Chapter 4 - Adam Had Asked the Wrong Question Because It Was Easier
Rachel asked him:
“Why didn’t you ask me about Mark?”
Adam answered:
“I was afraid you’d lie.”
She stared.
“Based on what?”
He looked down.
“The messages.”
“The messages you never showed me.”
“Yes.”
“So you believed evidence selected by a woman who openly hates me more than you believed your wife.”
Adam winced.
“Yes.”
At least he did not argue.
Then Rachel asked:
“Did you ever compare dates?”
He frowned.
“What?”
“Mark was in Seattle the entire month Noah was conceived.”
Adam knew.
They had attended Mark’s virtual engagement party around then.
Rachel had even shown Adam photographs.
Adam sat down slowly.
He had been so emotionally consumed by the messages that he had never seriously reconstructed the obvious timeline.
Diane had not needed to prove infidelity.
She only needed to make him emotionally receptive to doubt.
Then the test.
Adam admitted Diane had already researched private laboratories.
She sent him the consent form while Rachel was in labor.
He deleted it.
She sent it again after the emergency C-section.
You don’t have to use it. Just have the option.
Adam signed.
He told himself it was insurance.
Then Noah was born.
Adam looked at his son and immediately felt ashamed for doubting.
Still proceeded with the test.
Why?
Because uncertainty had become unbearable.
Three days later:
99.99 percent probability of paternity.
Adam cried alone in his office.
Then destroyed his copy of the report.
Diane kept hers.
Rachel stared at him.
“You destroyed it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted it gone.”
“You wanted what you did gone.”
“Yes.”
There.
Not confusion.
Choice.
Then Rachel asked something worse.
“Did you treat Noah differently while you waited?”
Adam’s face broke.
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
That, at least, Rachel believed.
Adam had barely put Noah down during those first days.
He slept beside the bassinet.
Changed diapers badly.
Cried when Noah gripped his finger.
Whatever suspicion existed in his mind, his behavior toward the baby had been loving.
That did not repair the betrayal toward Rachel.
Then she asked:
“Did your mother know the result?”
“Yes.”
“And after knowing Noah was yours, she still called him a trap.”
Adam closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
That changed Diane’s conduct.
Before the result, she could claim suspicion.
Afterward, she knew.
For four months she continued telling Adam:
Rachel planned the pregnancy.
Rachel was securing her place.
Rachel was using Noah.
Paternity truth did not matter because Diane’s real belief had never been:
Noah might not be Adam’s.
Her belief was:
Rachel does not deserve this family.
May you like
The test was only the tool available at the time.
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