Sky whispered, “This is insane.”
Gemma answered, “Yeah, it was insane when it was only me, too.”
No one had a response to that.
Gloria had demanded proof because she believed proof could only hurt us.
Now, she had to live with what she demanded.
A few days later, I was sitting in a DNA testing clinic with more of Spencer’s family than I ever expected to see together under fluorescent lights.
Sky kept bouncing one leg.
“This is so stupid.”
Jeremy nodded completely.
Gloria, sitting beside Bruce, said for the third time, “This all could have been avoided if Gemma had just taken the test from the beginning.”
Spencer looked up from his phone.
“No, it could have been avoided if you hadn’t accused my wife.”
Gloria muttered something about responsibility.
Gemma was beside Spencer, her hands tucked into the sleeves of her sweatshirt.
She looked uncomfortable but not ashamed the way she had at the dining table.
When the receptionist called her name, Spencer stood immediately.
“I’m with her.”
Gemma glanced at him.
“Obviously.”
That tiny bit of attitude made me smile for the first time all morning.
Jeremy and Sky were called later.
Then Bruce and his sons for the test needed to establish the other links.
Nobody enjoyed it.
Nobody had anything clever to say afterward.
In the parking lot, Monica complained that the whole situation was humiliating.
Gemma looked at her.
“It is.”
Monica seemed to realize too late what she had just said.
Then everyone went home.
There was no more arguing to do.
The samples were submitted.
The rule had been applied.
All we could do was wait for the results.
The results came 3 weeks after Gloria first demanded the test, and the family agreed to meet because nobody wanted another round of phone calls and competing explanations.
My stomach was tight, even though I knew what Spencer and Gemma’s result would say.
Bruce’s report was opened first.
It established that Spencer and Jeremy were his biological sons.
Gloria nodded as though that proved the process was working exactly as expected.
Then Spencer opened the report connecting him to Gemma.
He scanned the page and handed it to our daughter.
“There you go.”
The result established Spencer as Gemma’s biological father.
Gemma released a breath she had probably been holding for 3 weeks.
Spencer squeezed her hand.
I looked at Gloria.
She didn’t apologize.
She just said, “Good. Then that’s settled.”
I almost answered, but Jeremy had already opened the report connecting him to Sky.
He read it once.
Then he read it again.
His expression changed so completely that Monica stood up.
“What?” she asked.
Jeremy didn’t answer her.
He looked at the page, then across the room at his wife.
“What is this?”
Sky leaned toward him.
“Dad.”
Jeremy put the report flat on the table.
The biological relationship expected between him and Sky was not there.
I didn’t smile.
Spencer didn’t speak.
I simply looked at Gloria, completely calm.
Her standard had given her an answer.
For several seconds after Jeremy asked Monica what the result meant, nobody moved.