Chapter 19 - THE SECOND TEST
At sixteen, Maelis asked to see the DNA report.
I had expected this.
I showed her the court-certified result.
Not the private one first.
She read:
99.9998%.
“Pretty sure.”
“Yes.”
“Can they do hundred?”
“No.”
“Science coward.”
I laughed.
Then she asked to see the fake report.
I hesitated.
“Why?”
“Because it changed my life.”
True.
I showed her.
She compared.
“The fake one looks real.”
“Yes.”
“That’s scary.”
“Yes.”
“Did you believe it?”
“I didn’t see it until after Grandpa died.”
“If you saw when I was baby?”
I thought.
“I hope I would have checked.”
“Not answer.”
She had inherited my precision.
“I don’t know.”
Good.
No heroic rewrite.
Maybe I would have panicked.
Maybe fought Elise.
Maybe let Odette damage our marriage more.
I could not promise a version of myself that never existed.
Maelis appreciated that.
Then:
“Can I destroy it?”
“The original is evidence archive. This is a copy.”
She shredded the copy.
No ceremony.
Just paper strips.
She kept the real DNA result?
No.
“Why would I?”
Exactly.
Identity did not need lab storage in her bedroom.
Then Odette requested a meeting again.
Maelis said yes.
One time.
Mediated.
She was sixteen.
Old enough to ask hard questions.
I did not attend.
Her therapist did.
Afterward she told me.
First question:
“Did you actually think Mom cheated?”
Odette:
“Yes.”
“Evidence?”
“A photograph. Behavior I interpreted.”
“So basically no.”
“Yes.”
“Why fake instead of real test?”
“Because a real test required your parents’ participation.”
“And they might say no.”
“Yes.”
“Did you want Dad to leave Mom?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I believed Elise turned him against me.”
Maelis laughed.
“Maybe you did that.”
Odette cried.
Then:
“Did you hate me?”
“No.”
“Did you like Sabine more?”
“At the time, yes.”
That honesty hurt.
Good.
“Why?”
“Because she represented a part of the family I felt I could control.”
Maelis said:
“That’s not liking.”
Odette had no answer.
The meeting lasted forty-two minutes.
No hug.
At the end Odette asked:
“May I write?”
Maelis said:
“Yes. Don’t expect answers.”
Boundary.
May you like
Odette obeyed.
For the first time, their relationship had rules Maelis chose.
