Chapter 10 - THE TEST MARCUS NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT
Marcus had doubted Ethan was his from the beginning.
That truth hurt in a completely different way.
The petition was never completed through court.
Instead, he secretly collected Ethan's DNA.
A baby bottle.
His own sample.
Private lab.
He received the result when Ethan was fourteen months old.
Confirmed father.
He never told me.
Never apologized for suspecting me.
Never admitted he had tested our child behind my back.
When I confronted him, Marcus didn't deny it.
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“You and David.”
“There was nothing with David.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it seventeen years ago.”
He looked down.
“Yes.”
Ethan sat beside me.
“You thought I wasn't yours.”
“For one year.”
“And after you learned I was?”
Marcus's eyes filled.
“I loved you.”
Ethan shook his head.
“No. That isn't the question.”
He leaned forward.
“After the test proved I was yours, why did you still keep choosing Leo?”
Marcus finally broke.
Not theatrically.
Quietly.
He covered his face.
Because guilt had become attachment.
When he believed Leo might be his, he built a second relationship.
After learning Leo wasn't biologically his, Marcus couldn't bear to abandon him.
But instead of correcting the imbalance, he doubled down.
Every year.
Every missed event.
Every secret payment.
Every lie required another lie.
“I thought there was time,” Marcus whispered.
Ethan's expression changed.
That sentence hurt him most.
“Time for what?”
“To fix us.”
“You had eighteen years.”
Silence.
Then Marcus admitted something else.
He had planned to leave me after Ethan graduated.
My graduation.
This week.
He and Evelyn had discussed finally “being together openly” once both boys finished high school.
The cabin was supposed to become their permanent home.
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because the arrogance was astonishing.
“So you were waiting until I finished raising your son.”
“Audrey—”
“And then you were going to leave.”
He said nothing.
Ethan stood.
“You weren't even going to wait until college move-in.”
Marcus's eyes filled.
“I didn't know what I was going to do.”
“But Evelyn did.”
I remembered her confidence.
The phone calls.
The “parents” photograph.
She believed the transition had already begun.
Then my attorney called.
The forensic accountant had found one more payment.
Much larger.
$600,000.
From Marcus's company.
Recipient:
Evelyn Carter Consulting.
But Evelyn had never owned a consulting business.
The company was registered two months earlier.
The money moved again twenty-four hours later.
Into an account belonging to Leo.
I stared at the statement.
“Why would Marcus put six hundred thousand dollars in Leo's name?”
Rachel's answer made the room go cold.
“He didn't.”
May you like
Someone had forged Marcus's authorization.
This time, Marcus might be the victim.
