It was a typical busy Monday morning at the high-rise office of a successful businessman named Caleb. The 29-year-old CEO was sitting behind his sleek desk, sipping coffee and studying his company’s annual report on his laptop.
That’s when the door creaked open.
A janitor, a woman probably in her late 50s, stepped inside carrying a mop and cleaning supplies. She looked nervous.
“Excuse me, Sir… I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I just need to mop the floor real quick,” she said politely.
Caleb looked up to acknowledge her—and suddenly froze. His heart skipped a beat.
The woman… her face… it looked exactly like her.
His eyes widened in disbelief. It felt like he had just seen a ghost.
The janitor resembled his late mother, the one who’d supposedly died in a car accident 28 years ago. Caleb had only seen her in one old photo, but this woman… she looked just like her.
“Oh my God… this is unbelievable,” Caleb whispered. He tried to stay calm. “It’s okay. Come in,” he said, eyes fixed on her face. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before… but your face—it looks so familiar.”
The woman gave a shy smile and turned around. “My name’s Michelle, Sir. I’m new here. Just started working last week. This is a small town, maybe you’ve seen me before? But I only moved here two weeks ago.”
“I’m Caleb,” he replied, still suspicious. “I don’t know why, but I get a strange feeling when I look at you… like I’ve seen you before. And not just seen… it’s something more.”
He picked up his coffee absentmindedly—his hands were slightly shaking—and accidentally knocked it over, spilling it across his laptop.
“Ugh! Not again,” Caleb groaned, jumping back from the desk.
“Oh, no! Don’t worry, Sir, I’ll clean it!” Michelle said quickly. She dropped her mop, rolled up her sleeves, and rushed to wipe down his desk and laptop.
As she wiped the laptop gently, Caleb noticed something. On her left arm was a scar—an oval-shaped burn mark. His breath caught in his throat.
“That scar…” he said quietly. “How did you get that?”
Michelle paused. “This? You’ll think it’s strange, but… I don’t know. I don’t remember much of anything from more than 20 years ago. I have amnesia. No memory of who I am or where I came from. I saw the name ‘Michelle’ on a billboard once, and I decided to use it. That’s all I know.”
“You don’t remember anything?” Caleb asked, his heart pounding now.
Michelle shook her head slowly. “No family. No friends. No one ever came looking for me. I’ve lived a wandering life, doing odd jobs. When I got here and found this janitor job, I was just happy to settle down for once.”
Caleb’s mind was spinning. The scar… her face… the voice… Even the way she moved. “Michelle,” he said softly, “this is going to sound crazy… but you look just like my mother. She died 28 years ago. And she had that exact same scar.”
Michelle looked stunned. “I look like your mother? Oh my goodness… really?”
“Yes,” Caleb said, barely believing the words coming out of his mouth. “I’ve only seen one photo of her. My dad told me she died when I was a baby. But now I’m not sure. Would you… would you be willing to come to the hospital with me? To take a DNA test? I don’t know why I feel this way, but something isn’t adding up.”
Michelle was quiet for a moment. Then she nodded. “Yes. I want to know too.”
They drove to the hospital in silence. Caleb gripped the steering wheel tightly, his mind racing.
“What if I’m just imagining things?” he thought. “What if this is all just a coincidence?”
He looked at Michelle through the rearview mirror. Her eyes. They pulled him back to a memory buried deep inside…
Twelve years ago, when Caleb was seventeen…
Caleb was helping his dad, William, fix their old roof on a warm Saturday afternoon.
“See, champ?” William said cheerfully, yanking up a rotten plank with a claw hammer. “Twist and pull. Easy!”
“Ugh, Dad… why don’t we just hire a carpenter?” Caleb sighed. “This is boring. And tiring.”
William laughed. “If we pay someone else to do everything, we’ll end up broke—like your Uncle Dexter. And lazy—also like Uncle Dexter! Now come on. There’s more in the attic.”
Grumbling, Caleb climbed into the dusty attic and started pulling out old floor planks. That’s when he spotted something hidden underneath—an old, crumpled photograph.
He picked it up. It showed a woman he didn’t recognize holding a baby.
“Who’s this?” he wondered aloud.
He turned it over. Written on the back in faded ink were the words: “Baby Caleb with Mommy. Happy Birthday, Sweetheart :)”
His heart stopped.
“That’s me?” he whispered. “But… who’s the woman? That’s not Mom…”
And there it was—that scar on her arm. The same scar Michelle had.
He rushed downstairs and confronted his father.
“Dad… who is this?” he demanded, showing the photo.
William’s face turned pale. “Wh-where did you find that?”
“In the attic. Under a floor plank. Who is she? Why does it say she’s my mother?”
William looked like he’d seen a ghost. “I… I can explain,” he said shakily.
He led Caleb to the kitchen, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and sat down, trembling.
“Caleb… Olivia isn’t your real mother,” he confessed. “You were just a baby when your birth mother… Sarah… died in a car accident. I was devastated. I remarried later, for your sake. So you’d have a mom.”
Caleb was stunned.
“You should’ve told me,” he said tearfully.
“I know,” William whispered, “but I thought it was for the best.”
The next day, they went to Sarah’s grave. Caleb knelt by the tombstone, tears falling as he whispered, “I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t know. I’ll come back to visit often. I promise.”
Back in the present, Caleb snapped out of his memory as a car honked behind him. Michelle leaned forward.
“Sir, we should keep going,” she said softly.
“Yes, yes… sorry,” he replied, and drove the rest of the way in silence.
At the hospital, Caleb spoke urgently to the nurse. “We need a DNA maternity test. I’ll pay whatever it costs. Please… we need the results today.”
Michelle sat beside him nervously. Caleb turned to her.
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
Michelle stared ahead. “Waking up in the woods. A woodcutter said he found me floating in the river. Then I was in a hospital. The doctors said I had amnesia. And now… this new life.”
Hours passed. Then finally, the nurse returned with the test results.
Caleb ripped open the envelope.
“Maternity match: 99.99%.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“You’re my mother,” he whispered. “You’re really my Mom!”
Michelle burst into tears, holding him tight. But something still didn’t make sense.
“Then why did Dad lie?” Caleb said. “Why would he tell me you were dead?”
“I don’t know,” Michelle said softly.
“Well, I’m going to find out. But I need your help. Are you with me?”
Michelle nodded. “I am.”
An hour later, they parked across the street from William’s mansion.
“Ready?” Caleb asked.
“Ready,” Michelle replied. “I remember everything you told me. Let’s do this.”
She walked up to the door and knocked.
When William opened it, he froze.
“Jennifer??” he gasped.
Michelle smiled. “Jennifer? No, I’m Michelle. I’m from Mayflower Cosmetics. Just here to give your wife a gift set.”
William blinked. “Oh… sorry. You just look like someone I used to know.”
“I get that a lot,” Michelle laughed. “And I have amnesia—don’t remember anything before 20 years ago.”
William hesitated. “Would you like to come in for a cup of coffee?”
“Why not?” Michelle replied, stepping inside.
As they walked to the kitchen, William glanced at her arm. That scar. He suddenly felt cold.
It was her.
But before he could react, Caleb stepped into the room.
“Dad,” he said. “We need to talk.”
William froze, caught between the past and the present, as the truth finally prepared to surface.
