Chương 10
Another:
The family cannot absorb another cycle with Mara at the center.
Mara stared at the sentence.
At the center.
As if she had invaded a family she had married into twelve years earlier.
Celeste said, “Then Owen got drunk one night after an argument with you.”
Mara looked up.
“He told me you had once joked that Luke looked more like your college boyfriend than him.”
Mara frowned.
Then she remembered.
A photograph.
Luke at eight months old.
Her old friend Chris had commented on Facebook that Luke had the same ridiculous eyebrows Mara’s college boyfriend, Evan, once had.
Mara had laughed and told Owen, Apparently I cloned Evan’s eyebrows.
Owen had laughed too.
At least she remembered him laughing.
Celeste watched her face.
“You remember.”
“Yes.”
“Victoria used it.”
“How?”
“She said if there was even a chance the children weren’t his, he had a right to know.”
Mara’s stomach turned.
“So you suggested a test.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“He refused.”
Mara blinked.
That had never been part of Owen’s version.
“He refused?”
“At first.”
“Why?”
“He said it was insane.”
Something inside Mara shifted.
Not toward forgiveness.
Toward a new shape of anger.
Celeste continued.
“Victoria kept pushing. Not directly. She would ask whether Owen had ‘resolved the concern.’ She said the trust structure required clarity.”
Richard later confirmed that was false.
No trust document required genetic testing.
Celeste looked at her hands.
“Eventually I told Owen I had ordered a home kit.”
“He agreed.”
“After we fought.”
“About what?”
Celeste looked embarrassed.
“About you.”
Mara waited.
“He said he was tired of hearing your name.”
“That sounds romantic.”
Celeste almost smiled.
It vanished.
“He gave me his sample.”
“And the children?”
Celeste’s mouth tightened.
“I got them from hairbrushes.”
Denise sat forward.
“That would not satisfy the lab protocol shown on the report.”
“I know.”
“Did you ever submit those samples?”
Celeste looked at her attorney.
He nodded once.
“Yes.”
Mara stared.
“To where?”
“A consumer ancestry service.”
Denise frowned.
“For a paternity determination?”
“No.”
“Then what were you doing?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer came quickly.
Too quickly.
Mara leaned forward.
“You knew.”
Celeste’s eyes filled.
“I wanted something that could be made to look like proof.”
Silence.
Her attorney said quietly, “Celeste.”
She shook her head.
“No. She deserves this.”
Mara’s voice went flat.
“My children deserved it.”
“Yes.”
“Keep them in the sentence.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
“My children,” Mara said. “Not evidence. Not obstacles. Not Owen’s guilt. Children.”
Celeste nodded.
“Luke and Sophie deserved it.”
“Continue.”
Celeste took a breath.
“The samples were useless. Victoria said that might be better.”
Mara stared.
“What does that mean?”
“She said a real test created risk.”
Denise looked at Celeste’s attorney.
He was writing something now.
Celeste continued.
“Victoria told me she knew someone who could create a document that would make Owen stop asking questions.”
“Evan Tully.”
“Yes.”
“Did she contact him?”
“No. My brother did.”
“Because Victoria paid him.”
“Yes.”
Mara’s face remained still.
“Did your brother know?”
“Not everything.”
“Everything meaning fraud?”
“He knew the document was not real.”
Denise said, “That distinction will matter later.”
Celeste nodded.
Mara looked down at the emails.
“And Owen?”
“He got the report.”
“And believed it.”
“Yes.”
“Immediately?”
Celeste hesitated.
“No.”
Mara looked up.
“He didn’t?”
“He stared at it for maybe twenty minutes.”
“What did he say?”
Celeste swallowed.
“He said, ‘This can’t be right.’”
The conference room seemed to shrink.
“He called the lab?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I told him I already had.”
Mara’s eyes sharpened.
“What did you tell him they said?”
“That the result was conclusive.”
Denise wrote something.
Mara did not look away from Celeste.
“And he believed you.”
“Eventually.”
“What convinced him?”
Celeste’s face twisted.
“This is the part you’re going to hate.”
“There are categories now?”
“I told him you refused to authorize a second test.”
Mara stared.
Celeste continued quickly.
“I said I had contacted you through an intermediary and you refused.”
“You told him I knew?”
“Yes.”
“You told him I knew the report existed?”
“Yes.”
Mara’s hands went cold.
“And you told him I refused to retest.”
“Yes.”
Mara sat back.
For nearly a year, she had been unable to understand one thing.
Owen knew her.
He knew how stubborn she was.
He knew that when accused of something she had not done, she became nearly impossible to live with until the issue was resolved.
Why had he not believed her when she demanded another test?
Now she understood.
Celeste had built the lie in layers.
Not only a false result.
A false reaction from Mara.
A false refusal.
A false silence.
She had made Owen believe Mara’s own insistence on another test was part of the performance.
Mara looked at Celeste.
“You made everything I said sound guilty before I said it.”
Celeste’s eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
Mara sat very still.
She had promised herself she would never become the woman who threw a glass in a conference room.
She understood that woman now.
She did not become her.
“What did Victoria say after Owen believed it?”
Celeste wiped beneath one eye.
“She said, ‘Now let him make his own decision.’”
Mara laughed once.
Quietly.
Denise looked at her.
Mara shook her head.
“No. That’s perfect.”
Celeste’s attorney said, “Mara—”
“No, it’s perfect. She poisoned the room and then congratulated herself for not choosing where he sat.”
Celeste said nothing.
Mara gathered the emails.
“Why are you giving me this?”
“Because Victoria is telling people I acted alone.”
“That bothers you?”
“Yes.”
“More than what you did to my children?”
Celeste winced.
Mara waited.
Celeste looked up.
“No.”
Mara did not believe her fully.
But she believed enough.
Celeste continued.
“My lawyers think cooperating may matter.”
“There it is.”
“Yes.”
Mara’s expression changed slightly.
Celeste met her eyes.
“I’m not going to pretend I woke up moral.”
The room went quiet.
That, strangely, Mara respected.
Not admired.
May you like
Respected.
Celeste stood after the meeting and hesitated near the door.
