Chapter 8 - THE DNA ROOM
Friday morning arrived with freezing rain.
The independent laboratory Amelia selected occupied the fourth floor of a medical building near Northwestern.
We chose seven thirty, before school and before most reporters were awake enough to become cruel.
Luca arrived alone.
That surprised me.
No driver.
No attorney.
No Marco visible in the hallway.
He wore a dark coat and looked as if he had not slept in days.
Leo saw him first.
"Luca."
The way my son said his name made Luca stop walking.
Not Dad.
Not Mr. Moretti.
Just Luca.
He seemed grateful for even that.
"Hi, Leo."
Then he looked at Lia.
"Hi, Lia."
She held up a small plastic dinosaur.
"This is Pickles."
Luca nodded solemnly.
"Good name."
"He's a triceratops."
"I can see that."
"He does not like needles."
Luca glanced toward the laboratory door.
"Neither do I."
Lia grinned.
For one second, the tension broke.
Then Evelyn stepped out of the elevator.
Everything came back.
She wore dark glasses despite the gray morning.
Luca's face hardened.
"What are you doing here?"
"I am your wife."
"I told you not to come."
"You do not get to exclude me from something that could alter our entire marriage."
I moved the twins behind me.
"It already has."
Evelyn turned toward me.
"I was not speaking to you."
Luca's voice became cold.
"Then you should leave."
She stared at him.
"You are choosing her before you even know those children are yours."
The receptionist looked up sharply.
Leo heard every word.
His face changed.
I felt rage so clean it became calm.
"Evelyn."
She looked at me.
"If you discuss the children's paternity in front of them again, this meeting ends and my attorney will handle every future contact."
"You cannot control what I say."
"No."
I stepped closer.
"But I can control whether you are ever in the same room with my children."
Luca looked at Evelyn.
"Go home."
"Our home?"
Her smile was thin.
"Or the house you suddenly treat like a crime scene?"
"Go."
She removed her sunglasses.
Her eyes were red.
For the first time, I saw fear under the polished anger.
"Luca, if this test says what you think it says, there are things you need to know about Nia."
I almost laughed.
The strategy was familiar because Bianca had used it first.
Make him doubt me before truth could settle.
Luca saw it too.
"No."
"You do not even know what I was going to say."
"I know exactly what you're doing."
Evelyn's face tightened.
"And what is that?"
"Trying to give me a reason not to trust her before I learn what you did."
Silence filled the hallway.
Evelyn looked at me with naked hatred.
Then she left.
The elevator doors closed on her reflection.
Lia tugged my sleeve.
"She is not very nice."
Luca covered his mouth for a second.
Leo nodded gravely.
"She seems mad a lot."
"Adults can make bad choices when they're scared," I said.
Luca looked at me.
He knew I was not only talking about Evelyn.
The technician called us in.
The collection process was simple.
Cheek swabs.
Labels.
Signatures.
Chain-of-custody forms.
The simplicity felt insulting compared with the emotional weight.
Luca watched the technician swab Leo's cheek.
His hands were clenched so tightly his knuckles had gone white.
When Lia's turn came, she made Pickles the dinosaur get swabbed first.
The technician played along.
Luca laughed unexpectedly.
The sound hit me with a memory.
He used to laugh like that before our appointments became serious.
Before every room began to feel like a verdict.
Then it was Luca's turn.
Lia watched carefully.
"You didn't cry."
"I was very brave."
"You are old."
The technician coughed to hide a laugh.
I looked away.
Luca smiled.
"That is also true."
After the samples were sealed, the technician explained that results would be available in forty-eight to seventy-two hours.
Luca nodded.
I signed the release forms.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Leo asked the question no adult had prepared for.
"What happens if it says yes?"
Luca looked at me before answering.
That mattered.
"Then we talk about what you want."
Leo frowned.
"What do you want?"
Luca looked at him.
His eyes filled.
"I want the chance to know you."
Lia held Pickles tighter.
"Do you want to know Mom too?"
Every adult in the room stopped.
Luca glanced at me.
"I already know your mom."
Lia shook her head.
"No."
"No?"
"Mom says people change."
I closed my eyes briefly.
Luca looked almost amused.
"Your mom is right."
"Then you have to know her again."
I interrupted.
"Okay, philosopher, coats on."
Lia accepted the redirect.
Outside the lab, Luca waited until the children entered the elevator with Amelia.
I stayed in the hallway.
"You have thirty seconds."
"I found Marianne's records."
"So did we."
"She gave you the flash drives?"
"Copies are being made."
"Nia, Evelyn's father bought your apartment building."
"I know."
"I confronted him."
"You what?"
"Not personally."
I stared at him.
"You are learning restraint."
"Slowly."
"What did he say?"
"That Evelyn asked him to help a friend acquire a distressed property."
"I was the distressed property."
Luca's face tightened.
"Apparently."
"Did he know why?"
"He claims he did not."
"Do you believe him?"
"No."
"You seem to be discovering a lot of people you do not believe."
"I started with myself."
That answer stopped me.
Luca looked down at the floor.
"I keep replaying the last year of our marriage."
"Don't."
"I have to."
"Why?"
"Because I need to know which parts were manipulated and which parts were mine."
His voice roughened.
"The manipulation explains what I was told."
He looked at me.
"It does not explain what I did with it."
For years, I had wanted him to say exactly that.
Hearing it now brought no relief.
"No," I said.
"It doesn't."
The elevator doors opened again because Amelia held them.
"Time."
I stepped inside.
Luca stayed in the hallway.
As the doors began to close, he spoke.
"Nia."
I looked at him.
"Whatever the test says, I am sorry for the way I left you."
The doors closed before I could answer.
At eight twenty-seven, we walked into the parking garage.
Marco emerged from behind a concrete column.
His face was grim.
"We have a problem."
Luca had apparently sent him to check the garage while we were upstairs.
Amelia sighed.
"What now?"
Marco held up a small black device sealed inside a plastic evidence bag.
"This was attached beneath Ms. Carter's car."
I stared at it.
"What is it?"
"GPS tracker."
The garage suddenly felt enormous and exposed.
"How long has it been there?"
"Battery wear suggests weeks, maybe longer."
Weeks.
Before the restaurant.
Before Luca knew.
Before the photographs we had already found.
Someone had not only watched my children.
May you like
Someone had tracked everywhere I took them.
