Chapter 4 - 99.9 Percent
The waiting took three days.
We stayed in a hotel downtown. I refused to sleep in the Sterling Manor.
Julian tried to call me twenty times. I blocked his number.
He sent flowers. I threw them in the trash.
He drove to the hotel and waited in the lobby. My older boys, Ethan and Noah, stood by the elevator and refused to let him pass.
"We don't know you," Noah had told him. "And you made my mom cry. Go away."
On the fourth morning, we were summoned back to Arthur Pendelton's office.
Julian was already there. Victoria was conspicuously absent.
"Where is she?" I asked.
"She... decided to wait at the house," Julian muttered, looking exhausted. He had dark circles under his eyes.
Arthur opened the sealed medical envelope on his desk.
He didn't even look surprised.
"The results are conclusive," Arthur announced.
He slid the paper across the desk toward Julian.
Julian picked it up with shaking hands.
He read the numbers.
Probability of Paternity: 99.999%.
A strangled sob escaped Julian's throat.
He dropped the paper on the floor and buried his face in his hands.
Ten years.
He had missed their first steps. He had missed their first words.
He had missed the sleepless nights, the fevers, the school plays, the birthdays.
He had thrown away a family of seven for a lie.
He fell to his knees in front of my chair.
"Genevieve," he cried, the billionaire CEO begging on the floor of a law office. "I am so sorry. I am so damn sorry. Please. Please let me make it right."
I looked down at him, feeling absolutely nothing but pity.
"You can't buy back ten years, Julian," I said.
"I don't want to buy it," he pleaded. "I just want to know them. I want my family back."
"This isn't your family," I said softly. "This is my family. You just donated the DNA."
May you like
I stood up, signaling for the children to follow me.
"But we have some business to take care of at the Manor," I added. "Because I made a promise about Victoria."
