Marcus laughed and started joking about discovering royal ancestors in his family tree. Emily rolled her eyes, and we all laughed together.
We mailed the samples off and forgot about them.
The results were sent directly to Emily.
The night they arrived, something felt wrong.
She barely spoke during dinner and kept staring at her plate. Then she asked Marcus if they could talk privately.
I stayed in the kitchen while they walked down the hallway. The door closed.
A few minutes later, I heard Emily crying.
Twenty minutes later Marcus came back holding a printed report.
“Read this,” he said quietly, setting it in front of me.
The page was short, but I had to read the first line twice.
Parent-child match. Confidence level: 99.97%.
Under maternal match… was my name.
I looked up slowly.
Marcus watched me carefully.
“The hospital listed in Emily’s adoption records,” he said quietly. “You mentioned that same hospital once when you told me about the baby you gave up years ago. I didn’t think anything about it back then… until tonight.”
I didn’t answer.
I already knew.
“Same hospital,” Marcus continued. “Same year. Same month.”
The paper felt heavy in my hands.
Emily was standing in the hallway.