Chapter 3 - The Test Margaret Had Already Used as a Weapon
The report did not contain a simple answer.
That was important.
Margaret had ordered a private kinship analysis using samples without the sort of witnessed chain of custody required for legal proof.
The laboratory itself warned that the results were informational.
But one section was clear enough to create questions.
Lily showed no supported biological relationship to Daniel’s paternal uncle, Charles Hayes.
That was the page Margaret photographed and used to tell Lily she was not “really” part of the Hayes family.
The cruelty of that made me sick.
Of course Lily wasn’t biologically related to Charles.
Daniel wasn’t her biological father.
Nobody had ever claimed otherwise.
The test proved something we already knew and Margaret weaponized it against a child.
But she had ordered another comparison.
Daniel to Charles.
That result was strange.
It showed no supported close paternal relationship either.
Charles was Robert Hayes’s younger brother.
If Robert was Daniel’s biological father, Daniel should have shown a strong biological connection to Charles.
He didn’t.
Then there was Thomas Avery.
His result appeared only in the technical section I had received from the lab after Daniel authorized release that morning.
The summary page Margaret carried to the family party excluded the conclusion.
She had removed it.
That was why I brought the complete report.
Daniel sat beside me that night in our kitchen.
Lily was upstairs asleep.
The party had ended early.
Margaret remained at her own house.
Daniel read the report repeatedly.
“This thing could be wrong.”
“Yes.”
“The samples weren’t witnessed.”
“I know.”
“Thomas could’ve mixed something up.”
“Yes.”
He looked at me.
I wasn’t going to tell him what to believe.
Then he noticed the date.
Margaret ordered the test four months earlier.
“Why would she do this four months ago?”
I had asked myself the same thing.
The hostility toward Lily had escalated only recently.
First, Margaret stopped including Lily in photographs posted by the family foundation.
Then she suggested Daniel attend family functions alone.
Then came comments about “real grandchildren.”
I thought she was becoming more openly cruel.
Now I wondered whether something had frightened her first.
Daniel called Thomas.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
Then his phone buzzed.
A text.
Daniel, I think you need to speak to your mother before you speak to me.
Daniel read it twice.
His face changed.
“That isn’t something an innocent person says.”
I hated how true that sounded.
Then another message arrived.
I’m sorry. I believed she had already told you years ago.
May you like
Daniel looked at me.
“Told me what?”
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