Chapter 4 - THE DNA TEST GRANDMA TOOK WITHOUT PERMISSIONJames confronted Margaret that evening.
Not at our house.
At hers.
I went with him.
She answered the door calmly.
“I wondered how long it would take.”
James held up the forged amendment.
“Did you do this?”
Margaret barely looked at it.
“I corrected an oversight.”
“You stole from my daughter.”
“I moved family resources where they belong.”
“Who decided Tyler deserves them?”
“Your father.”
“Stop using Dad.”
Her expression changed.
James had rarely spoken to her that way.
Margaret looked at me.
“This is what happens when a man lets his wife control him.”
I laughed.
“No, Margaret. This is what happens when your son finally asks for receipts.”
Her face hardened.
James asked:
“Why did you tell Tyler Sophie isn’t mine?”
Margaret went still.
Then:
“Because there’s a possibility.”
“There is no possibility.”
“Are you sure?”
James stared at her.
“I was there when Sophie was conceived, Mom.”
I nearly laughed despite everything.
Margaret didn’t.
“I had a DNA test performed.”
My entire body went cold.
“What?”
She walked into her study and returned carrying an envelope.
James grabbed it.
“How did you get Sophie’s DNA?”
“She leaves hair everywhere.”
My stomach turned.
“You secretly collected our daughter’s hair?”
“I needed certainty.”
“You had no right.”
Margaret looked at me.
“If you had nothing to hide, why are you upset?”
Classic manipulation.
James opened the report.
Probability of paternity:
99.99%.
Sophie was his daughter.
Of course she was.
Margaret had known.
“How long have you had this?”
“Seven months.”
James looked stunned.
“You knew she was mine.”
“Yes.”
“And still told everyone she might not be?”
Margaret’s face remained calm.
“The possibility was useful.”
I felt sick.
Useful.
She had deliberately planted doubt around a six-year-old child despite possessing proof the accusation was false.
James whispered:
“Why?”
“Because you refuse to have another child.”
There it was.
“You wanted a grandson.”
“The company needs continuity.”
“I have a daughter.”
“She won’t stay a Parker forever.”
James stared at his mother.
Then said:
“Neither will the company if you keep this up.”
For the first time, Margaret looked afraid.
Because James controlled fifty-one percent of Parker Industrial.
Not her.
Not Andrew.
May you like
James.
And he was finally remembering it.
