“You’re wearing my clothes,” I replied. “Where are my photographs?”

“You weren’t supposed to return yet,” he said. “You were supposed to be gone until August.”

“How do you know that?”

He lowered his eyes.

“Because I arranged for you to leave.”

Part 2: The Son I Never Knew

The consulting job had seemed like incredible luck.

A company offered me a paid overseas project requiring my exact experience. Travel and expenses were covered, and the contract was supposed to last four months.

Now the stranger admitted the company was fake. He had created the job, funded my salary, and assigned meaningless work to keep me away.

“Why?” I asked. “Who are you?”

“My name is David Keller,” he said. “I needed to understand the man who raised the son you never knew existed.”

My legs weakened.

“I don’t have a son. I have a daughter named Emily.”

David asked whether I remembered Carol Merrick.

Carol and I had dated briefly when I was twenty-two. One day, she moved away without explanation. I later married, became a father, divorced, and continued with my life.

David told me Carol had been pregnant when she left.

She raised her child alone and told him his father was dead.

“You’re saying you’re my son?”

“I’m saying Carol was my mother,” he replied. “Whether you are my father is what I came here to discover.”