Chapter 2 - The Results Name Tyler’s Father
The nurse did not look at Richard.
She looked at Emily.
“Do you want me to explain the result?”
Emily held her newborn tighter.
“Yes.”
Richard stepped forward.
“She is exhausted.”
A security officer blocked him.
“Sir, stay where you are.”
Emily’s cheek still burned from the slap.
Her son whimpered against her hospital gown.
“Tell me.”
The nurse turned the monitor slightly away from Richard.
“This was a rapid genetic relationship panel.”
Emily frowned.
“For what relationship?”
The nurse hesitated.
“It compares the baby’s DNA against a submitted reference sample.”
“I never submitted one.”
“I understand.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Tyler looked toward the door.
Emily noticed.
“Whose sample?”
The nurse read the authorization screen.
“Tyler Bennett.”
Emily stared at him.
Tyler was Richard’s younger half-brother.
He was twenty-nine, reckless, and usually treated like the embarrassing
relative nobody trusted with serious matters.
Yet Richard had handed Emily’s newborn directly to him.
“Why was Tyler tested against my son?”
Nobody answered.
The nurse continued.
“The system was asked to evaluate possible paternity.”
Emily’s heart stopped.
Richard shouted, “This is exactly why you shouldn’t be reading partial
results.”
Emily stared at him.
“You thought Tyler was my baby’s father?”
“No.”
“Then why the test?”
Margaret finally spoke.
“It wasn’t about you.”
Emily laughed once, broken and disbelieving.
“It was a paternity test on my newborn. How is it not about me?”
The nurse lifted a hand.
“There’s more.”
Everyone went silent.
“The result excludes Mr. Bennett as the child’s biological father.”
Emily almost sagged with relief, though the accusation itself made her
sick.
She looked at Richard.
“You knew that would happen.”
Richard said nothing.
The nurse continued.
“But the laboratory detected a close genetic relationship.”
Emily looked back.
“What relationship?”
“Based on the markers, Mr. Bennett is very likely the baby’s biological
uncle.”
Emily blinked.
“That makes sense. Tyler is Richard’s brother.”
The nurse’s expression did not change.
“No.”
Emily felt cold.
“What?”
“The relationship pattern is not consistent with Mr. Bennett being
related through the baby’s presumed father.”
Richard went pale.
Emily looked between them.
“I don’t understand.”
The nurse spoke carefully.
“The baby appears to share DNA with Tyler through the maternal side.”
Silence.
Emily stared.
“My side?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible.”
Tyler whispered, “Not impossible.”
Margaret snapped, “Shut up.”
Emily looked at Tyler.
“What do you know?”
He swallowed.
“My father.”
“What about him?”
Tyler looked at Margaret.
She shook her head.
He ignored her.
“My biological father wasn’t the man who raised me.”
Emily’s pulse raced.
“Who was he?”
Tyler’s eyes filled with shame.
“Dr. Andrew Cole.”
Emily stopped breathing.
That was her father’s name.
The man who had died when she was fourteen.
“No.”
Tyler nodded.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
Emily looked at Richard.
“You knew?”
Richard’s face gave her the answer.
She felt the room tilt.
“My father had another child?”
Margaret spoke.
“Andrew made mistakes.”
Emily looked at her.
“With you?”
Margaret’s silence confirmed it.
Emily almost laughed.
Margaret was Richard’s mother.
Richard’s mother had had an affair with Emily’s father.
Tyler was not Richard’s paternal half-brother.
Tyler was Emily’s paternal half-brother.
The man holding her baby moments earlier was the baby’s biological uncle
through her.
Emily looked at Richard.
“Why did that make you take my son?”
Richard’s eyes moved toward the monitor.
The nurse frowned.
“This still doesn’t explain one additional finding.”
Emily’s stomach dropped.
“What finding?”
“The lab flagged the baby’s sample for another relationship.”
Richard shouted again.
“That test is confidential.”
Emily’s voice became sharp.
“It is my child’s test.”
The nurse looked at Emily.
“Your son’s genetic profile appears in an existing hospital family
database.”
Emily stared.
“Whose?”
The nurse swallowed.
“A deceased pediatric patient.”
Emily felt every muscle tighten.
“What patient?”
The nurse clicked the record.
Then her face changed.
“His name was Noah Mercer.”
Emily looked at Richard.
Richard’s expression collapsed.
She knew that name.
Noah had been Richard’s son from his first marriage.
The little boy who died at age four.
Richard had told Emily the child died from a rare heart condition ten
years earlier.
The nurse continued.
“The relationship probability indicates Noah Mercer and your newborn
share the same biological mother.”
Emily went completely still.
“That’s impossible.”
Richard whispered, “Emily.”
She looked at him.
“I never had another baby.”
“No.”
“Then who was Noah’s mother?”
Richard’s eyes filled.
Emily understood before he answered.
Not who.
What.
A stolen embryo.
A hidden pregnancy.
A secret older than their marriage.
Richard looked at Margaret.
Then at Tyler.
May you like
Finally at Emily.
“Noah’s mother was you.”
