Lydia and Steven had dreamed of having a child for a long time. They prepared meticulously for the arrival, focusing on their health and slowly beginning to pick out baby clothes and supplies.
Finally, their dream came true. Lydia became pregnant after several attempts. When she ran into Steven's home office, holding the positive pregnancy test over her head, their joy knew no bounds. During the third month, the expectant parents found out they were having a girl. Even then, passing by the displays of pink ribbons and baby blankets, Lydia couldn't restrain herself; she found herself buying almost everything in sight. Steven, for his part, loved to lean his ear against her stomach in the evenings and hum little songs he'd made up for his daughter. Sometimes, the sight of it brought tears to Lydia's eyes.
Eventually, the time came, and Lydia went into labor. It lasted for several hours; she was healthy but exhausted, yet when they placed her daughter in her arms, her strength seemed to rush back to her.
"Let's call her Veronica," Lydia whispered, smiling at her husband standing by the bed.
"I love it. It's a beautiful name. Well then, welcome to the world, Veronica!"
Mother and daughter needed to spend a few days at the maternity ward so the doctors could ensure they were both doing well. Lydia hardly noticed the days passing, completely lost in adoration of her beautiful daughter.
One afternoon, a nurse entered the shared room where Lydia, Veronica, and three other women with their infants were resting. She was carrying a baby in her arms—a child the young mothers hadn't seen before. They looked at the nurse in surprise.
"Ladies," the nurse addressed them, "yesterday evening, this beautiful baby boy was left here. Right by the dumpster. Fortunately, the little guy is doing fine, but he's still quite weak. We wanted to ask if you might be willing to help him—perhaps take turns nursing him from time to time?"
The women gasped, and one even began to cry. "How could someone do that?"
"Well... it happens. We learned the mother is a student living in a nearby dorm. She gave him up, so..."
"The poor little thing," the women murmured, hearts aching.
After the first appearance of "Luke"—the name the women decided to call him—everyone in the room started looking after him. One mother would feed him one day, someone else the next, but he was never left unattended or hungry. Together, they grew to love him as if he were their own.
One day, Steven came to visit his wife and daughter. He saw Lydia holding a handsome baby and didn't immediately realize it wasn't his daughter.
"Look at those beautiful eyes!" He walked right up to his wife and the baby, cooing at the infant. "Just precious."
Lydia laughed. "Honey, this isn't our girl. This is a little boy named Luke."
Steven looked at his wife in confusion, then back at the baby in her arms. "What do you mean?"
"They brought him to us a couple of days ago. His mother is a student. She abandoned him near the hospital, and the doctors found him. Can you imagine leaving a baby outside in this cold autumn weather? They asked us to help so Luke could get his strength up. The whole room is nursing him back to health."
Steven sat in stunned silence for a few minutes. He couldn't wrap his mind around it. "How can someone just leave a baby on the street? At least take him to a safe haven or an agency."
"Look how sweet he is," Lydia whispered, stroking Luke's head.
Steven nodded in agreement.
"Listen, since he doesn't have a family... maybe we should adopt him? What do you think? A baby shouldn't have to wait in the system for someone to come for him. Besides, the nurse said Veronica and Luke were born on the very same day. Isn't that something?"
Steven turned away, staring into the corner of the room for a long time. Finally, he spoke. "But Lydia, we don't know anything about his background. We don't know what health issues or history might be there. I'm not sure about this."
"Oh, Steven... don't you see he needs a family? What does 'history' matter? That's all nonsense. I want to give him love, care, and a home." She pulled the baby closer, showing her husband she had no intention of letting him go.
From the moment the boy had been brought into the room, she had loved him like her own.
"Please..." Lydia pleaded, looking him straight in the eyes.
Ultimately, Steven couldn't withstand his wife's determination and agreed. Within a few days, they were filling out the adoption paperwork. When Lydia and the children were finally discharged, Steven had to take on a second job to support the household. Their family had grown much faster than planned. Lydia stayed home to raise the children.
***
Veronica and Luke grew up inseparable. They shared toys and did everything together. Physically, the difference between them wasn't very noticeable, but as Luke grew older, some nosy neighbors began to gossip. Without any shame, they would suggest to Steven that Lydia must have had the boy with someone else. Steven never paid any mind to the whispers of the busybodies on the porch; he either shut them down or simply ignored them. The fact that Luke wasn't their biological son was a secret kept only by the parents, and that was more than enough. They told everyone else they had twins. A perfect pair of twins.
Time flew by. The children grew up quickly and were soon finishing high school. Both were planning for college—Veronica for dance education, as she had loved performing since she was a toddler, and Luke for mechanical engineering. In school, Luke always looked out for his sister, though he never went looking for a fight without a reason. They were good students and always helped each other with their homework. Their parents were incredibly proud of the people their children had become.
One day, Luke was walking home after his final exam, which had been grueling. He was walking under the hot June sun, exhausted from the mental effort, when he suddenly heard a raspy female voice behind him. Turning around, he saw a poorly dressed woman holding a cup for spare change.
"Excuse me, young man, could you spare..." Her voice trailed off when she saw the boy's face.
He was the spitting image of the man who had walked out on her eighteen years ago.
"What's your name, kid?"
Luke frowned, eyeing the woman cautiously, but gave his name anyway.
"And when were you born?"
"Why do you need to know that?"
"Just tell me, then you'll find out."
"Fine," Luke said, giving his birth date.
The woman narrowed her eyes. "And where's your mother? Is she home?"
"Where else would she be? She's probably making my favorite dinner right now."
"I see," the woman drawled, still staring at him pensively.
Luke handed her a few dollars and hurried away. The strange woman's questions had genuinely unnerved him.
"That was weird," he thought as he rounded the corner.
"It can't be," the woman whispered to herself as soon as the boy disappeared. "I couldn't have been that mistaken." She decided to follow him to see where he lived.
She caught up and followed him at a distance to a house the family had recently moved into. Watching him enter the building, she noted the address and was about to leave when she saw a woman coming out of a nearby grocery store with two bags of food. Deciding to push her luck, she approached her.
"Hello. Excuse me, but do you know the mother of the boy named Luke who lives here? He's about eighteen, tall, blonde hair?"
"Luke's mother? Well, that would be me. There's only one Luke in this building—my son."
"Really?" the woman asked, surprised.
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
"Tell me, where does Luke go to school?"
Lydia didn't like the intrusive questions. "Why are you asking for that information?"
"Does he have a brother or sister?"
"Look, lady, I don't know who you are, but I suggest you stay away from my son. I'm not answering any more questions." Lydia hurried toward the entrance, wanting to get away from this woman she assumed was mentally unstable.
As she opened the door and stepped into the foyer, she heard the woman call out:
"I'm the one who left my son at the hospital back then. I left him by the dumpster. Does my son know I'm his mother?"
Lydia froze in terror. She imagined her son's reaction to such news. The shock. She didn't want Luke to ever find out he had been found on the street or that his family wasn't his biological one. She slowly turned back toward the arrogant woman.
"What do you want?"
"What do you think? Money."
"I'll give you money if you forget where my son lives and forget he even exists."
The woman smiled. "Fine. I want five thousand dollars."
"Fine," Lydia exhaled. "I'll go get it. Come with me."
Lydia gripped the handles of her grocery bags tightly and headed up to her apartment. She was willing to do anything to prevent her son from learning the harsh details of his birth. The woman followed her, and even without looking back, Lydia was certain she was smirking.
"Wait here," Lydia said, entering the apartment.
The woman waited at the threshold. Lydia rushed to the safe, grabbed the cash, and returned to the door.
"Here. Take it. Uh..."
"Zoe."
"Take it, Zoe. But I'm asking you never to come back here and never to touch Luke. I don't want my son to know any of this. Is that clear? It's for his own good. But I have one question... why did you leave him?"
Zoe snorted. "I was young and stupid. I fell for a guy, got pregnant, and as soon as he found out, he ditched me. I couldn't even feed myself, let alone a baby. So I left him at the hospital. What else was I supposed to do? But hey, you took him and raised him, didn't you?"
"You're heartless. You couldn't have even taken him to an agency? It was a freezing autumn night. He could have died."
"Well, then that would have been his luck."
As the words left her mouth, Lydia heard footsteps behind her. She turned and saw Luke standing there. She gasped, covering her mouth. The boy's face was pale, though his cheeks burned with red spots. There were no tears in his eyes—only the fire of anger and hurt. He wasn't looking at Lydia; he was staring straight at Zoe, who was smiling mockingly at him.
"Hi there, son!" she exclaimed.
No one smiled back.
"So, if I'd died, it would have just been 'my luck'?" the boy asked, his voice trembling with rage.
"Well, you see..."
"No, I don't see! I'm glad I ended up in good hands and that you didn't raise me!" Luke stepped toward Zoe and snatched the stack of money out of her hands, handing it back to his mother. "Get out of here, now! I don't want to know you, and my family doesn't owe you a dime!"
With that, he slammed the door right in Zoe's face. He turned to his mother, whose lip was trembling as tears filled her eyes.
"Son... Luke... I... your father and I never planned to tell you all this, to be honest."
But instead of being angry, Luke stepped forward and hugged his mother tightly.
"You are my mother. You, Dad, and Veronica are my family. What just happened isn't going to change how I feel about you, and it certainly won't change my love. Let's just keep this incident between us."
"Okay, honey," she whispered. "Whatever you say."
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