Chapter 10 - The Results Arrive
The laboratory called the following morning.
The results were ready.
Michael wanted to go alone.
Emma refused.
"This affects both of us."
They left Lily with Emma's sister for two hours and drove downtown.
Neither spoke during the journey.
At the laboratory, a genetic counselor brought them into a private office.
Two sealed envelopes rested on the desk.
One concerned Lily.
The other concerned Robert Vale.
The counselor began with Lily.
"Mr. Bennett, the probability of paternity exceeds 99.99 percent."
Michael closed his eyes.
Emma had not realized how much tension she carried until that moment.
Michael took her hand.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For letting my mother's poison enter our house."
Emma squeezed his fingers.
"Then we throw it out."
The counselor opened the second report.
Her expression remained professional.
"The preserved sample attributed to Robert Vale is not consistent with biological paternity."
Michael stared.
"So Robert wasn't my father."
"Correct."
Emma's mind raced.
"Can the test tell us whether Henry Bennett was?"
"No. We would require a suitable sample."
Henry had been cremated.
Michael leaned back.
For thirty-six years, Robert Vale had lived believing Michael might be his son.
Diane had apparently known he was not.
Why conceal that?
Emma remembered Rachel Cole's note.
If Robert ever learns the truth, Henry will learn what I did.
The counselor handed them the official reports.
Outside the building, Michael stood on the sidewalk in silence.
Then his phone rang.
Diane.
He declined it.
It rang again.
He declined it again.
Emma said, "She knows."
"How?"
"I don't know."
His phone received a message.
DO NOT TAKE THOSE RESULTS HOME.
Michael showed Emma.
A second message appeared.
Come to the mansion. Alone.
Michael typed back.
No.
Diane responded instantly.
If you care about Lily, you will listen to me.
Emma felt anger rise.
"She's threatening our daughter again."
Michael called Samuel.
The lawyer answered immediately.
When Michael explained, Samuel became quiet.
"Do not go to Diane alone."
"Why?"
"Because Henry left another instruction."
Michael stopped walking.
"What instruction?"
"If Diane ever directly questions Lily's bloodline, I am authorized to release a sealed statement."
"Release it."
"I need you here."
They drove to Samuel's office.
The sealed statement was a video recording.
Henry appeared thinner than Michael remembered.
He had recorded it shortly before his death.
Samuel played it.
Henry looked directly into the camera.
"Michael, if you're seeing this, your mother has done the one thing I prayed she would never do."
Michael's face tightened.
Henry continued.
"She has turned uncertainty about your birth against your child."
Emma covered her mouth.
Henry looked tired.
And furious.
"I need you to understand something before you hear anything else. Lily is protected. Emma is protected. You are protected."
Michael whispered, "Dad."
Henry continued.
"The secret your mother has kept is not that you are another man's son."
The room became still.
"It is that there was another Bennett child."
Michael stared at the screen.
Henry spoke slowly.
"You had a brother."
Emma felt the air leave her lungs.
Michael did not move.
May you like
Henry's next words were worse.
"And your mother made sure no one knew he existed."
