Chapter 4 - THE TEST
Daniel didn’t confront Claire.
Not yet.
Anger wanted him to storm upstairs, drag her out of bed, and demand the truth.
But Daniel Whitmore had built a billion-dollar real estate company by learning one rule:
Never show your hand before you know what cards the other person has.
At 6:12 the next morning, he called his private attorney.
By 8:00, he had arranged a DNA test.
No staff.
No family doctors.
No Whitmore employees.
A private lab two towns away.
Rosa stared at the test kit on the kitchen table.
“I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can.”
“What if I’m wrong?”
“Then we know.”
“And if I’m right?”
Daniel looked toward the ceiling.
Ethan’s nursery was directly above them.
“Then everything changes.”
Rosa rubbed her arms.
“She’ll know.”
“Claire won’t know anything.”
“You don’t understand her mother.”
“I understand Evelyn better than she thinks.”
Rosa gave a bitter laugh.
“No, you don’t.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Before Rosa could answer, footsteps clicked behind them.
Claire.
Fully dressed.
Perfect hair.
Perfect makeup.
A cold smile.
“Good morning.”
Daniel casually covered the kit with a newspaper.
“Morning.”
Claire poured coffee.
Rosa wouldn’t look at her.
Claire noticed.
“You’re still here.”
Daniel stepped in.
“I asked her to stay.”
Claire smiled.
“How generous.”
“Ethan likes her.”
“That isn’t her job.”
“It is now.”
Claire’s cup froze halfway to her lips.
“What?”
“I’m moving Rosa to the nursery staff.”
“No.”
Daniel held her gaze.
“No?”
Claire recovered quickly.
“I mean, we already have a nanny.”
“We have three.”
“And?”
“And none of them can calm him.”
Claire set down the cup.
“I don’t want her near my son.”
Rosa went still.
Daniel watched his wife carefully.
“Why?”
“I don’t trust her.”
“You hired her.”
“That was a mistake.”
Claire walked out.
Daniel waited until her footsteps vanished.
Then Rosa whispered:
“She knows.”
“No. She suspects.”
“That’s worse.”
Daniel collected two samples.
One from Ethan.
One from Rosa.
He personally drove them to the lab.
Forty-eight hours later, the report arrived by encrypted email.
Daniel opened it alone in his office.
Probability of maternity: 99.9997%.
He read the line five times.
Then once more.
His hands began to shake.
Ethan was Rosa’s biological son.
Which meant Claire was not his mother.
Daniel felt sick.
He opened another file.
His own test.
Probability of paternity: 0%.
He stopped breathing.
He wasn’t Ethan’s father either.
A noise came from behind him.
Daniel turned.
Claire stood in the doorway.
She looked at the screen.
Then at him.
May you like
And said:
“You weren’t supposed to find out.”
