Chapter 8 - Michael Demands a DNA Test
Michael refused to accept it without evidence.
That was reasonable.
Robert agreed immediately.
Margaret began crying.
Emily watched her.
“You knew.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Not at first.”
That phrase changed everything.
Michael stared at her.
“When did you know?”
Margaret sat down.
When Margaret delivered her own son, the baby died within hours from
complications.
Robert had collapsed emotionally.
Margaret had too.
Days later, Edward Pierce approached her.
He knew Diane wanted her surviving baby placed for adoption.
He also knew Margaret had lost hers.
Edward proposed an illegal substitution.
Margaret initially refused.
Then grief overwhelmed judgment.
She agreed.
Records were altered.
Thomas and Diane were told their son had died.
Robert was told Michael was his biological child.
Robert stood so abruptly his chair fell backward.
“You let me raise Thomas’s son without telling me?”
Margaret cried.
“I loved him.”
“That is not an answer.”
Michael looked physically ill.
Robert turned to him immediately.
“You are my son.”
Michael’s eyes filled.
“Maybe not.”
“No. Biology does not get to erase thirty-eight years.”
Thomas said nothing.
He understood that this was not the moment to claim anything.
DNA testing was arranged.
The results confirmed it.
Thomas Carter was Michael’s biological father.
Diane Walsh was his biological mother.
Jennifer Walsh was Diane’s daughter with Samuel, making Jennifer
Michael’s maternal half-sister.
The revelation destroyed Margaret’s fantasy instantly.
The woman she had spent years insisting Michael should have married was
his sister.
Jennifer stared at Margaret when the result arrived.
“You spent years trying to put us together.”
Margaret looked sick.
“I didn’t know Diane was his mother until last month.”
Thomas had contacted her after uncovering the adoption records.
That was why she tried to pay him.
Not merely to hide the old fraud.
To prevent Michael from learning the truth before Margaret could control
how it emerged.
Emily finally understood tomorrow’s dinner.
Margaret wanted Jennifer there because she still intended to present her
as the woman Michael should have chosen.
But she had already learned Jennifer was Michael’s sister.
Emily stared at her.
“You knew.”
Margaret began shaking.
Emily repeated it.
“You knew Jennifer was his sister, and you were still going to seat them
together?”
Margaret whispered:
“I was going to stop it before anything happened.”
Robert looked at his wife with horror.
Nothing had happened between Michael and Jennifer.
But Margaret had been willing to manipulate the appearance of intimacy
May you like
to drive Emily away.
That was the moment Robert removed his wedding ring.
