Chapter 18: Not His

The result came on a Wednesday, the eleventh morning, while Stefan was flipping pancakes.

Kenzie didn't knock.

She came up the gravel at a half run in her pajama pants and her big navy hoodie, with her phone held out in front of her.

Her car sat in the drive with the door still open.

"Mrs. Linwood. Maxine. Can I show you before I show anyone?"

"Of course," I said.

Stefan turned off the burner.

He took one look at her face, picked up the coffee pot, and said, "I'll be in the shed."

He went out the back door and shut it softly behind him.

Maxine pushed out a chair with her foot, and Kenzie sat down in it.

She put the phone flat on the table between the syrup and the butter dish.

"I've had it since six," she said. "I turned the email off at my mom's house. I changed the address on the form to my own."

"Smart," said Maxine.

"I was too scared to open it in my room."

"Do you want me to read it?" I said.

"No."

She breathed in.

She picked up the phone, held it in both hands, and read from the screen, steadily and slowly.

"Probability of paternity, zero percent."

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

Nobody moved.

Outside, a mourning dove called twice in the pine by the garage.

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