Chapter 10: The Conference Room

Althea's POV

The results came nine days later, in a sealed envelope, in a conference room that smelled like carpet glue.

My lawyer sat at the head of the table with the envelope under her hand.

Jo sat on my left, still in her scrubs.

Dorothy sat on my right.

She had called on Wednesday in a voice I didn't know she had.

"I would like to come, Althea, if you'll let me sit beside you."

I had said yes.

Across from us, Travis sat with his own lawyer and a legal pad he was not writing on.

Shelby sat behind him in a navy dress, with her hair down.

Padraig stood by the window with his arms folded.

He had not said a word since he came in.

"We're here for the court-ordered paternity result," my lawyer said.

"It was drawn from Mrs. Colburn's blood and Mr. Colburn's cheek swab."

"Just read it," Travis said. He was sweating at the hairline.

She broke the seal.

She read it silently first.

Then she looked up, and I saw a small, hard satisfaction cross her face.

"The probability that Travis Colburn is the biological father is ninety-nine point nine nine percent," she said.

Jo started to cheer and stopped herself.

Dorothy's hand closed over mine on the table.

Travis looked at the paper in his lawyer's hands.

"That's wrong," he said.

"Mr. Colburn, this lab is accredited."

"It's wrong. It has to be a mistake."

"It isn't," I said.

He turned on me.

"You swapped something. You paid somebody."

"Travis," Padraig said from the window.

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