Chương 2
Not like this.
Margaret bent toward the coffee table.
Emily pulled the report against herself.
Margaret stopped.
“Give that to me.”
“No.”
“It belongs to me.”
“You brought it into my house and used it to tell me my husband isn’t my baby’s father.”
“I paid for it.”
“I don’t care.”
“Emily.”
“No.”
The word came out calm.
That surprised both of them.
Margaret glanced toward the front windows as though Daniel might already be crossing the yard.
“You are making assumptions.”
“So tell me what I’m supposed to assume.”
“I’m not discussing my marriage with you.”
“This stopped being just your marriage when you tried to take my son.”
“I did not try to take him.”
Emily looked at her.
Margaret’s mouth opened.
She seemed to reconsider the sentence.
“I was upset.”
“You reached for him.”
“I would never hurt Noah.”
“You told me to give him to you.”
“Because I thought—”
Margaret stopped.
Emily waited.
The room smelled faintly of formula from the bottle Daniel had washed before leaving that morning. A burp cloth hung from the arm of the sofa. On the floor beside Emily’s bare foot was one of Daniel’s socks, which had somehow made it downstairs without its partner.
Ordinary things.
Emily found herself staring at the sock.
She wanted very badly for the morning to become ordinary again.
Margaret spoke more quietly.
“I thought there was a possibility that Daniel was being deceived.”
“You thought that because you ran a test on Daniel’s father?”
“You don’t understand how complicated these tests are.”
“Neither do you.”
Margaret’s jaw hardened.
Emily regretted the sentence almost immediately.
Not because it was untrue.
Because she had heard the petty satisfaction in her own voice.
She was too tired, too angry, and too frightened to pretend she was above wanting to hurt Margaret back.
Noah made a small squeaking sound.
Both women looked down.
Emily adjusted the blanket away from his nose.
Margaret’s expression changed when she looked at him. For a moment, she was simply a grandmother looking at a sleeping newborn.
That almost made everything worse.
The garage door began to rise.
Margaret flinched.
Emily heard Daniel’s car roll inside.
Margaret whispered, “Please.”
Emily looked up.
It was the first time she had ever heard Margaret say that word to her without attaching a request that sounded like an instruction.
“Please what?”
“Give me five minutes.”
“To do what?”
“To explain.”
“You’ve had eleven days.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Then five minutes isn’t going to fix it.”
The door from the garage opened.
Daniel came in carrying his keys in one hand and a hospital document envelope in the other.
He took three steps into the living room and stopped.
His eyes moved from Emily’s face to his mother.
Then to the report.
Then to Noah.
“What happened?”
Margaret spoke first.
“Daniel, your wife is hysterical.”
Emily almost laughed.
It came out as a strange short breath.
Daniel looked at Emily again.
She was sitting completely still.
“Hysterical?”
Margaret’s expression shifted.
“That isn’t what I meant.”
Daniel put his keys on the entry table.
“Mom, why are you here?”
“I came because somebody had to tell her the truth.”
Daniel’s gaze sharpened.
“You were told not to come over.”
“I was told not to ask questions.”
“No. You were told not to come over until I was home.”
“I’m your mother.”
“And this is my house.”
Margaret’s lips pressed together.
Daniel crossed the room and crouched beside Emily.
He touched Noah’s blanket first, then Emily’s wrist.
“You okay?”
Emily nodded.
She was not sure whether that was true.
Daniel looked at the pages in her hand.
“What’s that?”
Emily gave them to him.
Margaret said, “Daniel, before you read that—”
He began reading.
Emily watched his face.
Daniel had his mother’s mouth and William’s habit of rubbing one thumb against the side of his index finger when he concentrated.
At least Emily had always thought it was William’s habit.
The thought made her stomach turn.
Daniel looked at the participant names.
His thumb stopped moving.
“What is this?”
Margaret crossed her arms.
“It’s a relationship test.”
“Between Noah and Dad.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at the first page again.
“Why?”
“Because you refused to be realistic.”
“About what?”
“About the possibility that—”
“Say it.”
Margaret looked at Emily.
Daniel stood.
“Don’t look at her. Say it to me.”
Margaret drew in a breath.
“The possibility that Noah wasn’t yours.”
Daniel gave a small nod.
Not agreement.
The kind of nod people gave when they were trying not to react too fast.
“And your solution was to test my father?”
“It was the only sample I had access to.”
“What sample?”
Margaret hesitated.
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“What did you take from Dad?”
“He agreed to a cheek swab.”
Emily looked at her.
Daniel said, “For this?”
Margaret did not answer.
“For this, Mom?”
“He thought it was a genealogy thing.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You lied to him.”
“I did not lie. I said I wanted to look at family genetics.”
“That’s lying.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From my eleven-day-old son?”
“From finding out ten years from now that your entire marriage was—”
“Stop.”
Daniel did not raise his voice.
Margaret stopped.
He looked down at the paper again.
Emily watched him reach the same logical point she had reached.
He read William’s name.
He glanced at the hospital envelope he had brought in.
Then he looked at Margaret.
Something emptied out of his face.
“Wait.”
Margaret said nothing.
Daniel unfolded the hospital report.
He placed it next to Margaret’s test.
Emily could see the certified laboratory header, the collection information, Daniel’s name, Noah’s name.
Daniel pointed at it.
“This says I’m Noah’s father.”
Margaret closed her eyes briefly.
Daniel pointed at the other report.
“This says Dad isn’t biologically related to Noah as a paternal grandfather.”
“Those home tests can be wrong.”
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“You believed it enough to come here and accuse Emily.”
“They can still be wrong.”
