Chapter 8 - THE OLD REPORTDaniel found it.
Not police.
Not me.
He went to Margaret’s house with his attorney’s permission to collect personal belongings after investigators had finished photographing the relevant areas.
Inside Robert’s old home-office cabinet was a gray envelope.
Handwritten:
SOPHIE — PRIVATE
Daniel opened it.
A relationship-testing report dated four years earlier.
Sophie had been fourteen months old.
Alleged relationship:
Grandfather / granddaughter.
Grandfather sample:
Robert Dawson.
Child sample:
Sophie Dawson.
Conclusion:
The tested samples did not support a biological grandparent-grandchild relationship.
Daniel called me.
I did not answer.
He sent the report to both attorneys.
Then texted:
I think I know why Mom believed it.
I stared at the message.
Then at the direct paternity result in my own folder.
Daniel was Sophie’s biological father.
If Robert was truly the man represented by the older sample, and Sophie was truly the child represented by the other—
something did not fit.
There were only a few broad possibilities.
The old test was unreliable or mishandled.
A sample was wrong.
Robert was not biologically related to Daniel.
Or the report itself was fraudulent.
Margaret had chosen one conclusion for four years.
Claire cheated.
May you like
She had never apparently considered another possibility aloud.
That was when I began wondering whether she had considered it privately.
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