Chapter 65 Uncle Marcus
Lara's pov
I did not sleep well that night.
I kept thinking about Dr. Chen.
About the photo.
About Ethan’s eyes.
They looked just like his.
When morning came, I was very tired. But I had made a decision.
“I want to contact him today,” I told Damien during breakfast.
Ethan was eating his cereal. He had no idea what we were talking about.
“Are you sure?” Damien asked softly.
“No,” I said honestly. “But I still need to do it.”
Damien nodded.
“Okay. I’ll make the call.”
\---
Damien called Memorial Hospital at 9 a.m.
He asked to speak with Dr. Marcus Chen.
They transferred the call to the emergency department.
I sat next to Damien and listened while the phone rang.
Then a voice answered.
“Dr. Chen speaking.”
I remembered his voice a little from seven years ago.
“Dr. Chen, this is Damien Otto. I don’t know if you remember me.”
There was a pause.
“Otto… wait. Lara Otto’s husband?”
“Yes. From the accident seven years ago.”
“Of course I remember. How is Lara? Is she doing well?”
“She is doing well,” Damien said. “That is actually why I am calling. We would like to meet you. We need to talk about something important.”
“Is something wrong?” Dr. Chen asked quickly. “Is there a problem from the transplant?”
“No. Nothing medical. It is… complicated. Could we meet somewhere private?”
Another short pause.
“This sounds serious.”
“It is serious,” Damien said. “But it is not bad. We just need to talk in person.”
Dr. Chen sighed softly.
“Alright. I am free tomorrow afternoon. There is a café near the hospital. Mason’s Coffee. Do you know it?”
“I will find it,” Damien said. “What time?”
“Two o’clock.”
“We will be there.”
\---
I felt nervous all day.
I kept thinking about what to say.
How do you explain something that sounds impossible?
That night I barely ate dinner.
“Mommy, are you sick?” Ethan asked.
“No, baby. I’m just not very hungry.”
He looked at my plate.
“Can I have your chicken?”
I smiled.
“Of course.”
After Ethan went to bed, Damien and I talked about the meeting.
“What if he doesn’t believe us?” I asked.
“We have proof,” Damien said. “The medical reports. The DNA tests. The geneticist’s report.”
“What if he thinks we are crazy?”
“Then we show him the evidence.”
I was quiet for a moment.
“What if he wants to be part of Ethan’s life?”
Damien took my hand.
“Then we will deal with it together.”
\---
The next afternoon, we left Ethan with Marcus.
We told him we had an important meeting.
We drove to Mason’s Coffee.
Neither of us talked much.
My stomach felt tight the whole time.
We arrived fifteen minutes early.
We sat at a corner table and ordered coffee.
At exactly 2 p.m., the door opened.
Dr. Marcus Chen walked in.
He looked older than the photo Damien had shown me.
But he still had kind eyes.
Ethan’s eyes.
He saw us and walked over.
“Mr. and Mrs. Otto.”
We stood up and shook hands.
“Thank you for meeting us,” Damien said.
“Of course,” Dr. Chen said. “But I am very curious about what this is about.”
We sat down.
There was an awkward silence.
Dr. Chen waited patiently.
Finally, I spoke.
“Dr. Chen, do you remember the bone marrow transplant seven years ago?”
“Yes. You were very sick. The transplant saved your life.”
“It did,” I said. “And I am very thankful.”
“You thanked me many times at the hospital.”
“I know,” I said. “But what I am thanking you for now is… bigger.”
He looked confused.
“I don’t understand.”
Damien placed a folder on the table.
“What we are about to say may sound impossible,” he said. “But we have medical proof.”
Dr. Chen looked worried.
“You are starting to scare me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said gently.
I took a deep breath.
“After the transplant, I recovered. About a year later, I became pregnant.”
Dr. Chen smiled politely.
“Congratulations.”
“I had a son. His name is Ethan. He is seven years old now.”
“That’s wonderful.”
I looked directly at him.
“Dr. Chen… Ethan is your biological son.”
Silence.
Dr. Chen stared at me.
Then he looked at Damien.
Then back at me.
“I’m sorry… what?”
\---
Damien opened the folder.
“This is a DNA test,” he said. “It shows that Ethan is not my biological son.”
Dr. Chen looked confused.
“This is another DNA test,” Damien continued. “Comparing Ethan with Lara’s ex-husband, Lucas Ward. Lucas is not the father either.”
Dr. Chen frowned.
“What does this have to do with me?”
I handed him the genetic report.
“Have you ever heard of germline chimerism after a bone marrow transplant?”
His expression changed.
“That is… extremely rare.”
“About one in tens of millions,” Damien said.
Dr. Chen looked shocked.
“Are you saying…?”
“Your bone marrow cells became part of my body,” I said. “Including my reproductive cells. When I became pregnant, the egg carried your DNA.”
“That’s impossible,” he whispered.
“It is rare,” Damien said. “But it can happen. And it happened.”
Dr. Chen read the report carefully.
His hands started shaking.
“This cannot be real.”
“We asked three labs to confirm the DNA tests,” Damien said. “Two genetic experts studied the case.”
Dr. Chen slowly looked up.
“I have a son?”
“Yes,” I said softly.
“Without ever…”
“Without ever meeting me,” I finished.
He leaned back in his chair and covered his face.
“I need a moment.”
“Take your time,” Damien said.
\---
We sat quietly for several minutes.
Finally, Dr. Chen looked up.
“Why are you telling me this?” he asked. “You could have kept it a secret.”
“Because it is the truth,” I said. “And because you saved my life. You deserve to know.”
“Does the boy know?”
“Not yet.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Nothing,” Damien said. “We are not asking for anything.”
Dr. Chen took out his phone.
“Do you have a photo of him?”
I showed him a picture of Ethan.
He stared at it.
Tears filled his eyes.
“He has my eyes,” he said softly.
“Yes.”
“And my smile.”
“Yes.”
“He looks happy.”
“He is.”
Dr. Chen returned the phone.
“Can I think about this?”
“Of course.”
He took the documents and stood up.
“Thank you for telling me.”
\---
Three days passed.
Dr. Chen did not call.
I started to think he did not want to be involved.
But on the fourth day, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
“Hello?”
“Mrs. Otto? This is Marcus Chen.”
My heart jumped.
“I would like to meet Ethan,” he said.
“If that is okay.”
“Of course,” I said.
\---
On Saturday, he came to our house.
When Ethan saw him, he stared.
Marcus stared back.
The resemblance was very clear.
“Hi,” Marcus said.
“Hi,” Ethan replied.
“I’m Marcus.”
“I’m Ethan.”
“I heard a lot about you.”
“I heard about you too,” Ethan said. “You saved my mom.”
Marcus smiled.
“Best decision I ever made.”
\---
They talked for an hour.
About school.
About dinosaurs.
About Ethan’s favorite food.
Marcus was kind and patient.
When it was time for him to leave, Ethan surprised us.
“Can you come back next week?”
Marcus looked at me.
I nodded.
“I would love to,” he said.
\---
After Marcus left, Ethan looked at us.
“I like him,” he said.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes. He is nice.”
Then Ethan said something that made us smile.
“Can he be my uncle?”
Damien laughed.
“If that is what you want.”
“Uncle Marcus,” Ethan said happily.
“I like that.”
And just like that, our family became a little bigger.
In a strange, beautiful way.
And we would learn to live with it.
One day at a time.