PART 2 — THE NUMBER THAT NO LONGER EXISTED
Marcus called again.
Then again.
And again.
Each time, the same cold automated message echoed through the phone.
"The number you are trying to reach is no longer in service."
He lowered the device slowly, staring at the screen as if it had betrayed him.
"She disconnected it," he whispered.
His mother crossed her arms.
"Good. Let her disappear."
But no one answered her.
The room inside the maternity clinic still felt suffocating.
The unopened champagne bottles remained on the table.
Blue balloons hung from the ceiling like a cruel joke.
Only an hour earlier they had celebrated the arrival of the grandson who would supposedly secure the Henderson bloodline.
Now every decoration mocked them.
Penelope wiped away angry tears.
"This changes nothing," she snapped. "It's still your child."
Marcus looked at her for the first time without excitement.
Without affection.
Without certainty.
He saw something he hadn't noticed before.
Not love.
Not partnership.
Only desperation.
Everything between them had been built on one promise.
A son.
The promise that had convinced his parents to embrace her.
The promise that had justified destroying twelve years of marriage.
Now that promise had disappeared.
His father stood.
"We're leaving."
"Dad—"
"I said we're leaving."
The older man walked out without even looking at Penelope.
Marcus's mother followed close behind.
As she reached the door, she paused.
"If Julianne had known how to give this family a son..." she muttered bitterly, "...none of this would have happened."
Marcus closed his eyes.
Even now...
Even after everything...
They still blamed me.
