I stood very still, watching a gray gull circle over the shoreline.

“Patricia made us do it,” Daniel said, his voice rising in anger.

“She wouldn’t release the bridge loan for the harbor project without it.”

“She said she wouldn’t support a child that wasn’t a Mercer.”

My mother-in-law had always been obsessed with the family lineage.

I took a slow breath, waiting for him to finish.

“It’s not mine, Lauren,” he said.

“The doctor just gave us the report in the office.”

“Zero percent probability.”

He let out a sharp, bitter laugh that sounded like a cough.

“The whole time,” he muttered.

“She let me buy the townhome, she let me pay for her private doctors.”

“She let me ruin my life for a child that belongs to someone else.”

I felt no satisfaction, only a strange, hollow quiet.

“Where is Vanessa now?” I asked.

“I left her at the clinic,” Daniel said.

“I threw her bags out of the car and drove off.”

“My mother is still there, screaming at her in the lobby.”