Chương 5
While he ate, the buzzer sounded.
Elena froze.
Noah looked at her.
“Grandma?”
“I don’t know.”
She checked the intercom.
“Who is it?”
Robert’s voice came through.
“It’s me.”
She closed her eyes.
Noah whispered, “Grandpa.”
Elena pressed the button.
Robert came up carrying a paper grocery bag.
When she opened the door, his first words were, “I brought doughnuts.”
Noah appeared behind her.
“Mom said never trust people who arrive after a disaster with salad.”
Robert’s face crumpled.
He laughed and cried at the same time.
“Your mother was a wise woman.”
Noah hugged him.
Robert dropped the grocery bag on the entry table and crouched to hold him.
Elena turned away.
She gave them privacy by pretending the coffee maker required immediate attention.
When Robert stood, his eyes were red.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Elena nodded.
“I should have stopped her.”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised him.
She was too tired to make things easier.
Robert accepted it.
“Yes,” he said again. “I should have.”
They sat at the small kitchen table.
Noah ate half a glazed doughnut and left to build something on the living-room floor.
Robert watched him.
“Michael did that.”
“What?”
“Took three bites of something and forgot it existed.”
Elena smiled despite herself.
“He did.”
Robert touched the edge of his coffee cup.
“Daniel wants another test.”
“He can have ten.”
“I think we all should.”
“Okay.”
“Different laboratory. Same collection procedures.”
“Okay.”
He looked at her.
“You’re not going to fight me?”
“Why would I?”
“I don’t know.”
“You think I enjoy this?”
“No.”
“I wanted proof about Noah. That’s all.”
Robert nodded.
“Of course.”
“I did not want Daniel’s life blown up.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
She looked toward Noah.
“He asked me last night if Daniel was still his uncle.”
Robert’s fingers tightened around the mug.
“What did you say?”
“I said yes.”
He let out a breath.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. He figured it out before I did.”
Robert looked confused.
“Blood doesn’t decide whether Daniel is your son.”
Robert’s eyes filled again.
Elena leaned back.
“Please don’t cry. I’m running on three hours of sleep and I cannot handle a crying seventy-two-year-old man before nine.”
He laughed through his nose.
“Fair.”
They sat quietly.
Outside, someone in the parking lot struggled to start a motorcycle.
After a while Robert said, “Your mother would have hated all of this.”
“She hated most Hale events after 2019.”
“She hated Margaret.”
“She was more polite about it.”
“Only in front of you.”
Elena looked at him.
Robert smiled faintly.
“Sarah once called Margaret a human homeowners association.”
Elena laughed so hard coffee went up her nose.
Noah shouted from the living room, “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“That sounded like something.”
“Grandpa said a bad thing.”
Robert raised his hands.
“I quoted your mother.”
Noah accepted this explanation.
The laughter left slowly.
Robert stared into his coffee.
“There were things I ignored,” he said.
Elena waited.
“About Daniel?”
“Not exactly.”
He rubbed the gold band on his finger.
“When Daniel was born, there were complications at the hospital. Not with Margaret. With records.”
“What records?”
“A nurse came in the second day and asked questions about identification bands. They said there had been a clerical problem in the nursery.”
Elena sat straighter.
“What kind?”
“They never explained it. This was 1983. There weren’t electronic charts. Everything was paper. Somebody had apparently transposed two numbers.”
“And you never thought about it again?”
“I did for a while.”
“What happened?”
“They told us everything had been verified.”
“Verified how?”
Robert shook his head.
“I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember?”
“It was forty-three years ago.”
Elena immediately regretted her tone.
Robert looked exhausted.
“Daniel was our baby,” he said. “He was in Margaret’s arms. He had a little scratch over his left eyebrow. He cried constantly unless I walked him around the room. Someone from administration apologized. Then we went home.”
“Did Margaret remember this?”
“Yes.”
“You talked about it last night?”
Robert looked toward the window.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“She told me I was confused.”
“Are you?”
“I’m seventy-two, not dead.”
Elena almost smiled.
Robert did not.
“She remembers,” he said.
That afternoon Daniel called again.
Elena answered.
“I’m doing another test,” he said.
“I know.”
“Dad told you.”
“He was here.”
A pause.
“You let him in.”
“Yes.”
“You won’t answer me, but you let him in.”
“Noah was awake when you called at one in the morning.”
“I called at ten.”
“And eleven. And twelve fifteen. And one.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Okay.”
Elena leaned against the kitchen counter.
Noah was coloring at the table.
“What do you need?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a dangerous starting point.”
“I need to ask about the report.”
“Ask.”
“Was the second finding something you requested?”
“No.”
“So why did they test me against Mom and Dad?”
“The consent form listed all proposed relationships.”
“I know what the form said.”
“Then why are you asking me?”
“Because I don’t understand why anyone thought to include parentage confirmation for me.”
Elena hesitated.
She remembered the collection appointment.
Margaret had arrived ten minutes early in cream trousers and a navy jacket. She complained about the waiting-room music. Daniel joked with the phlebotomist even though nobody was drawing blood.
The laboratory technician had reviewed the relationship map.
Margaret and Robert: alleged grandparents of Noah.
Noah: alleged grandson.
Daniel: known biological son for comparative analysis.
Daniel had signed.
“Because your mother called you a control sample,” Elena said.
Silence.
“What?”
“That’s what she said.”
“When?”
“At the appointment.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“You were talking to Claire.”
Daniel swore softly.
Elena continued.
“The technician said if a person is being included as a known relative, their stated relationship gets tested as part of the panel. Margaret said fine.”
“She knew that could happen?”
“She signed the same document you did.”
Daniel said nothing.
Elena looked at Noah.
He was drawing a shark with approximately sixty purple teeth.
“Daniel?”
May you like
“I’m here.”
“You should talk to the lab, not me.”
