My Friend’s Child

1
The day they buried Elara Vance, her son appeared at my studio.
Mom said that if... if she was gone, I should come find you.
You knew my mom, didn't you, miss?
Those clear eyes, a perfect, haunting echo of Elara's, stabbed at me like shards of glass. I was about to coldly turn him away when I saw the birthmark behind his ear.
It was a small, heart-shaped mark, crimson against his pale skin.
In the exact same spot as the one on my son—the son who had lived for only three days before he was taken from me, ten years ago.
It was identical.
A thought so monstrous it made my entire body tremble exploded in my mind. The world went dark, and I had to grip the doorframe to stay upright.
"What... what's your name?"
"Leo," the boy whispered, his voice laced with a fear he was trying to hide. "Leo Blackwood."
Blackwood.
Adrian Blackwood's son.
The name ripped open the scar on my heart, a wound I thought had closed a decade ago, and it bled anew.
Ten years ago, I, Stella Morgan, was the official Mrs. Blackwood.
And Elara Vance was the woman my husband, Adrian, had always loved. The one that got away.
My son was born and lived for three days before the doctors declared he had died from a sudden, aggressive infection. Adrian wasn't even there. It was his mother, my impossibly poised and powerful mother-in-law, Meredith Blackwood, who handled everything with cold efficiency. She wouldn't even let me see him one last time, claiming it would be too much for my fragile state.
Soon after, broken in body and spirit, I signed the divorce papers. I set Adrian free to be with his true love.
I had always believed that Elara’s existence had indirectly led to my son's death. That she was the one who had destroyed my life.
And so, I hated her.
But now, her son was standing before me, bearing the same birthmark as mine.
In that instant, my decade of hatred was drowned by a tidal wave of absurdity and terror.
I stepped aside, my voice a dry rasp.
"Come in."
The studio was a chaotic mess of canvases and scattered art supplies—a perfect reflection of the island I had made of my life for the past ten years.
Leo was unnaturally quiet for a child. He stood hesitantly at the door, clutching a faded blue backpack, not daring to take another step inside.
"Sit," I said, pointing to the only clean sofa.
He shuffled over and perched on the edge, his small hands gripping the straps of his bag. I fought down the storm raging inside me and stared at the red mark behind his ear. It was too similar. No, it was exact. Even the placement was perfect.
"Your mother... Elara. How did she die?" I lit a cigarette, my hand trembling so violently I could barely hold the lighter.
Leo looked at me with a vacant expression, as if struggling to process the question. His reactions were slow, delayed. After a long pause, he whispered, "Mom... fell asleep."
"The policeman said she fell asleep while she was driving."
A car crash.
I took a deep drag, and the harsh smoke sent me into a fit of coughing. The sound startled Leo, and he flinched, curling into himself like a frightened animal. The sight sent a strange pang through my chest.
"Kid, how old are you?"
He thought for another long moment. "Nine... almost ten."
The timeline matched.
An invisible hand squeezed my heart, and I could barely breathe.
"What about your father? Why isn't he here to get you?"
At the mention of his father, Leo's gaze fell to the floor. "Dad's... busy."
The same excuse. The exact same words Adrian used ten years ago.
I stubbed out the cigarette and began to pace, the agitation unbearable. Something was wrong. None of this made sense. If Leo was truly Elara and Adrian's son, why wouldn't Adrian have taken him in the second she died? Why would Elara's final wish be for her son to find me, her supposed rival?
It was completely illogical.
Unless…
Unless Adrian didn't know. Or worse, he had been lied to as well.
I walked over to Leo and crouched down in front of him. "What's in the bag? Let me see."
He hesitated, then obediently slipped it off his shoulders. I unzipped it. Inside, along with a few drawing pads and a worn-out Transformer toy, was a white, unlabeled pill bottle.
"What's this?"
"Grandma's smart pills," he answered quietly. "She said I have to take them every day, or I'll get dumb and Mom won't like me anymore."
Grandma?
Meredith.
A roar filled my ears. A chill shot up from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head. Why would Meredith Blackwood be feeding Elara's son mysterious, unlabeled drugs?
Could it be…
I couldn't let my mind go there. Not yet.
I pocketed the bottle and looked at the small face before me—a face that was the spitting image of Elara, but with the ghost of Adrian in his features. My emotions were a tangled, violent mess.
"Tonight, you'll stay here," I finally said. "Tomorrow, I'm taking you home."
And by home, I meant our home.
Leo was heartbreakingly obedient. I told him to take a shower, and he silently padded into the bathroom. After a while, I realized I hadn't heard any water running. I pushed the door open to find him on his tiptoes, struggling awkwardly with the showerhead, which was mounted far too high for him. He didn't even know how to turn on the hot water.
I sighed and went in, adjusting the temperature for him. As the warm water streamed over his small, thin body, I saw them.
His thin arms and back were a constellation of bruises, angry purples and faded yellows, new injuries laid over old ones. They looked like fingerprints, like the marks of a strap or a stick.
My hand froze. A crushing weight settled on my chest.
"Who did this?"
Leo flinched and quickly tried to cover the marks, his head bowed in silence.
"Answer me!" My voice came out sharper than I intended.
He trembled, tears welling in his eyes, but he stubbornly refused to let them fall. "It was... I was bad... I made Grandma angry..."
Meredith again!
That woman. To me, she had always been the picture of grace and aristocratic poise. But behind closed doors, she was capable of this? Hurting a child so cruelly? Even if Leo wasn't her biological grandson, he was still Adrian's son! Even vipers don't eat their young. How could she?
I swallowed my fury, finished his shower, and found an old t-shirt of mine for him to wear. The huge shirt hung off his tiny frame, making him look even more fragile.
"Don't you ever say you were bad again. Ever."
I led him to the sofa and took out a first-aid kit, gently dabbing ointment on his bruises with a cotton swab. He sat stiffly, letting me tend to him without a sound.
"Tell me if it hurts."
"It doesn't hurt," he whispered. "Mommy used to kiss it and make it better."
At the mention of Elara, I paused. "Was she... good to you?"
"Mommy was the best," Leo said, his eyes lighting up for a second before the sadness returned. "But she was always sad. She would hold me and cry."
"She also told me... to grow up fast. To run. And not to get caught."
Run?
Get caught by whom?
My mind was a chaotic storm. Elara's death, Meredith's abuse, the mysterious "smart pills," the warning to run… every clue was pointing toward a single, terrifying truth.
Just then, my phone rang.
It was a number I hadn't seen in ten years.
Adrian.
I walked out to the balcony and answered.
"Stella." His voice was tired and hoarse. "Elara… she's gone."
"I know," I said, my voice ice. "I saw the news."
"Her son... Leo. He's missing. Did she... did she ever contact you?" The question was laced with a desperate, probing hope.
I let out a cold, bitter laugh. "Did you forget, Adrian? We got divorced ten years ago. The love of your life is dead, her son is missing, and you think I would know where he is?"
"You destroyed my life. Now you want my help finding your son? Do you deserve it?" I twisted the knife without mercy.
A long silence stretched between us, filled only by the sound of his heavy breathing. "Stella, I'm sorry..."
"Save your cheap apologies," I cut him off. "Don't call me again."
I hung up.
When I went back inside, Leo had curled up on the sofa and fallen asleep. Even in his dreams, his brow was furrowed, his small hand clutching the hem of his shirt in a gesture of pure anxiety.
I looked at the heart-shaped birthmark behind his ear, and a part of my soul I thought was long dead simply collapsed.
I gently covered him with a blanket.
Then, I called my family's private physician.
"Dr. Alistair, I have something I need you to analyze. I need the results as soon as possible."
"No matter how late it is. Call me the second you know."
I didn't sleep that night. I sat by the sofa, watching Leo, the scenes from the hospital ten years ago playing on a loop in my mind: the sterile room, Meredith's cold face, the weightless piece of paper that was a death certificate.
Everything I had accepted as truth now seemed riddled with lies.
Elara, what secrets did you die with? Did you send my son back to me out of guilt, or was there something more?
The next morning, I met Bella at a café.
Bella. My former "best friend." After my divorce, she was the only one who kept in touch. And for ten years, she had been the one to faithfully report every detail of Adrian and Elara's "happy life" to me.
"Stella, you look amazing! You haven't aged a day," Bella said, stirring her latte with a bright, concerned smile. "But Elara... the last time I saw her, she looked so worn out. I don't know what Adrian was thinking, letting her go like that."
I took a sip of my coffee, hiding the cold fury in my eyes. "Really? I thought she was doing wonderfully."
"Wonderfully? Please," Bella scoffed, leaning in and lowering her voice. "You know Meredith never approved of her. Thought she was common, from the wrong side of the tracks."
"If she hadn't given Adrian a son, she never would have gotten a foot in the Blackwood door."
"But," Bella added, her tone thick with envy, "Meredith absolutely dotes on Leo. Spoils that grandson of hers rotten."
"Flies in all sorts of special supplements and smart pills from Europe, and personally makes sure he takes them every day. God forbid the sole Blackwood heir be neglected for a second."
My hand clenched around my cup. Hot coffee sloshed onto my skin, but I didn't feel a thing.
Smart pills. There it was again.
"You know, Elara's accident was so strange," Bella said, a thoughtful, pitying look on her face. "The police ruled it driver fatigue, but I heard there might have been something wrong with her brakes."
"And isn't it weird? A woman who barely drives, speeding down a winding canyon road in the middle of the night... It was like she was running from something."
Every word was a hammer blow to my heart.
Running.
Elara was running from Meredith.
She knew the pills were dangerous. She was trying to escape with my son! And so, Meredith arranged an "accident" to silence her forever.
"Stella? Stella, are you okay?" Bella's voice pulled me back.
"I'm fine. Just thinking about the past." I put down my cup and took a jewelry box from my purse, sliding it across the table. "It's been a while. This is for you."
Bella's eyes lit up as she opened it. Inside was a diamond necklace, easily worth a small fortune.
"Oh, Stella, you shouldn't have..." she demurred, but her hands were already lifting it from the box, eagerly fastening it around her neck.
"As long as you like it," I said, a cold smile touching my lips as I watched her preen.
Bella, you'd better pray you had no part in this. Because if you did, I will make you choke on every last thing you've ever taken from me.
I left the café and drove straight to Dr. Alistair's clinic.
Leo was in the children's play area, quietly trying to stack blocks. His movements were slow, agonizingly so. He tried several times to place a single block, his hand-eye coordination failing him. A much younger child next to him had already built a towering structure. When that child accidentally knocked over Leo's small pile, Leo just stared, his face a blank canvas. No tears, no anger, not a flicker of emotion.
Dr. Alistair called me into his office. His face was grim as he handed me the lab report.
"Stella, where did you get this?"
"From a child," I said, my heart sinking.
"My God!" His voice was sharper than I'd ever heard it. "This is a psychotropic drug that was banned in Germany years ago! It was designed for controlling violent felons in high-security prisons!"
"Long-term use causes severe damage to the central nervous system. It leads to delayed reflexes, cognitive decline, and memory loss!"
"To put it bluntly, it's designed to turn a normal person into a drooling imbecile."
"This child... how long has he been taking this?"
My nails dug into my palms. "Possibly... for years."
Dr. Alistair shook his head, his face etched with sorrow and disgust. "This is monstrous. It's not just abuse, Stella. This is attempted murder."
The silence in the room was absolute. The thin report in my hand felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
Meredith. You absolute monster.
You didn't just steal my son. You tried to destroy him from the inside out.
I walked out of the office. When Leo saw me, he stood up immediately, a hopeful light in his eyes. "Miss...?"
I walked over, knelt, and pulled him into a crushing hug.
This boy. The son of the woman I'd hated for a decade. The child I thought was the flesh and blood of my enemy.
He was my stolen treasure, returned to me at last.
He was my own son, abused and poisoned for ten long years.
"Leo," I choked out, my voice thick with tears. "I'm so sorry... Mommy is so sorry she's late."
He went rigid in my arms, completely still. After a long moment, he slowly raised a small hand and gently patted my back.
As if he were comforting a crying child.
"Don't cry, miss," he said softly.
"Mom said crying makes you less pretty."
And at that, the dam broke. The tears I had held back for a decade came pouring out.
Elara, thank you. Thank you for protecting him for ten years.
Now it's my turn.
And all those who hurt him, I will make every single one of them pay.

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