Chapter 7 - Ethan Began to Wonder What His Entire Childhood Had Cost Someone ElseThe drive back to Chicago was silent for almost thirty minutes.
Rachel finally spoke.
“You okay?”
“No.”
She nodded.
That was enough.
Ethan stared through the windshield.
He had spent thirty-six years believing he entered an ordinary family.
Mother.
Father.
Restaurant.
Arguments.
Money problems.
Love expressed badly.
Now he understood his birth had become part of a bargain.
Frank planned to leave Margaret after Lily nearly died.
Margaret became pregnant.
He stayed.
Lily was removed.
The family rebuilt itself around Ethan.
A replacement child.
He hated thinking of himself that way.
Rachel touched his hand.
“You didn’t do this.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He didn’t answer.
At home, Ava ran toward them.
Her color had returned.
She wore pajamas and thick socks despite insisting she wasn’t cold.
Ethan crouched.
She hugged him.
“Did you find her?”
He pulled back.
“Who?”
“The other girl.”
Rachel and Ethan exchanged a glance.
“Yes.”
Ava’s eyes widened.
“She’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“Does Grandma know?”
Ethan paused.
“She knows.”
“Is the girl still scared?”
He thought of Claire sitting stiffly in her warm kitchen forty-four years old and still unable to say Margaret’s name comfortably.
“Sometimes.”
Ava considered this.
Then whispered:
“Me too.”
Ethan held her tighter.
That night, Rachel brought up the paternity accusation.
“We need to deal with it.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
He looked at her.
Rachel’s eyes were angry.
Not guilty.
“Your mother planted something inside our marriage.”
“I’m not letting it grow.”
“It already did.”
“How?”
“You paused at the hospital.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Rachel.”
“For half a second, you wondered.”
“Because she produced a document.”
“A forged document.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
Rachel stood.
“There.”
“What?”
“You’re doing it again.”
His stomach tightened.
“Doing what?”
“Giving Margaret’s version equal weight simply because she said it confidently.”
He started to respond.
Then stopped.
Rachel was right.
Margaret had spent his life exploiting hesitation.
Rachel softened.
“I never used donor sperm.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“If you need a DNA test, say it.”
“I don’t need one.”
“I do now.”
That surprised him.
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“Because I am not spending the next ten years wondering whether one day you’ll look at Ava and hear your mother’s voice.”
Ethan stepped toward her.
“I would never—”
“You don’t know what doubt does over time.”
She wiped a tear angrily.
“Get the test.”
“Rachel.”
“Get it.”
He nodded.
“Okay.”
The samples were submitted privately the next morning.
Results would take several days.
Meanwhile, Margaret was charged with felony child endangerment and unlawful restraint.
Her attorney described the freezer incident publicly as “a tragic misunderstanding during a family disciplinary dispute.”
Rachel nearly threw her phone.
“Disciplinary dispute?”
Ethan took it from her.
“Don’t read comments.”
“I’m not upset about comments.”
“She is already rewriting it.”
A local news outlet obtained the police report.
Then somehow obtained information about Rachel slapping Margaret.
The headline:
RESTAURANT MATRIARCH ACCUSED AFTER VIOLENT FAMILY CONFRONTATION.
Margaret appeared in court wearing a neck brace.
Rachel stared at the television.
“She didn’t hurt her neck.”
Ethan laughed in disbelief.
Of course.
Margaret’s cheek had barely remained red for thirty minutes.
Now she walked like Rachel had thrown her down a staircase.
Her attorney requested a protective order against Rachel.
“She attacked an elderly woman.”
Ethan stood so quickly his chair scraped the floor.
Rachel caught his wrist.
“Don’t.”
“She’s making you the abuser.”
“I know.”
“We have Ava’s medical report.”
“And the freezer.”
“And Claire.”
Rachel looked at him.
“Not yet.”
Claire had not agreed to testify.
She had only agreed to let Collins copy records.
Margaret knew this.
That afternoon Ethan received a text from an unknown number.
You should ask Claire why her first husband left her.
He deleted it.
Another arrived.
Then:
Ask Rachel where she was the night Ava was conceived.
Ethan stared.
His heart started pounding.
Not because he believed it.
Because Margaret knew exactly how to inject poison.
He blocked the number.
Five minutes later, another message came from a different one.
The lab won’t give you the answer you think it will.
Ethan’s blood went cold.
How did Margaret know they had submitted a DNA test?
Only four people knew.
Ethan.
Rachel.
Their attorney.
And the clinic.
He called Rachel.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“My mother knows about the test.”
Silence.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel whispered:
“Ethan…”
“What?”
“What if she isn’t trying to make you doubt Ava?”
“What else would she be doing?”
May you like
Rachel’s answer changed everything.
“What if she’s afraid the DNA test will reveal something about you?”
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