The silence that settled over the room was so heavy, it felt like gravity itself had grown stronger. James's eyes flicked from the twins to Sarah and back again—twice—before they landed and stayed on the little boy, Liam. He was like a miniature version of him.
He stood still, almost statuesque, eyes wide and jaw still slightly unhinged. Robyn, still clinging to her mother's leg, giggled, while Liam, with curious eyes narrowed toward the unfamiliar man who introduced himself as their mother's friend, asked the question that shattered the calm like a thunderclap.
"Are you our dad?"
The words hung suspended in the air, loud and jarring, thudding through Sarah's chest like a sledgehammer. She opened her mouth to speak, but the dryness in her throat stunned her into silence. She kne
