Chapter 3
Sybil claimed Marissa was lying.
Brenna did not immediately believe either woman.
She requested records.
Marissa supplied hers voluntarily.
Eight years earlier, she and Gavin had dated for less than three months.
Nothing secret.
Nothing dramatic.
They met through mutual friends.
The relationship ended before either considered it serious.
Four months later, Marissa married Daniel Cole.
Owen was born the following year.
Daniel was listed as his father.
He raised Owen until his death from cancer three years earlier.
That detail changed the emotional shape of the story.
Owen had already lost one father.
Now Sybil had entered his life telling him another existed.
Brenna felt sick.
“Did you ever believe Gavin might be Owen’s father?” Rachel asked.
Marissa hesitated.
“Not seriously.”
“Why not?”
“The dates were close, but Daniel and I were already reconnecting when I became pregnant.”
“Did Daniel ever question paternity?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then why take a test?”
Marissa looked embarrassed.
“Because Sybil showed up with old photographs.”
Brenna frowned.
“What photographs?”
Pictures of Marissa and Gavin from eight years earlier.
A restaurant.
A charity event.
One outside Gavin’s old apartment.
Sybil had kept them.
Or found them.
Marissa did not know which.
“She said Gavin had always wondered whether Owen might be his.”
Brenna looked at Gavin’s attorney.
That was false.
Gavin had told Brenna he never knew Marissa was pregnant.
Marissa continued.
“Sybil said Gavin was afraid to approach me directly because I was married when Owen was born.”
“What did she offer you?”
Marissa stiffened.
“I didn’t sell my son.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
The woman’s face softened slightly.
“She offered to pay for the testing.”
“Anything else?”
“School tuition if Gavin was confirmed.”
There it was.
Not a suitcase full of cash.
Not some ridiculous bribe.
Something a widowed mother raising a seven-year-old might accept without believing she was doing anything wrong.
Marissa’s son attended a small private school that had become difficult to afford after Daniel’s death.
Sybil presented the test as a path toward certainty and financial security.
Marissa agreed.
Then the result came back.
“Did you receive it directly from the laboratory?” Rachel asked.
“No.”
“Who gave it to you?”
“Sybil.”
Brenna looked down at her notes.
Gavin received the result through Sybil.
Marissa received the result through Sybil.
The samples were collected at Sybil’s house.
The collector was arranged by Sybil.
And before anyone independently verified the result, Sybil had already begun moving Tobin out of his room.
Three separate decisions.
May you like
One common point.
Sybil.
