“Monica swears what happened back then was one time,” he said. “She says she thought Sky was mine.”
Spencer sat beside him.
“Do you believe her?”
Jeremy gave a tired laugh.
“I wanted to.”
He explained that after the DNA result, he started replaying years of moments he had ignored.
Late meetings.
Deleted notifications.
Trips that shifted dates.
He checked things he had never checked before and found messages.
Not old messages from Skye’s biological father.
Current ones from another man.
“Different guy,” Jeremy said.
I didn’t say anything.
He continued.
When he confronted Monica, she denied it at first, then admitted the relationship.
“So apparently the thing Mom spent 20 years hinting Nah was doing…” He stopped.
Spencer finished softly.
“…was happening in your marriage.”
Jeremy nodded.
He had already contacted a divorce attorney.
He wasn’t asking Spencer what to do.
He just needed somewhere to sit where nobody was demanding that he protect the family image.
I thought about every time Gloria had praised Monica in front of me as polished, stable, the kind of woman who fit.
None of that mattered now.
Her preferred example hadn’t protected anyone.
The comparison Gloria had used for years had collapsed under her own test.
When the inheritance was finally ready to be settled, we returned for another family meeting.
This time, Gemma sat beside Spencer with her shoulders straight.
The testing had established the biological chain required by Russell’s trust.
Gemma was his only biological great grandchild.
The full $200,000 fund would therefore go to her.
Gloria objected immediately.
“That can’t be the final answer.”
Bruce said the paperwork was clear.
Gloria turned to Spencer.
“Sky did nothing wrong.”
“I know.”
“Russell knew her as his great granddaughter. He loved her.”
“I know that, too.”
Gloria looked at Gemma.
“It would be cruel for one girl to get everything because of something neither of them controlled. Family is about more than DNA.”
Gemma lifted her eyes.
“Why wasn’t it about more than DNA when you thought I might be the one who wasn’t biologically related?”
Gloria froze.
Gemma continued before anyone could interrupt.
“You were willing to give my entire share to Sky if Dad wasn’t my biological father. You didn’t say Russell knew me. You didn’t say he loved me. You said I had to prove I belonged.”
Gloria tried to explain that the situations were different.
Gemma asked how.
Every answer made the favoritism clearer.
Finally, Bruce told Gloria to stop.
Gemma leaned back in her chair.
She had spent years trying to earn equal treatment.
Now she was done asking for it.
Over the next few months, most of what I learned came through Spencer and Jeremy.
Jeremy’s divorce became ugly, and Monica eventually moved away with Sky.
Then Gloria started calling Spencer to complain that Sky barely responded to her messages.
“She blames us,” Gloria said during one call.
Spencer didn’t argue.
From what Jeremy heard, Sky blamed Gloria and Bruce for pushing the DNA issue that had exposed everything.
In Skye’s mind, their obsession with proving Gemma didn’t belong had cost her half of the inheritance and blown apart the family she thought she had.
Gloria and Bruce tried gifts, expensive clothes, a new laptop, tickets.
Skye accepted some things and ignored others, but she still barely spoke to them.
Gloria was furious about that.
“We’re still her grandparents,” she told Spencer.