CHAPTER 2 — A SON CHOOSES HIS FAMILY

The nursery remained frozen in silence.

Only the baby's desperate cries filled the room.

Ethan never took his eyes off his mother.

"You assaulted my wife."

Margaret tried to recover her composure.

"I was disciplining her."

"You pulled her to the floor."

"She provoked me."

Emma slowly sat up, one hand pressed against her aching scalp.

Several strands of her hair still lay scattered across the hardwood floor.

Ethan noticed them.

His jaw tightened.

He had never seen his mother look at anyone with such hatred.

Especially not the woman he loved.

He knelt beside Emma.

"Are you hurt?"

She nodded through trembling tears.

"My head..."

He carefully examined the red marks on her scalp before gently helping her to her feet.

Then he picked up their crying daughter and held her against his chest.

"It's okay," he whispered. "Daddy's here."

The baby's cries slowly softened.

Margaret folded her arms.

"So this is what happens now? You choose her over your own mother?"

Ethan looked directly into her eyes.

"No."

He paused.

"I choose my family."

The words struck Margaret harder than anything else could have.

"I am your family!"

"You were."

Silence.

"But the day I married Emma, I made vows."

His voice remained calm.

"My first responsibility became my wife and my daughter."

Margaret laughed bitterly.

"She manipulated you."

"No."

"You've changed."

"I've grown."

She stared at him as if she no longer recognized her own son.

Then she delivered one final accusation.

"If that baby really belongs to you..."

Ethan interrupted her.

"Enough."

He walked toward the hallway table and picked up a sealed envelope.

"I wasn't planning to show anyone this."

Emma looked confused.

"What is that?"

"The DNA test."

Margaret's expression faltered.

"You... what?"

Ethan sighed heavily.

"Not because I doubted Emma."

He looked at his wife with regret.

"I took it because you kept whispering lies to everyone in this family."

Emma's eyes filled with tears.

"You never told me."

"I wanted to end this once and for all."

He opened the envelope.

The result was simple.

Probability of paternity:

99.9999%.

Ethan placed the report into Margaret's shaking hands.

"You were wrong."

She stared at the paper.

Again.

And again.

But the numbers never changed.

For the first time...

She had nothing to say.