“Mom, Dad, this is Ken, my fiancé!” I said cheerfully to my parents, who let us in.

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Stradlater. It’s so nice to meet you! Your house is beautiful,” Ken added, smiling warmly. He extended his hand to my mother, who froze in place as soon as she took it.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Ken,” my dad said when Mom didn’t respond. He gave Ken a firm handshake, trying to cover for the sudden silence. But I could see that something was off. Mom was pale-faced, staring at Ken with an intensity that made me uneasy.

“Mom?” I said tentatively, glancing at Ken and then back at her. “Mom, what’s going on? Do you have something to say?”

Tears suddenly welled in her eyes. Her lips trembled as she spoke, “Your birthmark…” she began, her voice barely a whisper. “I recognized it.”

Ken and I confusingly glanced at each other. “What do you mean, Mom?” I asked, stepping closer to her. “How could you recognize his birthmark?”

Mom took a deep breath, as if steadying herself for a revelation she never thought she’d have to make. She reached out and touched the small, crescent-shaped birthmark on Ken’s wrist, the one I’d always found endearing.

“When you were born, there was another baby in the hospital,” Mom started, her voice wavering. “A baby boy with the same birthmark. He was my friend’s child, but… there was a terrible accident. A fire in the maternity ward. In the chaos, the babies were mixed up, and her baby was presumed lost. But I never forgot that birthmark.”

Ken’s face went pale, mirroring my mother’s earlier expression. “Are you saying…?” he began, but couldn’t finish the thought.

Tears streamed down my mother’s face as she nodded. “I believe you might be her son. The one we thought was lost forever.”