Zoe, a hardworking nurse, often relied on her mother-in-law, Denise, to babysit her son, Leo. Everything seemed fine at first, but over time, Zoe began noticing some troubling signs. Leo, her sweet 4-year-old, would get visibly upset every time Denise came over. At first, Zoe brushed it off as separation anxiety or a phase, but when Leo’s behavior worsened, she knew something was wrong.
One night, right before Zoe was leaving for a night shift, Leo broke down in tears, pleading not to be left with his grandmother. “I don’t want Grandma to stay with me!” he cried, clutching Zoe’s scrubs with fear in his eyes. When Zoe asked him why, Leo hesitated but eventually confessed, “Grandma acts strange.”
Zoe, feeling a pang of unease, wanted to know more, but before she could press further, Denise arrived, cutting the conversation short. After a night of working and worrying about Leo’s words, Zoe returned home to find her son sitting blankly on the couch, his favorite cartoon playing in the background, but his red, puffy eyes told a different story. When asked why he hadn’t slept, Leo revealed, “Grandma scares me. She keeps trying to put something in my mouth.”
Zoe’s blood ran cold. What was Denise doing to her son? Leo hesitated again before adding, “She’s trying to get my spit in a tube.” It all clicked. Denise had been trying to get Leo’s DNA without Zoe’s knowledge or consent.
Furious, Zoe confronted Denise, who tried to justify her actions by pointing to Leo’s blonde hair, which she said didn’t match anyone in the family. Denise had been secretly questioning Leo’s paternity, unable to accept the possibility that he was Andrew’s son just because of his hair color.
Zoe kicked Denise out, but the damage was already done. When Andrew returned, Denise had already planted seeds of doubt in his mind. “Maybe we should do the DNA test,” Andrew suggested, causing Zoe to feel a deep betrayal. Reluctantly, Zoe agreed but had a condition—if she was going to prove that Leo was his son, then Andrew would need to do a DNA test to prove that Denise’s husband was truly his father.
The results came back confirming that Leo was indeed Andrew’s son. But to everyone’s shock, Andrew’s test revealed that his biological father wasn’t the man he had grown up believing was his dad. Denise had been hiding a secret of her own—a decades-old affair.
Andrew was devastated, but he and Zoe agreed to take a step back from Denise and focus on their own family. Denise’s insecurities had led her to project her guilt onto Zoe and Leo, causing unnecessary pain. Now, it was time for Zoe, Andrew, and Leo to move forward without Denise’s interference.