Chapter 1 - THE VIDEO WENDY DIDN’T KNOW EXISTED
I pressed play.
For the first several seconds, Kelly’s video showed exactly what I remembered.
A crowded private dining room.
Wendy standing beneath a chandelier with one hand around a wineglass.
Fiona in her high chair.
Luca beside me, already staring at his mother with that nervous expression he wore whenever he sensed trouble but had not yet decided whether avoiding it mattered more than protecting us.
Then Fiona dropped her spoon.
Wendy leaned down.
“You useless piece of trash. This girl has defective genetics.”
My chest tightened all over again.
Then came the slap.
Fiona’s little face snapped sideways.
I watched myself move.
My hand struck Luca’s cheek.
His glasses flew into the stew.
Then I shoved Wendy backward.
She disappeared into the red-and-white birthday cake.
That was where I expected the video to end.
It didn’t.
Kelly had started recording almost four minutes earlier.
I dragged the progress bar backward.
Wendy was talking to her sister Marlene before Fiona and I entered the room.
She had no idea Kelly’s phone was pointed toward her.
Marlene whispered:
“Are you really going to say something tonight?”
Wendy laughed.
“Not until Jessi gives me a reason.”
“A reason for what?”
“To make Luca understand that girl should never have been born.”
I stopped breathing.
Kelly’s recording continued.
Marlene lowered her voice.
“She’s two.”
“That doesn’t change what the test showed.”
Test.
My hand tightened around the phone.
“What test?” Rachel whispered behind me.
I shook my head.
Wendy continued:
“If Luca had listened to me before the wedding, none of this would matter.”
Marlene said:
“He loves Jessi.”
“He loves whoever makes his life easy.”
Then:
“And once he understands what Fiona’s genetics mean for the trust, he’ll choose correctly.”
The trust.
I had never heard of any trust involving Fiona.
Then Marlene said something that made my stomach drop.
“Does Luca know you tested her?”
Wendy answered:
“Not yet.”
I paused the video.
Rachel stared at me.
“She tested Fiona?”
“I don’t know how.”
The only genetic testing Fiona had ever undergone was the standard newborn screening at the hospital.
Unless—
Three months earlier, Wendy had insisted on brushing Fiona’s hair during a family barbecue.
Fiona screamed because Wendy pulled too hard.
Afterward, I saw Wendy folding several strands of hair into a tissue.
I had assumed she was cleaning them from the brush.
My skin went cold.
I played again.
Marlene whispered:
“You shouldn’t have done that without permission.”
Wendy took a long sip of wine.
“I needed certainty.”
“About what?”
“Whether she belongs in this family.”
I nearly dropped the phone.
Then Wendy said:
“The first laboratory was inconclusive, so I had Victor run it again.”
Victor.
Luca’s uncle.
Dr. Victor Martin.
A retired pathologist.
The man who had hugged me after Fiona’s birth and said she had Luca’s eyes.
Marlene looked frightened.
“And?”
Wendy smiled.
“Fiona isn’t what Jessi thinks she is.”
The recording ended when someone called Kelly’s name.
For several seconds, Rachel and I said nothing.
Then my phone rang.
Luca.
I answered.
His first words were:
“Mom says you’re threatening to report her.”
“I haven’t threatened anything.”
“She thinks you’re going to use Kelly’s video.”
So Wendy already knew Kelly had sent it.
Interesting.
I said:
“Did your mother have Fiona genetically tested?”
Silence.
Not confusion.
Silence.
“Luca?”
He whispered:
“I can explain.”
My knees nearly gave out.
“You knew.”
“Not before tonight.”
“When?”
“After you left.”
“What did she tell you?”
Another pause.
Then:
“She says Fiona isn’t biologically mine.”
The room became completely still.
I almost laughed because the accusation was so absurd.
I had never cheated on Luca.
Not once.
“She’s lying.”
“I know.”
But he did not sound certain.
That was the second betrayal of the night.
Then he said:
“Mom showed me a report.”
“What report?”
“A paternity test.”
“Using what sample from you?”
Silence.
“Luca, what sample?”
He swallowed.
“She has one from years ago.”
That made no sense.
Then:
“Before we got married, my family had all of us tested for the Harbor Trust.”
“What is the Harbor Trust?”
He did not answer.
I heard Wendy shouting behind him.
Then Luca lowered his voice.
“Jessi, don’t do anything tonight.”
Wrong sentence.
I stared through Rachel’s apartment window at the dark street.
“Why?”
“Because if Mom is right, there’s a lot more involved than our marriage.”
“Our daughter was slapped across the face.”
“I know.”
“No, Luca. You still don’t.”
I ended the call.
Then Kelly sent a photograph.
The document Wendy had been holding after I left.
At the top:
HARBOR FAMILY HEREDITARY BENEFICIARY REVIEW.
Below it:
SUBJECT: FIONA MARTIN
And underneath:
PATERNAL RELATIONSHIP TO LUCA MARTIN: EXCLUDED.
Rachel whispered:
“Oh my God.”
I stared at my sleeping daughter.
I knew I had never betrayed my husband.
So if the report was genuine, there were only a few possibilities.
The laboratory was wrong.
May you like
The samples were wrong.
Or someone had changed the truth about Fiona before she was even born.
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