Julian: What did you just say to me, little girl?
Mia: Mommy has a photo of you in her room. It's in a silver frame next to her bed.
Julian: Who is your mommy? Tell me her name right now.
Mia: Her name is Clara. She works in the garden outside.
Julian felt the blood drain completely from his face, his eyes shifting away from the child to the trembling woman standing in the doorway.
Julian: Clara? You... you are working in my garden?
Clara: Julian... please don't be angry with her. She didn't mean to wander inside.
Julian: You told me five years ago that my baby daughter didn't survive the hospital!
Clara: I had no choice, Julian! Your mother threatened to take her away from me forever if I stayed in this city!
Julian: My mother? What does my mother have to do with my daughter?
Clara: She paid the hospital staff to forge the medical records while you were overseas on that business trip!
Mia looked back and forth between the two adults, her little brow furrowing in confusion as she held her bread roll tight.
Mia: Mommy, why are you crying? The nice man said I could eat with him.
Clara: Come here, Mia. Come to Mommy right now, sweetie.
Julian: Don't move a single step, Clara. Is this girl... is she my biological daughter?
Clara: Look at her eyes, Julian. Look at her hair. She has your exact features.
Julian dropped to his knees right beside the little girl's chair, his hands shaking violently as he looked closely into Mia's bright blue eyes.
Julian: Five years... I spent five years believing my child was gone. I grieved every single day in this empty mansion!
Clara: I grieved too! I lived in a tiny basement apartment two miles away, watching you on the news, wishing I could bring her home to you!
Julian: Then why didn't you come to my corporate office? Why didn't you call my private line?
Clara: Your mother forced me to sign a non-disclosure contract! She said if I ever approached you, she would use her high-powered divorce lawyers to strip my parental rights completely!
Julian: My mother had no authority to do that!
Clara: She had all the money, Julian! Back then, you were still under her financial control! You didn't take over the family trust fund until two years ago!
Mia: Are you my daddy?
Julian froze as the soft, tiny voice broke through the loud argument in the room.
Julian: Mia... do you know what a daddy is?
Mia: Mommy said my daddy lives in a big house with white walls and a big flag, but he was lost far away.
Julian: I wasn't lost, my sweet girl... I was just waiting for you without even knowing it.
Tears rolled down Julian's cheeks, dripping onto the sleeve of his beige suit as he gently reached out and cupped the little girl's small cheek.
Clara: I only applied for the estate gardening job last month under my maiden name so she could see where her father lived, Julian. I never planned for her to run inside.
Julian: I am glad she ran inside. Because if she hadn't, I would have spent the rest of my life living a complete lie created by my own mother.
Clara: What are you going to do now, Julian?
Julian: I am going to tear my mother's entire world apart piece by piece.