Chapter 8 - THE FIRST DNA ENVELOPE
We searched my father’s house until midnight.
Luka wanted me to sleep.
I refused.
Every room now felt like a puzzle Daniel Bennett had built for the daughter he knew would someday come looking.
Behind the piano bench, we found a key.
Inside his study, the key opened an old steel drawer.
The drawer contained three envelopes.
FIRST.
SECOND.
LAST.
My hands trembled.
Luka touched nothing.
“Your decision.”
I opened FIRST.
Inside was a laboratory report dated twenty-five years earlier.
SUBJECT A: MARA BENNETT.
SUBJECT B: ELISE MORETTI BENNETT.
Probability of biological maternity: 99.99 percent.
I almost laughed from relief.
“My mother was really my mother.”
Luka nodded.
I hadn’t realized how badly I needed that certainty.
Beneath it was another comparison.
SUBJECT A: MARA BENNETT.
SUBJECT C: DANIEL BENNETT.
Probability of biological paternity: 99.99 percent.
My father was my father.
No hidden parentage.
No switched baby.
No secret adoption.
Just my parents.
Then why the DNA?
I turned the page.
A third test.
SUBJECT D: ETHAN COLE.
SUBJECT E: RICHARD COLE.
Probability of biological paternity: 0.00 percent.
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
Luka leaned closer.
His face became unreadable.
I read it again.
Ethan was not Richard Cole’s biological son.
My husband had spent his entire life worshiping a father who was not his father.
“There has to be a mistake.”
“No.”
Luka’s voice was very quiet.
“Daniel would have retested.”
“Why would my father have Ethan’s DNA?”
“That’s the question.”
My phone rang.
Ethan.
I answered.
He sounded different.
Not angry.
Scared.
“Mara, is my father there?”
“No.”
“He disappeared.”
“What?”
“His phone is off.”
I looked at the report.
“Ethan, I found something.”
Luka shook his head once.
A warning.
Too late.
“What did you find?”
I swallowed.
“A DNA test.”
Silence.
Then Ethan whispered, “Don’t.”
My entire body went cold.
“You know?”
“I know there are tests.”
“How?”
“My father told me Daniel collected samples illegally.”
“Did he tell you what they showed?”
“No.”
But the way he said it sounded wrong.
“You’re lying.”
“Mara.”
“Is Richard your biological father?”
Silence.
I heard his breathing change.
Then something crashed on his end.
“Mara, listen carefully.”
His voice dropped.
“Do not open the second envelope.”
I stared at Luka.
“Why?”
“Because if Daniel labeled them the way my father thinks he did, the second test identifies who my real father was.”
My pulse thundered.
“You know there are three envelopes?”
Another silence.
That was enough.
“How long have you known about this?”
“Two weeks.”
Two weeks.
Before Sophie’s birth.
Before the fake paternity test.
Before he walked out with Vanessa.
I whispered, “Is this why you left me?”
“No.”
“Then why are you terrified?”
His answer came like a confession.
“Because my father told me the man in that second envelope was murdered.”
The line went dead.
May you like
Luka and I stared at each other.
Then my eyes dropped to the envelope labeled SECOND.
