Chapter 6 - Shattered Legacies
The silence that fell over the library was deafening. Mark stood frozen, staring at the paper as if it were written in a foreign language. He looked up at me, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
"She's... she's mine?" he whispered.
"Of course she's yours, you idiot," I said, my voice dripping with absolute contempt. "I have never been unfaithful to you. I loved you, Mark. But you let your own insecurity and your family's toxic pride destroy what we had."
Richard Sterling let out a loud, booming sigh of relief. He slammed his hand onto his desk. "Well! Thank God for that. Elena, you see? It was just a misunderstanding. Mark was stressed. Now that we know the truth, we can put this ugly business behind us and focus on the family legacy."
"Wait," Mark said, his voice suddenly trembling. He was turning the pages of the document, his eyes locked onto a secondary section attached to the back. "What is this? There's an addendum."
From the sofa, Carol let out a low, whimpering sound. She covered her face with her hands.
"Mark, put the paper down," Carol begged, her voice cracking with terror. "Please, just put it down. You got your answer. Lily is yours. Let's go home."
"No, hold on," Mark said, ignoring his mother. "Because I requested a comprehensive lineage match against the Sterling Family Health Trust archive, the lab ran a comparative analysis between my DNA profile and the primary reference profile on file... Dad's profile."
Richard frowned, his posture stiffening. "What are you talking about? Why would they compare your DNA to mine?"
"It's standard for the deep-lineage test I ordered," Mark muttered, his face turning from red to an ash-white pallor. He read the bold text printed at the bottom of the supplementary page. "It says... 'Based on the comparative analysis of the genetic markers provided by the Sterling Family Trust Archive (Reference ID: R-Sterling-01) and the subject, Mark Sterling, there is a 0.00% probability of biological relationship. The subject does not share parental genetic lineage with the reference profile.'"
Mark looked up, his eyes wide and completely hollow. He looked at Richard, then at Carol. "Dad... it says I'm not your son."
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Richard Sterling froze. The air in the room seemed to vanish entirely. The powerful tycoon slowly stood up from his chair, his eyes fixed on his wife, who was now sobbing uncontrollably on the sofa.
"Carol," Richard said, his voice dangerously low, vibrating with a rage that shook the entire room. "What is the meaning of this?"
