“Tell them what?”
“The other thing.”
My stomach dropped.
I knew immediately what she meant.
Silas looked at me.
“What’s she talking about?”
My mother smiled.
It was the first confident smile I’d seen from her since she entered the conservatory.
“You haven’t told him everything.”
I stared at her.
She stepped forward.
“She didn’t tell you why she really came back to this family.”
Silas looked at me.
“Is that true?”
I didn’t answer.
My mother continued.
“She didn’t tell you that the lymphoma wasn’t the only thing she was diagnosed with.”
The room went silent.
My heart seemed to stop.
Silas’s expression changed.
“Beatrice.”
My mother smiled.
“Oh, he should know.”
I looked at her.
“Stop.”
But she didn’t.
“She found something in the genetic testing.”
Silas looked at me.
“What did you find?”
My mother raised her chin.
“Tell him.”
I closed my eyes.
For months, I had been terrified of this moment.
Not because of cancer.
Because of what the genetic test had revealed.
I opened my eyes.
“It’s true.”
Silas waited.
I swallowed.
“The doctors discovered a genetic mutation associated with hereditary cancer risk.”
My mother’s smile widened.
“But that’s not the secret.”
Silas looked confused.
“Then what is?”
I turned toward my mother.
“You never read the complete report, did you?”
Her smile disappeared.
I reached into my bag.
Pulled out a sealed envelope.
And handed it to Silas.
He opened it.
His eyes moved across the page.
Then stopped.
He looked at me.
“You knew?”
I nodded.
My mother stepped backward.
“What does it say?”
Silas didn’t answer.
I did.
“It says my cancer wasn’t the only thing my doctors discovered.”
My mother whispered:
“No.”
I looked directly at her.
“The genetic analysis showed that Khloe and I don’t have the same biological father.”
The room exploded into whispers.
Khloe stared at our mother.
“What?”
Beatrice went completely white.
I continued.
“And that’s not even the worst part.”
Silas looked at me.
“What else?”
I took a breath.
“The report also revealed that the man listed on my birth certificate isn’t my biological father.”
My mother started shaking.
Khloe looked horrified.
“Mom…”
But I wasn’t finished.
“Six months ago, I ordered a full ancestry test.”
My mother backed away.
“The results identified my biological father.”
Silas stared at me.
“Who?”
I looked toward the front row.
Then toward the man who had been sitting quietly among the guests the entire ceremony.
An older man.
Silver-haired.
Wearing a dark suit.
Someone my mother had deliberately avoided looking at all afternoon.
I pointed toward him.
“That man.”
Everyone turned.
My mother covered her mouth.
The man slowly stood.
And for the first time, I saw my mother’s perfect mask completely collapse.
Because the man wasn’t a stranger.
He was a former partner of my mother’s.
A man she had told everyone had died decades ago.
A man whose name appeared on the final page of my genetic report.
My biological father.
He looked at me with tears in his eyes.
“I’ve been waiting thirty-seven years to meet you.”
The conservatory fell silent.
My mother began crying.
But I wasn’t looking at her anymore.
I was looking at the man who had just walked into my wedding.
The man I had spent my entire life believing was dead.
He stepped toward me.
And before he could say another word, Silas suddenly looked down at the document in his hand.
His face changed.
“What?”
I asked.
He turned the paper around.
There was one additional genetic finding.
One neither of us had expected.
Silas looked at me.
Then at my biological father.
Then back at me.
“There is something else.”
My heart began pounding.
“What?”
His voice dropped.
“This test wasn’t just identifying your father.”
He pointed to the final line.
“It identified another close genetic match.”
My mother stopped crying.
Khloe stopped breathing.
Silas looked directly at her.
Then he said:
“Khloe isn’t your sister.”
The room went completely silent.
And my mother finally whispered the truth she’d spent thirty-seven years hiding:
“She never was.”
