Chapter 6 — The DNA Report
Matthew Bennett was alive.
For several seconds, I couldn't understand the words.
They didn't belong together.
Matthew Bennett.
My husband's supposedly dead brother.
The man whose name had been buried for thirty-seven years.
The man whose DNA had just been identified as the biological father of my daughter.
Alive.
I looked at Detective Bennett.
“Where is he?”
“We don't know.”
Michael slammed his good hand against the table.
“You just told me he's alive.”
“We know he survived the accident.”
“Then where is he?”
“He disappeared.”
“When?”
“Three days after the accident.”
Michael stared at her.
“My father said he died.”
“Your father believed he died.”
I shook my head.
“No. The records say he died.”
Detective Bennett nodded.
“The records say a man named Matthew Bennett died.”
She opened another folder.
“But the body wasn't his.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“The body was burned beyond recognition.”
Michael's face went white.
“Then how did they identify him?”
“They didn't.”
She placed a document on the table.
“Diane did.”
Silence.
Michael looked at the document.
His eyes moved across the page.
Then he whispered:
“She lied.”
Detective Bennett nodded.
“She declared the body was Matthew before the coroner completed the examination.”
I looked at the DNA report again.
My daughter's biological father was a man the Bennett family had declared dead.
Thirty-seven years ago.
But if Matthew was alive—
where had he been?
And why had he stayed hidden?
I thought about Lily.
My beautiful little girl.
Ten months old.
The child Diane had tried to throw from a balcony.
The child Michael had risked his life to save.
The child whose existence had apparently terrified an entire family.
I suddenly understood why.
Lily wasn't just a baby.
She was evidence.
That night, Michael refused to go home.
He sat in the hospital room staring at the ceiling.
I sat beside Lily's crib.
Neither of us spoke for a long time.
Finally, he said:
“Did you know?”
I looked at him.
“Know what?”
“That Lily wasn't mine.”
The question hurt more than I expected.
“No.”
“You never suspected?”
“Never.”
He nodded.
Then looked away.
“I should have.”
“Why?”
“Because Diane always hated the idea of me having children.”
I frowned.
“She said it was because she didn't trust you.”
Michael gave a bitter laugh.
“She wasn't afraid I'd be a bad father.”
He looked at Lily.
“She was afraid I'd have a child with the wrong blood.”
I remembered Diane's words.
That child's blood will never belong in this family.
Michael suddenly stood.
“My father knew.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“My father knew about Matthew.”
“How?”
“Because he was the one who helped him disappear.”
My heart stopped.
“How do you know?”
Michael pointed at the pendant.
“The initials.”
D.B.H.
David Bennett Hayes.
His father's full name.
“The pendant belonged to Matthew.”
I touched it.
“Then why did Lily have it?”
Michael stared at me.
“Because Matthew gave it to you.”
My eyes widened.
“But I never met him.”
“No.”
Michael's expression changed.
“He met you.”
“When?”
He pulled out his phone.
Opened an old photograph.
And showed me.
It was taken at a charity gala eleven months before Lily was born.
I was standing near the entrance.
Pregnant?
No.
Not yet.
But beside me was an unfamiliar man.
Dark hair.
Older.
Scar above his eyebrow.
I didn't remember him.
Michael zoomed in.
The man was holding a champagne glass.
But his other hand was resting against my shoulder.
I stared.
“Who is that?”
Michael whispered:
“Matthew.”
My blood turned cold.
“He was at our wedding?”
“No.”
“When?”
“Three months before Lily was conceived.”
I stared at the photograph.
Then at Michael.
“Why don't I remember him?”
“Because you weren't supposed to.”
Detective Bennett returned at midnight.
She had found something.
A hotel registration.
A man had checked into a Phoenix hotel under the name Daniel Morris.
The same name from David's recording.
The same name connected to Matthew's biological father.
Michael looked at me.
“It's him.”
We went there immediately.
Room 914.
The door was open.
Inside, everything had been destroyed.
Drawers ripped out.
Clothes scattered across the floor.
A suitcase was overturned.
Someone had searched the room.
But they had missed one thing.
A small envelope hidden beneath the mattress.
My name was written on it.
EMMA.
My hands shook as I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Me.
Holding Lily.
Taken three months earlier.
Someone had been watching us.
On the back were seven words.
I DIDN'T ABANDON HER. I PROTECTED HER.
Below that was a location.
An abandoned church outside Phoenix.
And one final sentence:
COME ALONE.
Michael grabbed my arm.
“No.”
“I have to go.”
“It's a trap.”
“Probably.”
“Then you're not going.”
I looked at him.
“Michael, your brother is Lily's father.”
He went silent.
“And someone has been hiding him for thirty-seven years.”
I folded the note.
“I'm going.”
Michael shook his head.
“Then I'm coming with you.”
I looked into his eyes.
For the first time, I realized he wasn't afraid of losing me.
He was afraid of losing the last piece of his family that hadn't been destroyed by Diane.
So we went together.
The church was abandoned.
The doors hung open.
Wind moved through broken windows.
Inside, hundreds of candles had been placed around the altar.
One was still burning.
A man stood in the shadows.
He turned.
I saw the scar.
The same scar from the photograph.
My heart stopped.
“Matthew?”
He stepped into the light.
He looked at Michael.
And smiled sadly.
“Hello, little brother.”
Michael couldn't move.
“You're alive.”
Matthew nodded.
“For thirty-seven years.”
Michael's eyes filled with tears.
“Why?”
Matthew looked at Lily.
“Because your mother wanted me dead.”
Then he looked at me.
“And because she knows what Lily carries.”
“What does she carry?”
Matthew's face hardened.
“The truth about who owns the Bennett empire.”
I frowned.
“What?”
He stepped closer.
“Your daughter isn't just my blood.”
He looked at Michael.
“She is the legal heir to everything Diane stole.”
And before I could ask another question—
a gunshot shattered the church windows.
Matthew grabbed Lily's stroller.
Michael pulled me to the floor.
May you like
And from outside came Diane's voice.
“YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE DEAD BURIED.”
