immediately shook her head.
“My attorney told me I needed to establish residency—”
“Your attorney?”
“You already have an attorney?”
“I had a consultation.”
Diane interrupted.
“That isn’t why I called.”
Eric stared at the phone.
“Then why?”
“Because the attorney told Vanessa something she didn’t expect.”
“What?”
“If she raised paternity as part of the custody case, the court could order testing.”
Vanessa stood.
“That was private.”
“You were about to use the children as leverage.”
“I was trying to protect them!”
“From a man who has raised them?”
“You don’t understand.”
“No,” Diane said. “I finally do.”
Vanessa walked toward the front door.
Eric blocked her.
“Move.”
“You’re not taking the kids.”
“I’m not.”
“Where are you going?”
“Away from this conversation.”
“No.”
She stared at him.
“You can’t imprison me.”
“You can leave. The children stay.”
For the first time that evening, Vanessa didn’t argue.
sank back into the chair.
Then Diane said something unexpected.
“Eric, there’s more.”
I almost laughed from sheer exhaustion.
Of course there was.
There was always more.
“What?”
“The DNA tests.”
Vanessa’s head snapped toward the phone.
Eric went completely still.
“What DNA tests?”
Diane answered carefully.
“Vanessa already did them.”
Eric looked at his wife.
“When?”
“Last month.”
“How?”
“I used one of those home kits.”
“On my children?”
“I needed to know.”
“And?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Eric took one step toward her.
“And?”
Her lips trembled.
“I never opened the results.”
I stared at her.
“You tested them and didn’t look?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Where are they?” Eric asked.
“I don’t know.”
Diane spoke.
“I do.”
Vanessa looked stunned.
“What?”
“You had them sent to my house because you were afraid Eric would see the package.”
“You told me they never arrived.”
“I lied.”
Eric rubbed both hands over
his face.
“Why?”
“Because by then I realized what she was planning.”
“Do you have the results?”
“Yes.”
The room became perfectly silent.
Even Vanessa stopped crying.
Eric looked toward the ceiling, where his children were watching cartoons.
I could almost see the battle inside him.
Eight years of questions could be answered in seconds.
But some answers cannot be unknown afterward.
“Read them,” Vanessa whispered.
Eric looked at her.
“Please.”
“No.”
Her face crumpled.
“You deserve to know.”
“I said no.”
Diane sounded surprised.
“Eric?”
He walked to the bottom of the stairs.
“My children are upstairs.”
Nobody spoke.
“Brooks calls me Dad. Ellie crawls into my bed when there’s thunder. Mason thinks I can fix anything because he’s four and doesn’t know better.”
His voice broke.
“I don’t need a piece of paper to tell me whether I’m their father.”
Vanessa began sobbing.
Eric turned back.
“But I
