Chapter 3

"Dad, can you come over right now?"

"I think... something is wrong with Mom."

The steak incident brought back all my anxiety.

But I had eaten her food and slept under the same roof, and nothing had happened to me.

Plus, the DNA test was a perfect match.

I had no idea who to believe!

The safest bet was to wait for my dad to get here.

Even though they were divorced, they had lived together for over a decade. He knew everything about her. He could tell if she was a fake.

If she turned out to be an imposter, my dad would be here to help me call the police.

If she was real, I would tell her everything and trace the scammer in Baja.

Before my dad arrived, I kept my distance from her.

She noticed my coldness but didn't know how to ask. She looked visibly heartbroken.

I felt a pang of guilt. It was agonizing.

Thankfully, my dad arrived quickly.

He took my mom to a separate room to talk.

After a while, he came out and pulled me aside.

"You're being paranoid, Luna."

"Your mom can eat beef now because her allergy was cured years ago through immunotherapy."

"There's nothing wrong with her. Go apologize to her right now!"

"She flew all this way to see you, only for her own daughter to suspect she's a fake. She was crying her eyes out when she talked to me..."

When I saw my mom again, her eyes were indeed red and puffy.

Over the years since the divorce, even though I lived with my dad, my mom paid for all my tuition and living expenses. She called me every single month without fail.

The care packages she sent were so huge my entire dorm room couldn't even use them all.

Her love for me had never faded.

Thinking of this, my heart ached with intense guilt.

Afraid of hurting her further, I pulled out my phone and showed her the call logs, explaining everything.

"Mom, I was tricked. Someone was pretending to be you."

"She looked exactly like you, and she was using the satellite phone I gave you. That's why I doubted you."

"I see clearly now. She's just a scammer!"

"Mom, do you know who this scammer could be? What do they want?"