“Isn’t that a crime? No doctor would do that,” Jake exclaimed, perplexed.
“There’s an open police investigation into the matter now. And my parents might even go to jail for it. So much has happened since I discovered I wasn’t their biological daughter. It’s been so complicated, and it would be hard to explain. But I wanted to meet you and see if you wanted to take a DNA test to confirm what I suspect,” Nicole asked.
Jake agreed, as he, too, craved answers.
Jake told Nicole about how they lost their daughter.
“My wife died of sheer grief two years later. She couldn’t deal with the loss,” Jake continued. “And now you’re telling me that 20 years of pain have been for nothing? You’re Hope?”
“Yes. I know it’s hard because finding out my parents were possibly involved in the theft of a child has been such a shock, but I have to know the truth.”
Jake consented to the DNA test after realizing Nicole was adamant she was his daughter. Deep down, he prayed this girl was his daughter.
When the test results were finally released, they revealed that Nicole was Jake’s daughter.
They hugged and sobbed tears of joy before heading to the detective in charge of investigating the suspected baby swap that occurred 20 years earlier.
The actual number of exchanged babies was unknown, but Jake took comfort in the thought that they could help the cops in this terrible situation.
Nicole’s parents, who had reared her, were eventually jailed for paying hospital workers and snatching her away from her biological parents.
Jake and Nicole were relieved they had found each other, but their hearts hurt for Nora, who died believing her daughter was dead.
Years passed, and Jake was still unable to overcome the pain that accompanied the deaths of the two people he loved the most.
He visited Nora and Hope’s graves every week.
