Chapter 3 – The DNA Test Nobody Wanted
The wedding never resumed.
Within an hour, the grand cathedral that had been decorated for celebration became the center of a media frenzy.
Satellite trucks lined both sides of the street.
Television anchors stood before the stone steps, speaking breathlessly into cameras.
"A shocking family revelation has interrupted the highly anticipated Lancaster wedding..."
"Sources inside the cathedral claim an elderly nurse arrived with confidential hospital records..."
"Neither the Lancaster family nor the bride has made an official statement."
Inside a private room behind the sanctuary...
Silence was louder than any reporter outside.
Emma sat on a wooden bench, still wrapped in Ethan's tuxedo jacket.
The torn remains of her wedding dress had been carefully folded beside her.
She stared at the floor.
Nothing made sense anymore.
Half an hour earlier, she had been preparing to become someone's wife.
Now...
A stranger had looked at her with the heartbreak of a mother mourning a child she thought had died nearly three decades ago.
Across the room, Ethan knelt before her.
He gently took her hands.
"You don't have to go through this alone."
Emma looked at him.
"What if she's right?"
"What if..."
She hesitated.
"...I'm really her daughter?"
Ethan squeezed her hands.
"Then we'll find out."
"And if she's wrong..."
"We'll find that out too."
Emma searched his face.
"Aren't you angry?"
He smiled sadly.
"I'm furious."
"But not at you."
Meanwhile...
Victoria Lancaster sat alone inside her limousine parked behind the cathedral.
The silver bracelet engraved with Faith rested in her trembling hands.
She had carried it every day for twenty-eight years.
Not because she believed her daughter would return.
But because letting it go would have meant accepting she was truly gone.
Her phone rang.
It was Charles.
She declined the call.
It rang again.
Declined.
Again.
Again.
Finally...
She switched the phone off.
Her driver looked through the rearview mirror.
"Mrs. Lancaster?"
She stared out the window.
"Take me somewhere."
"Where, ma'am?"
Victoria whispered,
"Somewhere Charles can't find me."
An hour later...
She entered a discreet private genetics laboratory on the other side of the city.
The clinic specialized in confidential DNA testing for wealthy clients.
No cameras.
No publicity.
Only silence.
Dr. Amelia Brooks greeted her personally.
"Mrs. Lancaster."
Victoria nodded.
"I need a maternity test."
The doctor hesitated.
"Do you have biological samples?"
Victoria slowly opened her handbag.
Inside...
A single strand of blonde hair.
Emma's.
She had found it caught on the tuxedo jacket after embracing the young woman in the cathedral.
Victoria hadn't planned to take it.
But when she noticed it against the dark fabric...
Her trembling fingers had instinctively picked it up.
Now she stared at it.
One strand of hair.
Twenty-eight years of unanswered questions.
Dr. Brooks accepted the sample.
"And yours?"
Victoria pulled several strands from her own hair.
The doctor sealed both into evidence envelopes.
"The results will take approximately twenty-four hours."
Victoria shook her head.
"I'll pay whatever it costs."
"I need them tonight."
That evening...
Emma and Ethan returned to the small house Emma had inherited from her foster mother.
It was nothing like the Lancaster estate.
The furniture was old.
The wallpaper had faded.
Fresh flowers rested beneath a framed photograph of Sarah Carter, the woman who had raised Emma from infancy.
Emma stood before the photograph.
"I wish you were here."
Ethan wrapped his arms around her.
"She'd know what to do."
Emma smiled faintly.
"She always did."
The smile disappeared almost immediately.
"What if..."
She swallowed hard.
"...she knew?"
Across town...
Charles paced inside his study.
His glass of whiskey remained untouched.
He had called Victoria thirty-seven times.
No answer.
His attorney, Benjamin Cross, stood nearby.
"You should stay calm."
Charles snapped.
"Calm?"
"Margaret should have died years ago."
Benjamin stared at him.
"You don't mean that."
Charles realized what he'd said.
He turned away.
"I mean..."
"...she should have disappeared."
Benjamin frowned.
"Charles..."
"What exactly happened twenty-eight years ago?"
Charles didn't answer.
Instead...
He looked toward the fireplace where an old family photograph stood.
Victoria.
A baby Ethan.
Himself.
A perfect family.
Or so everyone believed.
He whispered almost to himself,
"Some secrets..."
"...should never survive this long."
The next morning...
Victoria returned to the laboratory.
She hadn't slept.
The receptionist recognized her immediately.
"Dr. Brooks is waiting."
Inside the consultation room...
A sealed envelope rested on the desk.
Dr. Brooks looked unusually serious.
"Mrs. Lancaster..."
"I've reviewed these results three separate times."
Victoria's heart pounded.
"And?"
The doctor slid the envelope across the table.
"You should read them yourself."
Victoria's hands shook so badly she could barely open it.
Her eyes scanned the page.
Then stopped.
Probability of Maternity: 99.99998%
She couldn't breathe.
Emma Carter...
Was her biological daughter.
The little girl she'd buried.
The baby she'd mourned.
Had been alive all along.
A sob escaped her lips.
She pressed both hands over her mouth.
"My daughter..."
Tears streamed freely down her face.
"She's alive."
For several minutes...
She cried without speaking.
Dr. Brooks quietly handed her a box of tissues.
Finally...
Victoria looked up.
"I have another request."
The doctor nodded.
"My son."
"Ethan Lancaster."
"I want to confirm..."
"...that he's mine."
Dr. Brooks looked surprised.
"You already know he's your son."
Victoria stared at the report.
"After yesterday..."
"I don't know anything anymore."
Obtaining Ethan's DNA proved easy.
A toothbrush from the Lancaster mansion.
A sample delivered by private courier.
The laboratory processed the second test immediately.
Victoria waited in the consultation room.
Every minute felt like an hour.
She replayed Ethan's childhood.
His first bicycle.
His graduation.
His first broken arm.
The day he called her crying after being bullied at school.
The night he introduced Emma.
Every memory felt real.
Every memory belonged to the boy she had loved.
Surely...
Biology couldn't erase twenty-eight years.
The laboratory door opened.
Dr. Brooks entered holding another envelope.
This time...
She didn't speak.
Victoria noticed it immediately.
The doctor's expression had changed.
Concern.
Sympathy.
Disbelief.
Victoria slowly stood.
"What is it?"
Dr. Brooks whispered,
"There appears to have been..."
"...a second error."
Victoria opened the report.
One sentence shattered her world.
Probability of Maternity: 0.0%
She blinked.
Once.
Twice.
The words refused to change.
"No."
She looked again.
"No..."
She turned every page.
Checked every number.
Every barcode.
Every signature.
"This is wrong."
Dr. Brooks quietly shook her head.
"We repeated the analysis three times."
"The results are identical."
Victoria's knees gave way.
She collapsed into the chair.
"My son..."
The doctor answered gently.
"Biologically..."
"...Ethan Lancaster is not your child."
At that exact moment...
Ethan arrived at the laboratory.
He had followed his mother's driver after learning she had secretly taken Emma's hair.
He burst through the consultation room door.
"Mother!"
His voice echoed through the clinic.
"How could you?"
Victoria looked up through tear-filled eyes.
Ethan was furious.
"You humiliated Emma yesterday."
"And today you steal her DNA?"
Emma hurried in behind him.
"Ethan..."
"No."
He pointed toward Victoria.
"She isn't treating you like a human being."
"She's treating you like evidence."
Victoria couldn't answer.
She simply stared at him.
Her son.
The boy she had raised.
The child whose nightmares she had comforted.
The young man whose birthdays she had celebrated.
Her lips trembled.
"Ethan..."
He shook his head.
"Don't."
"I don't even recognize you anymore."
Victoria slowly stood.
Still holding the DNA report.
"I know."
She whispered.
"Because..."
She looked into his eyes.
"...I'm not your mother."
The room fell into stunned silence.
Emma frowned.
"What?"
Victoria handed Ethan the report.
His confident expression disappeared as he read the first page.
Then the second.
His hands began to shake.
"This..."
"...this has to be fake."
Dr. Brooks quietly answered,
"I wish it were."
Ethan looked from the report...
To Victoria...
To Emma...
His voice barely emerged.
"If Emma is your daughter..."
He swallowed hard.
"...then..."
His eyes filled with tears.
"Who am I?"
No one in the room had an answer.
But hundreds of miles away...
Inside a quiet nursing home...
An elderly man watched the breaking news about the Lancaster wedding on television.
When he saw Ethan's face...
The coffee cup slipped from his trembling hands and shattered across the floor.
His wife rushed over.
"Henry!"
He never looked away from the screen.
Instead...
May you like
He whispered four words that froze her where she stood.
"Our son is alive."
