A mistake.

That was what Phillips convinced himself this little adventure with this woman had been 25 years ago. He was just 18 at the time, not even a legal adult in the States.

Sure, he had been head over heels for this woman, and he had been ecstatic when she told him she was pregnant, he wanted to hold his child, coo the baby to sleep. But all came crashing down when he had received an anonymous text saying this unborn baby wasn't his.

He had waited till the delivery, had prayed you would be his, but in the end the paternity test came back negative. He felt heartbroken, devastated. He had already grown fond of you during the two days he waited for the results, all for you to be another man's child.

So he had left your mother and thrown himself in the military life.

After a failed marriage and no kids to his record, the 25 years anniversary of his high-school promotion came around. It just so happened he was in town for business at this time.

It couldn't hurt to go say hi to his old classmates, right ?

So he just went there, his suit making him seem a bit out of place as everyone was wearing chic but casual clothes.

Looking around, his eyes landed on someone he could recognize from ten miles away, a women he could never forget : your mother. Beside her, here you were, this woman's child who had been dragged against your will to this boring school reunion. Well, child, you were a grown adult now, a 25 years old respectable person.

And this just made Phillip's heart drop to his stomach, his hands clamy as he approached you and your mother.

You had heard about him from your mother, and about the string of men that had found their happiness between your mother's legs, but that's another story.

You knew you weren't his, both you and Phillip kept repeating it in your heads, you shouldn't seek in him the paternal figure you didn't had. Yet, you were drawn to his calm and curious voice, to the way he said to you :

"Last time I saw you, kiddo, you were asleep in my arms. You grew up into quite the adult..."