Chapter 5: The DNA Test
I didn’t sleep that night.
After putting Lily to bed, I sat in my study for hours, going through every memory I had of Grace. Every conversation. Every story she had told me about her past.
None of it had been real.
She had erased an entire life — a daughter — and built a new one with me. And I had believed every word.
At 3 a.m., I called my lawyer, David Chen.
“I need a DNA test done immediately,” I said. “Discreetly. I want to know if a teenage girl named Ava Reed is biologically related to my late wife, Grace Cole.”
David was silent for a moment.
“Ethan… are you sure about this?”
“I’m sure.”
“I’ll have someone at the house by morning with the kits. We can have preliminary results within forty-eight hours.”
After I hung up, I walked to Lily’s nursery and stood in the doorway, watching her sleep.
She looked so peaceful. So innocent.
I had no idea what bringing Ava into our lives would do to her. To us.
But I also knew I couldn’t ignore this.
The next morning, Ava came downstairs wearing the same faded hoodie from the night before. Her hair was damp from a shower, and she looked younger than she had on the plane.
Margaret was already in the kitchen, drinking coffee and looking like she hadn’t slept either.
I had breakfast brought in — simple eggs, toast, and fruit. None of us ate much.
At 9 a.m., David arrived with a medical professional. They took cheek swabs from Ava, Margaret, and me. Lily was too young for a cheek swab, but they took a sample from her pacifier and a strand of her hair.
Ava didn’t ask questions. She simply opened her mouth when asked and sat quietly while they worked.
After they left, the three of us sat in the living room again.
Margaret finally spoke.
“You’re going to destroy everything Grace built,” she said. “She wanted a fresh start. She wanted to forget.”
I looked at her.
“Grace lied to me for five years. She let me marry her without knowing she had a daughter. She let me believe I was the only family she had left. I think I deserve to know why.”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them away.
“She was ashamed,” she said quietly. “She got pregnant at nineteen by a boy who didn’t care about her. She felt like a failure. When she gave Ava to me, she said she was going to become someone new. Someone better. And she did. She became your wife. Lily’s mother. She was happy with you.”
Ava’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“Then why didn’t she ever come back for me?”
Margaret looked at her granddaughter with something close to pain.
“Because she was afraid,” she said. “Afraid that if she tried to be your mother again, she would fail you twice.”
The room fell silent.
Ava stood up suddenly.
“I need some air,” she said.
She walked out onto the terrace and stood with her back to us, her arms wrapped around herself.
I watched her for a moment, then followed.
I stood beside her, looking out at the city.
“You don’t have to stay,” I said quietly. “If this is too much, I can have my driver take you anywhere you want to go.”
Ava shook her head.
“I’ve spent six months wondering if I should find you,” she said. “Now that I’m here… I don’t want to leave yet.”
She looked at me.
“I know you probably hate her right now,” she said. “For lying to you. But… she wasn’t a bad person. She was just scared. And young. And alone.”
I didn’t answer.
Because I didn’t know how I felt about Grace anymore.
I only knew that standing next to this girl who had her eyes, I felt something I hadn’t felt since the funeral.
May you like
I felt like I was finally seeing the full picture of the woman I had loved and lost.
And it was both more beautiful and more painful than I had ever imagined.
