Adrian was still sitting motionless in the car.
His hand gripped his phone so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. The doctor's words kept echoing in his head.
The baby your family took home that night might not be your biological child.
Impossible.
For eighteen years, he had never once doubted that Aurel was his daughter.
He remembered the day he first held that baby in his arms.
Her tiny cries.
Her small face.
Even the identification bracelet around her wrist.
Everything had felt real.
Yet now, one possibility had shattered his certainty.
"Mr. Adrian?"
The driver glanced back from the front seat.
Adrian didn't answer.
His gaze remained fixed on Aurel and Alya, who were standing in front of the college.
They really did look alike.
Too much alike.
The shape of their eyes, their noses, even their smiles seemed to come from the same face.
Adrian swallowed.
"Don't let Aurel leave."
The driver was startled.
"Sir?"
"Follow them."
Adrian opened the car door and got out.
Meanwhile, Aurel was still staring at Alya.
"Why do you have a pendant like this?"
Alya touched the pendant around her neck.
"My mom gave it to me when I was little."
"Why?"
Alya shook her head.
"I don't know either. Mom said she'd had this pendant since the day I was born."
Aurel slowly took out her own pendant.
It was exactly the same shape.
The only difference was that Aurel always kept hers hidden beneath her clothes.
"I got this one when I was a baby, too."
Alya fell silent.
They stared at each other.
For a few seconds, the sounds of students passing by seemed to disappear.
"Aurel!"
A voice made Aurel turn around.
Her best friend, Keira, came running over.
"What's wrong? I've been watching you zone out for a while."
Aurel hadn't had a chance to answer.
Adrian was already standing several yards behind them.
His face was pale.
"Dad?"
Aurel was startled.
"Why are you here, Dad?"
Adrian didn't answer the question.
His eyes were fixed on Alya instead.
He walked closer.
"Your name is Alya?"
Alya nodded, confused.
"Yes, Mr. Adrian."
"Where do your parents live?"
Alya grew even more puzzled.
"In a village, Mr. Adrian."
"Your father's full name?"
"Joko."
Adrian drew a long breath.
Joko.
That name was recorded in the hospital archives from eighteen years ago.
A man who had arrived with his wife, Mira, to give birth.
Adrian felt his chest tighten.
He wanted to ask more.
But before he could, his phone rang again.
It was the hospital.
"Mr. Adrian, we've conducted a preliminary examination of the old records."
Adrian walked several steps away.
"What did you find?"
"We found a record stating that on the night Aurel was born, two baby girls were being cared for in the same room."
Adrian closed his eyes.
"And?"
"There was a problem with the babies' identification bracelet records when the power went out."
Adrian's heart began pounding harder.
"Are you sure?"
"We can't confirm it one hundred percent yet, sir. But there's something more important."
"What?"
"The bracelet number recorded in the Wijaya family records doesn't match the bracelet number listed in the nursery care log."
Adrian fell silent.
"Who was the other baby?"
"The data we've found points to the baby belonging to Joko and Mira."
Adrian ended the call.
He stood there for a long time.
Meanwhile, Aurel and Alya were still talking in front of him.
For the first time, Adrian didn't see the two girls as strangers.
He saw them as two children who might have been switched by fate.
"Dad?"
Aurel walked over to him.
"What's wrong, Dad?"
Adrian looked at his daughter's face.
All this time, he had always said that Aurel was his flesh and blood.
But now, he didn't know what to say.
"It's nothing."
"Really?"
Adrian nodded.
"Yeah."
Aurel eyed her father suspiciously.
"You look strange."
Adrian only gave her a faint smile.
"We'll talk at home later."
Then his gaze shifted to Alya.
"If it's all right, I'd like to meet your parents."
Alya immediately became wary.
"What for, Mr. Adrian?"
Adrian was silent for a moment.
"Because there's something we need to discuss."
Alya furrowed her brow.
She didn't know that a simple meeting at the college that day was beginning to unlock the deepest secret of her life.
That night, at the simple house in the village, Mira was folding clothes when Alya came home.
"Alya, you're home?"
"Yeah, Mom."
Mira smiled.
But her smile slowly faded when she saw her daughter's face.
"What's wrong?"
Alya sat down beside her mother.
"Mom..."
"Yes?"
"I met a girl at college today."
Mira stopped folding the clothes.
"Who?"
"Her name is Aurel."
Mira's hands suddenly began to tremble.
"Aurel?"
Alya nodded.
"Yeah. She looks so much like me."
Mira stared at her daughter.
Her face turned pale.
"She... whose child is she?"
"She said she's the daughter of a CEO. His name is Adrian Wijaya."
Mira's eyes widened.
The clothes slipped from her hands.
Adrian Wijaya.
That name brought back memories she had spent eighteen years trying to bury.
A rainy night.
A hospital.
A baby's cries.
And a nurse who had once told her that her daughter's identification bracelet had come off for a moment.
Mira stared at Alya with tear-filled eyes.
"Mom?"
Alya took her mother's hand.
"What's wrong?"
Mira didn't answer.
She only stared at the flower-shaped pendant hanging around Alya's neck.
The pendant a nurse had given her that night.
Mira began to realize something horrifying.
"Could it be...?"
Her voice trembled.
"What, Mom?"
Mira pulled Alya into a tight embrace.
"No."
She shook her head.
"This can't be."
Yet deep in her heart, Mira knew.
Alya's meeting with Aurel was no coincidence.
And the secret from eighteen years ago might soon be exposed.
In the city, Adrian was also staring at the DNA test results he had just received.
His hands trembled as he read the final sentence.
Biological relationship between Adrian Wijaya and Aurel Wijaya: no match found as biological father and daughter.
Adrian closed his eyes.
For the first time, tears fell.
"Then..."
His gaze shifted to the name Alya written on another report.
"...who is my daughter, really?"