Chapter 9 - The DNA TestThe test took six hours.
Roman barely spoke.
Sophia sat across from him.
“You're hoping he's yours.”
Roman looked at her.
“I don't know what I want.”
“You don't?”
“No.”
He stared at Gabriel.
“I want him safe.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“It is the only one I have.”
When the results arrived, Roman opened the envelope.
Sophia watched his face.
Roman read the first line.
Then the second.
He didn't move.
Sophia whispered:
“What does it say?”
Roman looked up.
“I'm his father.”
Sophia covered her mouth.
“But that's impossible.”
“Yes.”
“You've never…”
“I know.”
She stood.
“Then someone altered the results.”
Roman shook his head.
“No.”
He handed her the report.
She read it.
99.9998%.
Roman Callaway.
Biological father of Gabriel.
Sophia's knees nearly gave out.
“But Daniel…”
Roman's eyes narrowed.
“Daniel was lying.”
“Why?”
Roman's phone buzzed.
A photograph appeared.
Sophia in the hospital eleven years ago.
Pregnant.
Beside her stood a younger Roman.
Sophia stared.
“That isn't possible.”
Roman recognized the image.
It had been taken before they ever met.
But the man in the picture looked exactly like him.
Sophia stared at Roman.
“Who is that?”
Roman said nothing.
Then he noticed a detail.
The man wore a silver watch.
Roman had owned one exactly like it.
But there was one difference.
The man wore it on the right wrist.
Roman always wore his on the left.
He zoomed in.
A scar was visible beneath the man's chin.
Daniel's scar.
Roman's face changed.
“He isn't me.”
Sophia whispered:
“Then who is he?”
Roman looked at her.
His answer came slowly.
“My brother.”
The phone rang.
Unknown number.
Roman answered.
A voice said:
“You finally figured it out.”
Roman's blood ran cold.
“Vincent?”
The voice laughed.
“No.”
A pause.
“I am the man your family created.”
Roman stared at Gabriel.
The voice continued:
“And Gabriel is the reason they created me.”
Then the line went dead.
Roman stood.
Sophia looked terrified.
“Who was it?”
Roman's answer was barely audible.
“I don't know.”
He looked at the DNA report.
Then at the photograph.
Then at the baby.
And suddenly the entire mystery changed.
May you like
The question wasn't who Gabriel's father was.
The question was why someone had spent eleven years pretending to be Roman.
