Chapter 4 - The DNA Test
"That's impossible."
Mariana said it first.
Adrian said it second.
Rachel Sloan said nothing.
The attorney on Mariana's phone repeated the laboratory's explanation.
The preliminary kinship score was unexpectedly high.
Not conclusive.
Not yet.
But high enough that the laboratory would not issue a final uncle-nephew result without comparison to Daniel's retained tissue.
Mariana stared at Adrian.
"I've never met you."
"I know."
"Before today."
"I know."
"So how—"
"Genetics can produce complicated kinship signals between siblings," Rachel said. "Especially with limited markers. Don't jump ahead."
Adrian looked almost offended by the suggestion.
Mariana felt strangely relieved.
Not because anything made sense.
Because at least one impossible thing remained impossible.
Daniel's sample was requested.
The hospital confirmed it still existed.
The lab courier collected it that evening.
Celeste refused to participate in any further discussion.
Her attorney took her away from the mansion.
Before leaving, she looked at Lucas.
Mariana saw grief there.
Real grief.
That almost made everything worse.
By midnight, Adrian had arranged a hotel suite for Mariana and Lucas.
Mariana refused.
Then Rachel quietly explained that reporters had begun calling the cleaning company.
Someone had leaked Mariana's presence at Blackwood Mansion.
Her temporary room was no longer safe from attention.
"For Lucas," Rachel said.
Mariana accepted.
Not for herself.
For him.
The next morning, she woke to twenty-three missed calls.
The headline was already online.
EX-CON CLEANER CLAIMS BLACKWOOD HEIR.
Mariana stared at the screen.
"I didn't claim anything."
Of course facts didn't matter.
By breakfast, commenters had decided she was a scammer.
A gold digger.
A criminal targeting a billionaire.
Her past conviction made the narrative easy.
Lucas sat across from her eating pancakes.
"Why are you sad?"
"I'm not."
"You do the line."
"What line?"
He touched between his eyebrows.
"This one."
Mariana laughed despite herself.
"Finish breakfast."
Adrian called.
She almost ignored it.
Then answered.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Did you leak it?"
"No."
"Your mother?"
"I don't know."
"Then find out."
"I will."
He paused.
"The DNA results should arrive this afternoon."
Mariana looked at Lucas.
"Call my attorney first."
"Of course."
"And Adrian?"
"Yes?"
"If Daniel is his father..."
She couldn't finish.
Adrian understood.
"We'll tell Lucas together only when you're ready."
That mattered too.
At 2:17 p.m., Rachel arrived at the hotel.
Adrian came separately.
Mariana's legal-aid attorney joined by video.
Nobody spoke while Rachel opened the encrypted laboratory report.
She read.
Then read again.
Mariana couldn't stand it.
"Say it."
Rachel looked up.
"Daniel Blackwood was Lucas's biological father."
Mariana closed her eyes.
Five years of uncertainty ended in one sentence.
Daniel.
The man who had made her laugh in cheap diners.
The man who had rubbed her shoulders when she worked late.
The man she'd hated for disappearing.
He hadn't abandoned her.
He had been injured.
Hidden.
Lied to.
Then he died.
Tears came before Mariana could stop them.
She covered her face.
Adrian turned away, jaw clenched.
Rachel waited.
Finally Mariana whispered, "Probability?"
"Greater than 99.99 percent."
No doubt.
Lucas Blackwood.
Except Mariana didn't think of him that way.
He was Lucas Vega.
Her boy.
Her reason for surviving prison.
Adrian sat opposite her.
"There's something else."
She looked up.
"The strange preliminary result?"
Rachel nodded.
"Daniel and Adrian share unusually high genetic similarity in several tested regions. The limited first panel exaggerated the relationship. The direct comparison resolved it."
Adrian exhaled.
"So I'm his uncle."
"Yes."
He laughed once.
Then covered his eyes.
Mariana understood.
Relief and grief arriving together.
She asked the question she'd been afraid to ask.
"What does this mean legally?"
Rachel answered carefully.
"Nothing changes about custody. You are Lucas's mother. Daniel is deceased. Adrian has no automatic parental rights."
Mariana nodded.
Adrian said, "Good."
She looked at him.
He met her eyes.
"I told you. Nobody is taking him."
For the first time, she believed him.
Then Rachel opened another file.
"This may also affect Daniel's estate."
Adrian frowned.
"Daniel's will."
"He had one?"
"Yes."
"Did it mention children?"
Adrian looked uncomfortable.
"I don't know."
Rachel did.
"I obtained a copy this morning."
She read the relevant provision.
If Daniel died leaving biological descendants, the majority of his personal estate would pass to them.
Mariana stared.
"How much?"
Rachel hesitated.
Adrian answered.
"Approximately forty-eight million dollars at the time of his death."
Mariana laughed again.
The absurd laugh.
"I have twelve dollars in my checking account."
Nobody responded.
She looked at Lucas playing with toy cars in the adjoining room.
Forty-eight million dollars.
It meant nothing.
And everything.
Medical care.
School.
Security.
A future she had never dared imagine.
Then Rachel's expression darkened.
"There's a problem."
"Of course there is."
"Daniel's estate was distributed because the family represented that he had no descendants."
"To whom?"
Adrian's face hardened.
"My mother controlled most of it through a family trust."
Mariana understood immediately.
Celeste hadn't merely wanted her gone because she disapproved.
Lucas's existence threatened money.
Enormous money.
Rachel continued.
"If Celeste knew Lucas existed—or even knew Mariana was pregnant—when she certified Daniel had no potential heir, there may have been fraud."
Adrian stood.
"She knew."
"The photograph strongly suggests it."
"Her confession confirms she knew about the pregnancy."
"Knowing about a pregnancy isn't identical to knowing a living child existed."
Mariana remembered something.
"When I gave birth..."
They looked at her.
"A woman came to the hospital."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Describe her."
"Older. Professional. She said she was from a charity program for incarcerated mothers."
Rachel leaned forward.
"What did she do?"
"Asked questions. Lucas's name. Birth date. Weight."
"Did she take anything?"
Mariana thought.
"A copy of a form."
"What form?"
"His birth-registration worksheet."
Adrian's expression changed.
"Could she have worked for my mother?"
Mariana whispered, "I never saw her again."
Rachel wrote it down.
Her phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
"Send it."
A file arrived.
Rachel opened it.
"What?" Adrian asked.
"Evelyn Price sent photographs of documents from her safe-deposit box."
Mariana moved closer.
There were payment records.
Emails.
Copies of internal Hawthorne logs.
Then one invoice.
PRIVATE MATERNITY INVESTIGATION SERVICES.
Paid by a Blackwood family account.
Dated the day after Lucas's birth.
Mariana stopped breathing.
Celeste had known.
Not suspected.
Known.
Adrian looked sick.
Rachel kept scrolling.
Another document appeared.
A letter from Daniel.
Handwritten.
Dated six days before his death.
Addressed to Mariana.
Mariana's hands began shaking.
"Read it."
Rachel hesitated.
"It's yours."
She turned the screen.
The first line destroyed Mariana.
Mari, if our baby is alive, please know I never left you.
She couldn't continue.
Adrian walked to the window.
Mariana forced herself to read.
Daniel explained the accident.
His memory loss.
His mother's lie.
His suspicion that Mariana's criminal case had been engineered.
He wrote that he'd contacted someone named Thomas and demanded proof.
He planned to expose everything.
He begged Mariana to forgive him for not finding her sooner.
The final paragraph mentioned a package.
Evidence.
"I sent everything to the only person I still trust."
Mariana read the name.
Then stopped.
"No."
Adrian turned.
"What?"
She handed him the screen.
Daniel had trusted one person with the evidence.
His brother.
Adrian Blackwood.
Adrian stared at the letter.
"I never received anything."
Rachel's voice was quiet.
"Maybe someone intercepted it."
Adrian shook his head.
"My mail went through the family office then."
Celeste's office.
Mariana stood.
"She took it."
"Probably."
Rachel's phone rang again.
This time her face changed instantly.
"What happened?" Mariana asked.
Rachel listened.
Then said, "Don't touch anything. We're coming."
She hung up.
"Evelyn Price's safe-deposit box was accessed forty minutes ago."
"By whom?"
"Someone using a secondary authorized key."
Mariana already knew.
Celeste.
They drove to the bank.
Police were waiting.
The box was empty.
Almost.
One envelope remained.
It had been deliberately placed in the center.
Mariana's name was written across it.
She opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Thomas Reed standing beside Daniel's hospital bed.
On the back, someone had written:
HE KNOWS WHERE THE ORIGINAL FILE IS.
Mariana turned the photograph over again.
A phone number was printed beneath Thomas's name.
Adrian called it.
A man answered.
"Thomas Reed?"
Silence.
Then breathing.
Adrian put the phone on speaker.
Mariana leaned closer.
Thomas whispered, "If Mariana Vega is with you, tell her I'm ready to confess."
A loud crash sounded through the phone.
May you like
Then a woman screamed.
The line went dead.
