“With Emily?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He had a sample from her?”
Emily frowned.
“Dad asked me to do one of those family-health panels last year.”
There it was.
Another lie by omission.
Zane had told Emily he wanted to know whether his cancer had hereditary markers relevant to her.
Technically reasonable.
Actually designed partly to confirm Rebecca's maternity.
The result showed a mother-daughter relationship.
Rebecca then demanded something else.
“Your DNA.”
I stared.
“My DNA?”
“Zane had an old blood sample from a life-insurance physical you took years ago.”
My skin crawled.
“He accessed that?”
“He said legally through an old file.”
“That's not the point.”
“No.”
Rebecca agreed.
“He compared it.”
“To what?”
Rebecca looked at Emily.
Then at me.
“To your baby.”
My heart stopped.
“What baby?”
“The hospital preserved pathology material from the infant who died.”
I couldn't breathe.
Rebecca whispered:
“Zane confirmed that the baby who died was biologically yours.”
