Chapter 19: The Night Before

Eli's POV

The email came at nine on Friday night, while Nell was ironing a dress on my kitchen table.

I read the subject line twice. Then I read the first number and put the phone down.

"Nell."

She looked up from the iron.

"The court's lab," I said. "It's done."

She set the iron on its heel. She came around the table and stood at my shoulder, and we read it together.

The probability of paternity was 99.99 percent. Under it, in smaller type, the probability of maternity was the same.

Neither of us said anything.

I had pictured this moment for six years, in a dozen versions. In none of them did I feel so quiet.

"She's ours," Nell said at last.

"She's ours."

She laughed once and covered her mouth.

Then she laughed again with tears running down.

I turned her around and held her until it stopped.

"Tomorrow," she said into my chest.

"Tomorrow."

The doctor had driven in that afternoon with his wife.

He had sworn to the chart in a notary's office on Main Street, line by line.

His hand shook so badly that the notary steadied the pen.

Brody had come an hour later with a thumb drive.

He had not had a drink in eleven days, and his hands had stopped shaking too.

"The recording's on here," he said. "And two copies in other places. Dad can't lock all of them in a safe."

We had a doctor and a brother who would stand up in a ballroom.