Chapter 3 - The DNA Test
At 8:14 the next morning, Dr. Morrison called.
James answered before the first ring finished.
“Tell me.”
“The probability of paternity is 99.9987 percent.”
James said nothing.
Across the breakfast room, Luna sat beneath a chandelier eating pancakes cautiously, as though someone might take the plate away.
His daughter.
Not possibly.
Not probably.
His.
James closed his eyes.
“How certain?”
“James, she's your biological daughter.”
The phone lowered from his ear.
Luna noticed him staring.
She stopped chewing.
“Am I in trouble?”
Three words nearly destroyed him.
“No.”
She watched him suspiciously.
James walked toward her.
Every instinct that had made him feared throughout Chicago became useless.
How did a man tell a child he believed her after rejecting her at his gate?
He crouched.
“The doctor finished our test.”
Luna put down her fork.
“He says you're my daughter.”
Her eyes filled immediately.
James felt something tighten inside his chest.
“I told you.”
“I know.”
“You said you didn't have one.”
“I was wrong.”
“Mommy said grown-ups don't like saying that.”
A broken laugh escaped him.
“Your mother sounds like she knew people.”
“She knew you.”
James's smile disappeared.
“Tell me about her.”
Luna looked down.
“She got sick.”
“When?”
“A long time.”
“What kind of sick?”
“I don't know. She coughed. Sometimes there was blood.”
James's hands curled.
“Why didn't she come here?”
“She said we couldn't.”
“Why?”
Luna whispered, “Because the bad lady would find us.”
James became perfectly still.
“What bad lady?”
Luna's eyes moved toward the doorway.
Rebecca stood there.
A coffee cup slipped from her hand.
It shattered.
Luna recoiled.
James rose.
Rebecca looked down at the porcelain.
“How clumsy of me.”
James didn't move.
“Luna,” he said, “go with Victor.”
Victor appeared almost immediately.
The girl climbed down and took his hand.
At the doorway, she looked back at James.
“Daddy?”
The word hit him harder than a bullet ever had.
“Yes?”
“Don't let her throw me outside.”
Rebecca's face turned white.
James crossed the room after Luna left and shut the doors.
“Explain.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“She is traumatized.”
“She is terrified of you.”
“She doesn't know me.”
“She knew enough to ask me not to let you throw her outside.”
Rebecca's composure cracked.
“Because I'm the only person here behaving rationally!”
James stepped closer.
“Who was Evelyn?”
“I told you—”
“Stop lying.”
Silence.
James placed the wedding photograph on the table.
“You knew her.”
Rebecca looked at it.
Finally, she whispered, “Yes.”
James felt the world narrow.
“How?”
“She worked for your family.”
“Doing what?”
“Financial analysis.”
“And?”
“You became obsessed with her.”
“Married her?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
James noticed.
“Victor found no certificate.”
“Because your father would never have allowed it.”
“My father died seven years ago.”
“And before he died, he made it clear Evelyn was unacceptable.”
James stared at the photograph.
“Then why am I dressed as a groom?”
Rebecca swallowed.
“You planned a ceremony.”
“Did it happen?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying again.”
Rebecca's eyes filled with tears.
“You don't understand what she did to you.”
“Then tell me.”
“She separated you from everyone. Your family. Your organization. Me.”
“Why you?”
Rebecca's lips parted.
James suddenly understood.
“You loved me.”
She looked away.
“For years.”
“And Evelyn knew?”
“Yes.”
A knock interrupted them.
Victor entered carrying an envelope.
“We found something.”
James followed him into the study.
Behind the lowest drawer of James's old desk was a hidden compartment.
It had been empty.
Except someone had recently disturbed the dust.
“What was stored here?” James asked.
Victor shook his head.
“Whatever it was, somebody took it last night.”
James remembered the missing medical file.
“Cameras?”
“Disabled for eleven minutes.”
“By whom?”
“Security credentials belonging to Rebecca.”
Rebecca appeared behind them.
“That is impossible.”
Victor held up a tablet.
“Your code.”
“Someone copied it.”
James looked at her.
Then Luna entered unexpectedly, holding her stuffed bear.
“Daddy?”
James softened.
“What is it?”
She walked toward the open compartment.
Then her eyes widened.
“Mommy knew that place.”
James crouched.
“What?”
“She showed me a picture.”
“Of this desk?”
Luna nodded.
“She said if I found you and you didn't remember, I had to tell you something.”
James's pulse accelerated.
“What?”
Luna struggled to remember.
Then she spoke slowly.
“Mommy said, ‘Tell Daddy the moon isn't in the sky.’”
Nobody understood.
Except Rebecca.
Her face drained instantly.
James turned toward her.
“What does that mean?”
“I have no idea.”
Luna pointed toward the ceiling.
“No. Mommy said you'd know where to look.”
James stared upward.
Above the desk was an old carved wooden ceiling panel.
At its center—
A crescent moon.
Victor brought a ladder.
Behind the carving, they found a narrow metal box.
James opened it.
Inside were three passports, a flash drive, and a sealed envelope.
Written across the front in Evelyn's handwriting were five words:
JAMES — IF YOU FORGOT ME.
His hands shook as he opened it.
There was only one sentence inside.
The crash was not an accident.
May you like
James looked up.
Rebecca was gone.
