Chapter 12: Ninety-Nine Point Nine

The doctor read the results aloud in the library on Sunday at two.

Eleanor sat in the armchair by the fire with her cane across her knees.

Ethan stood by the window with his arms crossed, certain of himself again.

Becca sat very straight on the sofa with her hands locked in her lap.

Maisie was in the kitchen with the housekeeper and a plate of cookies.

I stood by the door, and Samson stood a few feet from me, and neither of us looked at the other.

The doctor cleared his throat and opened a cream envelope.

"I'll read the conclusion first, Mrs. Sorrell. Then the detail."

"Read it plainly," Eleanor said.

"The alleged father, Ethan Sorrell, is excluded as the biological father of the child."

The room went silent.

Ethan laughed.

It was a small, sharp bark, and then he stopped.

"That's wrong. Run it again."

"I ran it twice," the doctor said.

"Then it's contaminated."

"It is not."

Ethan turned to Becca.

"Tell him it's wrong."

Becca said nothing.

Her face had no color left, and she was looking at the carpet.

"Becca."

"Ethan," she said, hardly a sound.

"Say something. You told me she was mine. You swore."

"I know what I said."

He took a step toward the sofa.

"Six years. I went home to a woman I didn't want to hide you from. I put that kid's name on a trust fund. I..." His voice broke high. "Whose is she?"

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Didn't Know She Was the Heiress from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.