Chapter 8
The report looked professional.
That was the problem.
Laboratory logo.
Case number.
Collection dates.
Probability percentages.
Gavin had no reason to recognize what Rebecca noticed immediately.
“There’s no physician or collector listed.”
She called the laboratory using its publicly listed number.
The case number did not exist.
The report was fabricated.
Gavin sat motionless.
Alessandra had expected anger.
Instead, he looked embarrassed.
“My mother gave me this.”
Rebecca slid the paper into an evidence sleeve.
“Do you have the message where she sent it?”
Gavin checked his phone.
He had deleted months of conversations during one of his arguments with Alessandra.
But his cloud backup still existed.
Restoring it would require surrendering messages that would also document his affair.
Rebecca explained that clearly.
Gavin looked at Alessandra.
She almost laughed at the irony.
For weeks he had asked her not to make things public.
Now proving that he had been deceived required exposing exactly how thoroughly he had deceived his wife.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
Alessandra shook her head.
“This is the part where you stop asking me to manage your consequences.”
Gavin requested the backup.
That afternoon Alessandra made her own irreversible decision.
She filed for divorce.
Not because the DNA result proved Milo was not Gavin’s.
If anything, that removed one complication.
She filed because Gavin had cheated for eleven months, hidden another household from her, helped strip their son’s room, and stood beside Vanessa while Tobin begged him for help.
Gavin received the petition in Rebecca’s office.
He read the first page and nodded.
No argument.
No bargaining.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
He swallowed.
“What about Tobin?”
“We build something safe for him.”
“Do you want me gone?”
“As my husband? Yes.”
He looked down.
“As his father?”
“That depends on what kind of father you decide to become.”
Gavin folded the papers.
For once, he did not ask her to soften the answer.
Then his restored messages began downloading.
The first search Rebecca ran was for the laboratory name.
They found seven references.
Five were from Sybil.
One was from Ethan.
May you like
And one message, sent months before Gavin ever met Milo, contained only four words:
He’ll believe the boy.
