Rhys stumbled back into the flat, his face a canvas of profound guilt and confusion, the coffees long forgotten. The only thing that mattered was the photo in his hand.
Melanie, rushing to steady him, took the small snapshot. The boy, Gabriel, was seven, with intense dark eyes and a charming smile. Melanie saw a sweet, normal child, but she did not see Rhys. She saw only the devastating effect the image was having on the man she loved.
"Eliza Moreau," Rhys choked out, his voice thick with a crushing sense of personal failure. "Sorbonne. He's... he's our son."
Melanie's world fractured. She looked at the boy, then at the calendar in her mind.
"She went through it alone," Rhys muttered, running a shaky hand through his hair. "She sacrificed everything to protect my career. I have seven years of responsibility I ran away from. I can't walk away from him now, Mel. I have to be his father."
Rhys's emotional state, his deep-seated need for atonement and his desire for the stability of family, overrode all caution. He was committed to the concept of fatherhood, consumed by the magnitude of his presumed mistake. Melanie, seeing his absolute conviction and recognizing the emotional honesty of his commitment, suppressed her own rising fears. Her duty was to anchor him.
"I know you won't," she confirmed softly. "We face her. We figure out how we integrate him into our life."
Melanie insisted on being present for the meeting with Eliza, establishing her position as Rhys's partner. Eliza introduced them to Gabriel, a bright, engaging boy who immediately responded to Rhys's focused, intense attention.
Rhys was instantly, hopelessly devoted. He saw his own history, his own failings, reflected in the innocent eyes of the boy. The connection was forged entirely on guilt and paternal desperation.
The final hammer blow came quickly. The official paperwork for the paternity test, rushed through with Eliza's "assistance," returned a definitive confirmation. The results were convincing, legally binding. Rhys Kallen was now legally Gabriel's father.
The foundation Rhys and Melanie had fought so hard to build was now structurally unsound, tethered to a manufactured past. As the weeks blurred, Rhys became completely consumed by the logistics and emotions of his new life, pushing Melanie, the silent architect of their future, to the dangerous periphery.