Chapter 7 - MICHAEL’S DNA TEST
Michael submitted a legally documented sample.
Sophie did too.
The result excluded him as Sophie’s biological father.
I sat beside him when the report arrived.
He read it.
Put it down.
Then stared at the wall.
I waited.
Finally:
“Okay.”
That was all.
Then:
“Does Sophie know?”
“Not the result yet.”
“She needs to hear it from us.”
Us.
I looked at him.
“You mean that?”
He stared at me.
“Emily, don’t.”
“I need to ask.”
“I changed diapers.”
“I know.”
“I slept in that ugly rocking chair for eighteen months.”
“I know.”
“I taught her to ride a bike.”
“I know.”
“I’m not going anywhere because a lab changed the vocabulary.”
I cried.
Michael did too.
The conversation with Sophie happened with her therapist.
We told her:
Michael is not your biological father.
Grandpa Thomas supplied the genetic material that helped create you because a clinic used it without Mom and Dad’s informed permission.
She stared.
“So Grandpa is my blood dad?”
“In a genetic sense, he contributed the sperm.”
“And Michael?”
Michael said:
“I’m Dad.”
Sophie looked at him.
“Still?”
“Still.”
She climbed into his lap.
Then asked the question only an eight-year-old would ask:
“So do I get two dads?”
Michael laughed through tears.
“No. You get one dad and one very complicated medical history.”
She considered that.
May you like
“Okay.”
Children often tolerate truth better than adults tolerate anticipation of truth.
