The city did not look different.
That was the cruelest part.
Cars still moved. People still crossed streets. Screens still flashed headlines about markets and scandals. Somewhere, someone was laughing.
And yet Aruna felt like the ground beneath everything had shifted.
The DNA report is real.
But that doesn’t mean the story is.
Adrian’s words replayed in her mind like a code waiting to be cracked.
Inside the car, Dante watched her carefully.
“You’re too quiet,” he said.
“I’m thinking.”
“About him.”
“Yes.”
Dante’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t interrupt.
Aruna stared out the window.
“If the report is real, then biologically he’s my father,” she said slowly. “But that doesn’t explain timing.”
“What timing?”
“He waited until now to reveal it. Not when I was weak. Not when I was
