There was another detail.
The infant developed an intestinal complication several days after
birth.
Emergency surgery.
That surgery left Aaron’s abdominal scar.
So our matching scars had different causes.
Mine came from delivering him.
His came from surgery days later.
The resemblance was coincidence shaped by the same terrible week.
But the rest was becoming harder to dismiss.
PART 15 — THE DNA TEST
We did not announce anything to the family.
The pool party ended early.
We ordered an accredited relationship test through a medical service.
Then we waited.
Those days were unbearable.
Natalie stayed with a friend.
Aaron moved into a hotel voluntarily.
Nobody knew what their marriage meant until we knew the biological
truth.
I spent every night replaying 1985.
My mother.
Paul.
The hospital.
The baby I never saw.
PART 16 — PAUL
Paul and I divorced when I was thirty-two.
Years later, I married Natalie’s father, Robert.
Natalie was born when I was thirty-six.
