Chapter 2

I answered it immediately.

The mom on the screen looked even weaker now. She was still on that barren beach. Her lips were cracked, and her voice was hoarse and desperate.

"Luna! Is that imposter near you?"

I shook my head, staring intensely at her face.

Satellite phones didn't support AI filters. Her face looked completely natural, and she had the exact same beauty mark near her lip.

My body turned ice-cold.

Did I have two mothers?

That was impossible!

"Luna, while she's away, listen to me very carefully!"

"Someone is impersonating me! She stole all my belongings and dumped me in a remote area in Baja. She didn't realize I had a backup satellite phone hidden, which is how I'm calling you."

"You have to get away from her!"

"No matter how much she acts like me, do not trust her..."

Suddenly, the signal glitched, and the screen lagged.

The mother who had been with me all day stepped out of the restroom and started walking toward me.

The sheer absurdity of the situation paralyzed me.

If the mom on the screen was real, then what the hell was the woman in front of me?

Before I figured out who was who, I couldn't let either of them know about the satellite phone!

Suppressing my terror, I hung up quickly, put on a bright smile, and ran toward her.

I threw my arms around her.

"I'm so sorry, Mom. I really want to stay with you, but I just got an urgent message from school. I have to run back to campus."

"How about I come back tomorrow morning?"

The satellite phone was the most precious gift I had ever given my mom. She loved me to death; she would never lose it.

Right now, I didn't dare go to that secluded suburban villa with this woman alone.

"Oh."

"Alright then."

"Should I call an Uber for you?"

She didn't force me to stay, but her face fell with obvious disappointment.

I shook my head. "No need, Mom. Go get some rest. I'll see you first thing tomorrow!"

As I hugged her, I had managed to secretly pluck two strands of hair from her shoulder.

The moment I left, I rushed back to campus and found Chloe, a senior in the biology department.

Last year, when my mom visited, she left a coat at my place, which still had her old hair on it.

I begged Chloe to run an urgent DNA comparison for me in her lab.

A few hours later, I got the results. The DNA matched perfectly.

I let out a massive sigh of relief.

No matter what, DNA didn't lie. The woman with me was indeed my biological mother.

The next morning, I casually brought up the satellite phone.

She told me that during her head injury, she lost all her belongings and forgot many things. She probably forgot about the satellite phone too.

So, did someone find her lost satellite phone and use it to scam me?

But who were they, and what did they want?

I wanted to tell my mom, but I didn't want to worry her and ruin our limited time together.

I decided to investigate it with her right before she flew back.

Meanwhile, the caller didn't ring again. When I tried calling back, the line was dead.

That night, I let my guard down and slept in the villa with her.

The next morning, I woke up perfectly fine. No danger.

She even made me a lovely breakfast. The eggs and steak were delicious.

After finishing her portion, she went back to her room to get changed and do her makeup.

I sat in the living room and picked up a call from my dad.

"Having fun with your mom?"

I chewed on a piece of steak. "Yeah! Mom's cooking is amazing. Her steak is better than most restaurants."

There was a dead silence on the other end.

"Steak? Are you sure?"

"Luna, your mother never eats beef."

"Before we got married, I took her to a steakhouse once. She had a severe allergic reaction and ended up in the ICU for two days..."

The half-chewed steak froze in my mouth.

Now that I thought about it, in my entire life, I had never seen my mother take a single bite of beef.

Could a brain injury change someone's allergies?