Chapter 5 - The DNA result
“Elmer isn't Louisa's father.”
The officer said it carefully.
I couldn't process the sentence.
“I have never cheated on my husband.”
Nobody accused me.
That somehow made it worse.
I knew when Louisa was conceived.
I knew my body.
I knew my marriage.
Unless—
My memory returned to a fertility clinic.
After two years without pregnancy, Elmer and I had sought treatment.
One procedure.
One successful pregnancy.
Louisa.
Elmer went pale when I mentioned the clinic.
“Joanna…”
“What?”
He knew something.
“WHAT?”
He admitted Walter had recommended the clinic.
A private facility owned by an old family friend, Dr. Samuel Price.
After Louisa's birth, Walter became obsessed with testing her.
Because he'd learned something.
“What?”
Elmer couldn't answer.
He'd never dared ask.
I requested Louisa's original medical records.
The clinic had closed eighteen months earlier.
Dr. Price had disappeared from public practice.
Then an attorney contacted me.
He represented seven families suing the clinic.
Wrong embryos.
Mislabeled samples.
Unauthorized donor material.
Destroyed records.
My daughter wasn't the only child.
My legs went weak.
But something still didn't fit.
Why would Lydia terrorize Louisa?
Why stage theft?
Why shave her now?
The answer arrived from Heather.
She called me secretly.
“I'll tell you everything.”
“Start talking.”
“Not over the phone.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn't.”
She started crying.
“But Joanna… I didn't take Lydia's bracelet because I wanted it.”
“Then why?”
“Because Lydia needed an excuse to shave Louisa without making you suspicious about the hair.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You tortured a three-year-old to hide a DNA test.”
“No.”
Heather's next words silenced me.
“To hide who ordered it.”
“Walter?”
“No.”
May you like
A pause.
“Elmer.”
