Six-year-old Sophia went into a coma after a car accident with her mother, Patricia. The mother said her vehicle was faulty, but others started to believe that she caused the crash on purpose. Then Sophia woke up and screamed the words that shocked everyone in the room.
Jason looked worriedly at his daughter, Sophia, who had been in a hospital in Arlington, Virginia, for the past three months. Several nurses looked at him with sympathy, but he was not the worried father most people imagined. He hoped the girl would never wake up.
Suddenly, Nurse Olivia walked in. “Don’t worry, Mr. Robins. Children are resilient. I’m sure your little girl will wake up soon,” she chirped. Jason showed a slight grin and wished for the worst.
But a few days later, Sophia stirred in her bed, and she stood up suddenly. “I know the truth about my mom!” the little girl yelled. Jason’s face paled, and he considered running away, but a doctor and Nurse Olivia heard the screams.
Three months ago…
Jason’s wife, Patricia, was doing the laundry and thinking about her difficult pregnancy with Sophia six years ago. The doctors told her to take it easy because she could go into labor unexpectedly. Despite being careful, the worst happened.
She barely remembered anything from the birth. But when she woke, Jason was there by her side with a baby in his arms. He smiled at her warmly. It would be the last time he would smile at her.
When they brought Sophia home, Jason withdrew utterly. He spent extra hours at work and frequented bars. He bought expensive things and didn’t want anything to do with his wife. Patricia thought he was getting the money at work.
It had been like that all this time, but Patricia had a nagging feeling in her gut. As she put away everyone’s clothes after folding them, she noticed an old box in the closet. After opening it, she saw her husband’s old phone, which he had replaced after Sophia’s birth.
Patricia didn’t like the idea of snooping around, but she had to do something. She plugged the phone and turned it on. A text thread from someone called Ofelia caught her attention. Patricia scrolled to the beginning and discovered she was Jason’s boss’s daughter, who died years ago.
“Oh my god! They had an affair!” she exclaimed softly while reading. She also discovered that Ofelia got pregnant around the same time as Patricia. Jason asked her to get rid of the baby, but Ofelia refused. He seemed to break up with her afterward.
“But this is strange,” Patricia muttered when the text thread ended. She decided to snoop further in her husband’s closet and discovered paperwork he had never shown her. She stopped at one that read, “Proof of death.” It belonged to a Baby Girl Robins.
That’s when everything clicked into place. Her daughter died during her difficult childbirth, and Jason had replaced her with Sophia, Ofelia’s daughter, who was born around the same time. Patricia started crying thinking about it.
She also found Sophia’s actual birth certificate, which confirmed her suspicions. “I can’t believe Jason gave me a fake certificate and lied all these years,” Patricia sobbed inconsolably. But that was not the worst part. Snooping further into his old phone, she discovered that Jason was scum.
His old boss had begged to see his granddaughter, but Jason refused. The man died later that year, as far as Patricia remembered. That means that he never got to meet his granddaughter, she realized.
After reading that, Patricia took action. She packed her bags and Sophia’s. “We’re running away from him right now!” she decided with conviction as she drove to her daughter’s school to pick her up.
“Mommy! Where are we going?” Sophia asked when she noticed all the bags and stuff in the car.
“We’re taking a little road trip, honey. Just us girls! It’s going to be super fun!” Patricia faked cheerfulness for her daughter. But her tears blinded her while driving, and she ran a red light. The next thing she knew, she was being wheeled through the hospital.
“My daughter! Where’s my daughter?” she yelled at the people around her, but no one answered.
Back in the present…
After hearing Sophia’s screams, the doctors rushed into the room, but the little girl wouldn’t calm down. “My mom! Where’s mommy?” she continued yelling while the staff checked her vitals. Her father spoke.
“Sophia, calm down. They need to check you out,” Jason said, trying to remain calm.
“NO! I heard you! I heard you! Mommy is not evil! Mommy protected me! She hugged me upside down. It was cold! She said, ‘Everything will be alright,’” Sophia cried.
Nurse Olivia gave Jason a side-eyed because she heard him say some horrible things about his wife to the police officer, who asked about the accident. So when Patricia woke a few days after the accident, they didn’t allow her to see Sophia. Instead, they arrested her because Jason told them that Patricia intended to kidnap his daughter and had probably caused the accident. Nurse Olivia recalled how Jason said Patricia had just found out that Sophia was another woman’s baby.
But now that she heard the little girl screaming for her mommy, she knew the truth. This man is evil. I’m calling the police, Nurse Olivia thought and exited the room when Sophia calmed down. She asked for the same officer who came three months ago.
“Where’s Mr. Robins?” the officer asked Nurse Olivia after talking to the little girl. They couldn’t exactly take Sophia’s testimony as fact, but it painted a different picture than what Jason explained after the accident.
“I don’t know, officer. I think he ran off when he saw you,” Nurse Olivia shrugged.
“And left his daughter here alone?” Officer Grimes wondered with a raised eyebrow. “Then I guess his wife was telling the truth all along.”
A few hours later, Patricia was released from her home arrest, which her lawyer had negotiated as there wasn’t enough evidence of malicious intent on her part. She ran to the hospital and hugged Sophia tightly.
“Mommy!” Sophia whimpered.
“Don’t worry, baby. I’m never letting you out of my sight again, and nothing will keep us apart!” Patricia promised.
Jason had tried to destroy the evidence of his actions after the accident when he realized that his wife discovered the truth. That’s why he tried to spin the narrative that she had kidnapped his daughter. They believed him because he was a well-known businessman in the city.
But Patricia told the detectives to look at Jason’s old phone, which had survived the car crash. They didn’t want to take it as evidence three months ago but accepted it now. Unfortunately, Jason skipped town, and they had yet to find him. But Patricia and Sophia lived happily without him
.
What can we learn from this story?
Follow your instincts. Patricia had a nagging feeling when her husband started to behave strangely after Sophia’s birth, but she waited years before doing anything. She should’ve acted sooner.
Listen to the kids. Everyone at the hospital and Officer Grimes believed Sophia’s words when she woke up, and they did the right thing.
