Chapter 2: The Test Result Robert Tried to Destroy
Robert grabbed the envelope, but Elena pulled it away before his fingers closed around it.
Daniel stepped between them. “Dad, what are you doing?”
“Protecting you,” Robert snapped.
“From a hospital envelope?”
Margaret put down her wine. “Elena has manipulated everyone since the day she entered this family.”
Elena laughed bitterly. “That is your defense?”
“You arrived with nothing,” Margaret said. “Daniel gave you a home, a name, and a future.”
“I arrived with a nursing degree, a job, and more honesty than this entire room.”
Daniel turned toward Elena. “Tell me what’s inside.”
Elena looked at him for a long moment. “Do you trust me enough to hear it?”
“I don’t know.”
“That is the problem, Daniel. Your parents showed you one blurry video, and you decided I was guilty before asking me a single question.”
“I was hurt.”
“You wanted to be hurt. It was easier than admitting your family had been lying to you.”
Robert pointed at the door. “Take that child and leave my house.”
Daniel spun around. “No one is leaving until I understand what’s happening.”
Elena held out the envelope. “Open it.”
Daniel tore the seal. His hands shook as he unfolded the medical report.
Margaret whispered, “Daniel, you don’t need to read—”
“Be quiet.”
The room went still.
Daniel read the first page, then the second. His face lost its color.
“This is a DNA report,” he said.
Elena nodded.
Daniel looked at the baby sleeping against her chest. “You tested Noah?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother kept saying he didn’t look like you. Because your father secretly took a strand of his hair from the crib. Because I found the lab receipt in Robert’s study.”
Robert’s voice turned hard. “I had every right to protect my son.”
Elena shook her head. “The first test proved Daniel is Noah’s father. But it revealed something else.”
Daniel looked down again. “It says the paternal grandfather relationship is excluded.”
Robert moved toward him. “Those tests make mistakes.”
Daniel backed away. “It says there is zero chance that you are my biological father.”
Margaret gripped the edge of the table.
Daniel looked at her. “Mom?”
Margaret said nothing.
“Mom, look at me.”
Her eyes filled with panic, but still she remained silent.
Daniel’s voice broke. “Is he my father?”
Robert slammed his fist onto the table. “I raised you. That makes me your father.”
“That is not what I asked!”
Elena touched Daniel’s arm, but he pulled away from everyone.
Margaret finally whispered, “It happened before Robert and I were married.”
Robert turned on her. “You told me there was no chance.”
“I believed there wasn’t.”
Daniel stared at both of them. “You knew?”
Robert answered, “I suspected.”
“And you blamed Elena to hide it?”
Robert’s expression hardened. “I was trying to stop this family from being destroyed.”
“You tried to destroy my marriage!”
Margaret began crying. “Daniel, please understand. The truth would have changed everything.”
“It already has.”
Daniel looked at the final line of the report. “There’s a note here. The lab found a close family match already in its database.”
Elena nodded slowly. “That’s why I went to Denver. I met the man the database identified.”
Daniel’s breath caught. “My biological father?”
“No,” Elena said. “His son.”
Daniel frowned. “Then where is my father?”
A knock echoed through the front hall.
May you like
Elena looked toward the door.
“He’s standing outside.”
