Shreve (Ron Cephas Jones) recalls Poppy’s mother fled just over 4 years after they got married and went back to the man who is Poppy’s biological father. Poppy (Octavia Spencer) and Desiree stayed with Shreve. “I figured out how to comb hair with one hand and change the diaper with the other. It only lasted a few months,” Shreve says in this EXCLUSIVE preview of the February 3 episode of Truth Be Told.

Poppy cuts in, “She left us. She left you.” Shreve replies, “But she came back. That’s what matters. She came back”. Poppy doesn’t understand how Shreve could take her mother back after what she did.

“How could I not? You and I both know the danger of letting one mistake define you,” Leander explains. “She asked for my forgiveness and I gave it… because I loved her and she loved me. And we hung onto that. She wanted to forget about him, and so did I. We kept looking forward to get back to us.”

He says they “redefined our family, our life.” Poppy, with tears in her eyes, asks Shreve, “Is he my biological father?” Shreve replies, “Yes.”

At the end of season 2, viewers learned that Shreve was not Poppy’s birth father after he stumbled upon her birth certificate that he kept hidden. Shreve and Poppy’s relationship has always been complicated. He ended up leaving her in a foster home years ago, but now he wishes he hadn’t. Shreve decided to burn the birth certificate.

The official synopsis for the February 3 episode reads, “Markus tries getting to the bottom of a shocking discovery. Eva makes a startling confession to Poppy.”

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In season 3, Poppy, frustrated by the lack of media attention for several young missing Black girls, teams with an unorthodox principal, played by Gabrielle Union, to keep the victims’ names in the public eye, while chasing down leads to a suspected sex trafficking ring that may have ensnared them. In addition to Gabrielle and Octavia, season 3 stars returning cast members Mekhi Phifer, David Lyons, Ron Cephas Jones, Merle Dandridge, Tracie Thoms, Haneefah Wood, Mychala Faith Lee, and Tami Roman. New episodes of Truth Be Told season 3 premiere Fridays on Apple TV+.