Chapter 4 - The DNA Call
Daniel pulled Marcus down.
Rachel dragged Emily inside.
The second shot hit the porch rail.
Sloan crawled behind a stone planter.
Daniel grabbed his jacket and hauled him through the door.
Rachel slammed it.
“Back hallway.”
They moved.
No one saw the shooter.
By the time police arrived, the sedan was gone.
Sloan’s shoulder bled through his shirt.
He refused the ambulance.
Daniel stared.
“You just got shot.”
“Grazed.”
“By who?”
Sloan looked at Marcus.
“That answer is why you need the DNA test.”
Rachel shook her head.
“No.”
Sloan snapped, “Hiding him failed.”
Daniel looked between them.
“You both keep talking like Marcus is evidence.”
Sloan’s face tightened.
“He is.”
Marcus said, “I’m a person.”
“Yes.”
Sloan’s voice softened.
“And that is why David stayed away.”
Police questioned them separately.
By dawn, Daniel had arranged a private accredited lab under counsel.
No Carter system.
No trust notification.
Rachel resisted until Marcus said:
“I’m done asking permission to know who I am.”
She signed.
Emily gave Marcus space.
They barely spoke.
Not because they hated each other.
Because every sentence now had the wrong shape.
Two days later, Daniel’s phone rang.
The geneticist asked him to come in.
He brought Rachel.
Marcus and Emily waited outside the office.
Daniel sat across from Dr. Lena Park.
She slid the report over.
“Mr. Carter, you are excluded as Marcus Bennett’s biological father.”
Daniel exhaled.
Rachel covered her face.
Relief hit first.
Then Dr. Park did not smile.
Daniel noticed.
“What?”
“There is a second finding.”
His chest tightened.
“Marcus shares a high degree of autosomal DNA with you.”
“How high?”
“Consistent with a very close paternal relationship.”
Rachel stared.
Dr. Park continued.
“An uncle-nephew relationship fits.”
Daniel’s pulse hammered.
“My brother died.”
Dr. Park looked at him.
“Were you an identical twin?”
Daniel went still.
“Yes.”
She turned the screen.
“Then the result is highly consistent with your twin being Marcus’s father.”
Rachel whispered, “David.”
Daniel stared at the numbers.
His childhood came back in fragments.
Two beds.
Two bicycles.
David laughing through a missing front tooth.
A black ring on his small hand after their grandfather gave it to him.
Then a funeral.
No body.
Just a closed coffin.
Daniel stood.
“I need my childhood records.”
Dr. Park nodded.
“One more thing.”
He stopped.
“Your own archived pediatric file was included in the matching database.”
Daniel frowned.
“I never authorized that.”
“I know.”
She printed one page.
Patient:
DANIEL CARTER.
Notation:
TWIN A.
Daniel’s hand tightened.
Beneath it:
TWIN B - REMOVED FROM FAMILY COVERAGE BY COURT ORDER.
No death.
No burial.
Removed.
Daniel stepped into the hallway.
Emily stood.
Marcus searched his face.
“Well?”
Daniel looked at both teenagers.
“You’re not siblings.”
Emily exhaled hard.
Marcus closed his eyes.
Then Daniel added:
“But David is almost certainly your father.”
Marcus looked at Rachel.
She cried silently.
Emily whispered, “So they’re cousins.”
Daniel nodded.
The relief in the hall shattered differently.
Emily took one step away from Marcus.
He did the same.
No argument.
No attempt to romanticize it.
Just shock.
Marcus looked down.
“We didn’t know.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“No.”
Daniel’s phone rang.
Margaret.
His mother.
He answered.
She did not say hello.
She said:
“Did Marcus take the test?”
May you like
Daniel stopped breathing.
CUT.
