey eyes.

Grey eyes.

Daniel has dark brown eyes. I have dark brown eyes.

Alexander has storm-grey eyes. The same storm-grey eyes Leo has had since he was six months old.

"Wait," I whispered into the phone. "The night Leo was born, March 3rd, 2023, was there anyone else? Was there another father there? In the waiting room?"

Mrs. Jenkins paused.

"Ms. Miller, I cannot disclose other patients, but... the audit shows that on March 3rd, 2023, at 11:47 PM, there were two births at the same time. Your son in Room 2, and another son in Room 3, to a mother named Claire Sterling. Same father blood type on that file: AB positive. Same nurse on duty, Nurse Akinyi, who has since admitted she was on hour 19 of a double shift and may have swapped the wristbands in the NICU for thirty minutes."

Claire Sterling.

My best friend Claire. Who gave birth the same night as me in St. Mary's. Who was in the room next to me, screaming at the same time as me.

I looked at Alexander. He was staring at Leo's grey eyes.

"Alexander," I said, my voice breaking. "On March 3rd, 2023, where were you at 11:47 PM?"

He didn't answer for a long time. He was remembering.

"I was at St. Mary's," he whispered. "Claire is my cousin's wife. I was in the waiting room with her husband. He was crying. I went to get him water from the nursery hallway. I passed the NICU. I saw two babies. One with a blue tag, one with no tag. The nurse was... she was asleep sitting up. She was exhausted."

He looked down at Leo.

"Sarah, what is my blood type?"

"AB positive," I whispered. "You're AB positive. You told me when you cut your hand."

"And Claire's husband... what is his blood type?"

"O positive," I said, remembering Claire complaining that her husband was O and she was worried about baby. "Her husband is O. She is O. Like me and Daniel."

Silence.

Two O parents in Room 2. Two O parents in Room 3.

One AB baby in Room 2. One O baby in Room 3.

Swapped.

But that is not the story. The story is - who is the AB father?

If Leo is AB, and I am O, his father MUST be AB or A or B. Daniel is O, so impossible.

Alexander is AB.

And Alexander was in that hallway at 11:47 PM.

"No," I said, shaking my head, tears pouring. "No, Alexander, we never... we didn't even know each other in 2023. We met last year, in 2025."

"I know," he said quickly, holding Leo tighter. "Sarah, I never touched you then. I swear."

But then the doorbell rang.

Loud. Insistent. Banging, not ringing.

Alexander carried Leo and opened the door.

Standing there, in a cheap Dubai t-shirt, with a pregnant girl behind him, with a lawyer holding a briefcase, was Daniel Miller.

The real father on paper. The man who stayed for three months and left. The man who is now back.

"Sarah," Daniel said, not even looking at Leo, looking at Alexander holding him. "I told you that kid wasn't mine. And now I have proof. And now I want my money back and my name off. And you," he pointed at Alexander, "you can have her and her bastard AB kid. Because AB is not from me. Everyone knows that."

Leo, terrified of the loud voice, started crying and buried his face in Alexander's neck and screamed, "Daddy! Daddy!"

He called Alexander Daddy.

Daniel's face twisted.

"See? He even knows you're not his father. He calls another man Daddy."

Alexander turned, so Daniel couldn't see Leo crying, and held him like a shield.

"He calls me Daddy because I stayed," Alexander said, his voice ice cold, billionaire cold, the voice that made men in boardrooms cry. "You left. You stayed three months. I stayed a year. I changed his diapers. I paid for his hospital when he had pneumonia. I read him bedtime stories. So who is the real father, Daniel? The man who gave sperm, or the man who stayed?"

Daniel stepped forward, fists clenched. The lawyer pulled him back.

"Tomorrow 9 AM, St. Mary's," Daniel spat. "DNA. We'll see who is real father. And if it's not me, you're paying me back every shilling."

He left. His pregnant new wife looked at me with pity, then followed him.

I collapsed on the floor.

Alexander knelt with Leo still in his arms, Leo now sobbing "Daddy don't leave, Daddy don't leave."

Alexander looked at me, grey eyes wet, and Leo's grey eyes wet, same eyes, and whispered:

"Sarah Miller, I don't care what DNA says tomorrow. I don't care if my blood type matches his. I don't care if Claire's baby is actually yours. That boy is my son. I am his real father. The man who stayed. Will you let me be?"

And for the first time since Daniel left, I believed a man would stay.