Daniel’s eyes were wet.
“I was going to tell you everything.”
Marcus looked toward the envelope.
“Everything?”
Daniel nodded.
“Not just the DNA.”
Something cold returned to Marcus’s stomach.
“What else?”
Daniel hesitated.
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
He reached for the envelope.
Inside was an old laboratory report.
Not eight months old.
Seven years old.
Marcus stared at the date.
His hands stopped moving.
The test had been performed when Ethan was four months old.
Marcus looked up.
Daniel’s face had gone gray.
“What is this?”
Daniel spoke softly.
“A paternity test.”
“I can read.”
Marcus looked at the date again.
“Why does this exist?”
Daniel said nothing.
Marcus’s breathing changed.
“You told me you found out eight months ago.”
“I did.”
Marcus stared.
Daniel continued:
“I found out eight months ago that Claire already knew.”
The sentence seemed impossible.
Marcus looked toward the stairs.
Then at the report.
The biological father probability was effectively certain.
Daniel Bennett.
Marcus whispered:
“She tested him as a baby.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t know?”
“No.”
“How did you find this?”
Daniel sat slowly.
“When the cardiologist called me for genetic history, Claire told me there had never been a test.”
“I believed her.”
“Then two months later I was at the house.”
“You were in Dallas.”
“She was upstairs with Ethan.”
“I was looking for an old charger in the office.”
“There was a locked document case.”
Marcus laughed.
“And you opened it.”
“Yes.”
“Everyone in my family loves my private files.”
Daniel flinched.
“There were medical records.”
“This was inside.”
Marcus stared at the report.
“Claire knew.”
“Yes.”
“Before our first anniversary.”
“Yes.”
“She knew for seven years.”
“Yes.”
“And you found out six months ago?”
“About the old test.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me then?”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“Because by then I had already slept with her again.”
There it was.
Cowardice explaining cowardice.
Daniel continued:
“I knew how it would look.”
Marcus laughed loudly.
“How it would look.”
“I thought if I told you immediately, you’d think I found the test and then started the affair.”
“Instead you started the affair and then found the test.”
“Yes.”
“That is much better.”
“I know.”
Marcus paced.
Daniel sat motionless.
Then Marcus stopped.
“What did Claire tell you seven years ago?”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“If she had the test, did she contact you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I changed numbers after I moved to California.”
“Email.”
“She may have.”
“May have?”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“I blocked her.”
Marcus stared.
“Why?”
“After the wedding.”
“You came to our wedding?”
“Yes.”
“You stood beside me.”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“I know.”
“You were my best man.”
“I know.”
The sentence cracked Marcus open in a new place.
He remembered Daniel beside him in a black tuxedo.
Holding the ring.
Making jokes because Marcus was nervous.
Telling him Claire was the best thing that ever happened to him.
Marcus sat.
He suddenly felt exhausted.
Daniel whispered:
“I hated myself.”
“Not enough.”