Chapter 3 - Ninety-Nine Point Nine-Nine Percent
Daniel brought the report to Claire’s sister’s house that evening.
Claire made him leave it at the door.
She did not invite him inside.
The document came from an accredited private laboratory in Kansas City.
PATERNITY PROBABILITY: 99.9998%.
Claire read the number three times.
There was no ambiguity.
No strange wording.
No questionable conclusion.
Daniel was Lily’s biological father.
Beneath the laboratory report was an invoice.
Daniel Mercer.
$379.
Claire looked at the collection date.
June 12.
Three months earlier.
Then she saw the specimen information.
Alleged Father: buccal swab.
Child: buccal swab.
Mother: not tested.
Claire sat down on her sister Megan’s guest bed.
She knew exactly how Daniel had gotten Lily’s sample.
He brushed her teeth every night when Claire worked late at the dental clinic.
He could have swabbed the inside of Lily’s cheek and told her it was a game.
The thought made Claire feel physically sick.
Not because the test hurt Lily.
Because her daughter had trusted him.
Her phone rang.
Daniel.
Claire answered.
“How did you get her sample?”
Silence.
“Tell me.”
“I told her we were doing a science test.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“You lied to our five-year-old so you could secretly test whether I cheated on you.”
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds exactly like what happened.”
“My mother had been telling me things for months.”
“What things?”
“That you were too close to Noah Bennett.”
Claire stared at the wall.
Noah was her cousin.
Not a distant cousin.
Her first cousin.
Daniel had met him repeatedly.
“She said Lily looked like him.”
“Oh my God.”
“I knew it was crazy.”
“But you tested her anyway.”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“I needed it out of my head.”
Claire lowered the phone.
That sentence hurt more than she expected.
He needed peace.
So he had purchased it with Claire’s dignity.
“What happened when the result came back?”
“I confronted Mom.”
“And?”
“She said she'd been wrong.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Clearly.”
“She asked me not to tell you.”
“And you agreed.”
“I thought telling you would destroy us over something that was already over.”
Claire looked again at the paternity percentage.
Something that was already over.
Except Evelyn had just used it to destroy Lily’s birthday.
Meaning the DNA test had never been over.
Claire turned the page.
Behind the laboratory report was an email Daniel apparently had not realized he had printed.
From Evelyn.
Sent two days after the result.
We need to discuss what happens before the November trust meeting. Do not tell Claire yet.
Claire stopped.
Trust meeting.
She lifted the phone again.
“Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“What happens in November?”
Another silence.
May you like
Claire’s fingers tightened around the paper.
“What trust meeting?”
