After my divorce from Ethan who never wanted children I made a choice that even surprised my closest friends: I would become a single mother through sperm donation. No husband, no boyfriend. Just me and a baby. I carefully selected a donor tall, intelligent, healthy. It felt strange to imagine a child from just a profile, but one thing was clear: I wanted to be a mother.

Nine months later, my son Alan was born. With unruly brown curls, a joyful laugh, and a boundless curiosity, he filled our home with light. For eight years, it was just the two of us — and that was enough. Then my mother became ill, so we moved back to my hometown.

That’s when I started noticing something odd. At the grocery store, the cashier dropped her scanner when she saw Alan. Old classmates would stare, whisper, and then look away. Alan noticed too. “Mom, why do your friends look at me so strangely?”

“They’re just surprised,” I told him. “They haven’t met you before.” But the discomfort only grew — until the summer festival. There, I ran into Jude — my best friend from years ago. Time had added a few gray hairs, but his warm smile remained the same. He was with his wife, Eleanor, but when his eyes met Alan’s, he suddenly froze.