Chapter 15 - ROBERT MAY HAVE SUSPECTEDA cousin remembered an argument.
Not the content.
Family reunion, 1998.
Robert and Margaret behind the garage.
Robert said:
“Not in front of Daniel.”
Margaret cried.
Could have been anything.
Then Robert’s sister Helen gave us something more useful.
“At one point Robert wondered whether Daniel was his.”
“When?”
“When Daniel was a baby.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Margaret told him conception dates were off.”
“Did he test?”
“This was 1985.”
DNA paternity testing existed but was not routine household behavior.
Blood testing could exclude some possibilities but not establish them with modern certainty.
Helen said Robert eventually told her:
“He’s my boy. I’m done with it.”
That was all.
No secret test.
No proof.
Even if Robert had suspected, he chose fatherhood.
Daniel cried when Helen told him.
Not because biology stopped mattering.
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Because for the first time he understood Robert’s love might have included uncertainty rather than ignorance.
That became important later.
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