Chapter 8: The Letter Beneath the Floorboards
Aaliyah didn't remember dropping the report.
One moment, she was holding it. The next, it lay on the floor beside the wedding-planning notebook.
“I burned them.””
Her mother's words repeated inside her head.
“You burned my DNA results?””
Denise nodded, crying silently.
“Why?””
“Because I was afraid of what they would say.””
Aaliyah stared at her.
“That was the whole point of the test.””
“I know.””
“You asked for it. You signed the forms. You let three men believe they might be my father, and then you destroyed the answer?””
Denise pressed her hands to her chest.
“I thought I was saving our family.””
“Which family?””
The question made Denise flinch.
Aaliyah continued, her voice rising.
“Robert left. Adrian died. Marcus raised me. And you were so afraid of the truth that you burned the one thing that could have settled it?””
“I was young.””
“You were a grown woman.””
“I was frightened!””
“So was I!””
The words burst out of Aaliyah before she could stop them.
She was crying now, her carefully applied makeup streaking beneath her eyes.
“I was frightened when I got sick. I was frightened when I started school and all the other children had fathers who came to their performances. I was frightened when I thought Marcus might die after his heart surgery when I was sixteen. I was frightened when I moved away for college and worried that I wouldn't have enough money to finish.””
She wiped her cheeks.
“But I never got to make a single decision about the truth because you decided I couldn't handle it.””
Denise sank into the chair.
“I am sorry.””
Aaliyah shook her head.
“I don't know what to do with your apology.””
Marcus stepped closer.
“Neither do you have to know today.””
She looked at him.
“Please don't defend her.””
“I'm not defending what she did. I'm telling you that you don't have to decide how you feel about it in the next five minutes.””
His voice remained gentle.
“You have spent your whole life trying to make everyone else comfortable. You don't owe any of us that today.””
Aaliyah's shoulders sagged.
For a moment, she wanted to lean against him.
Instead, she stepped away.
“I need to know whether there's another copy.””
Denise looked up.
“No.””
“Think carefully.””
“I destroyed the only copy I had.””
“What about the laboratory?””
“I don't know whether they kept anything.””
“They just told us they have an archive.””
Denise closed her eyes.
“Then perhaps they still have it.””
Aaliyah turned to Marcus.
“Can we request the original results?””
“We can try.””
“Then we'll try.””
Robert picked up the papers from the floor.
“I can contact Adrian's attorney. He may have kept a copy.””
Aaliyah looked at him.
“You can give us the attorney's name and contact information. That's all I'm asking you to do.””
Robert nodded.
It was a small humiliation, but he accepted it.
“I understand.””
Daniel checked his watch.
“We should also tell the wedding coordinator that we need more time.””
Aaliyah looked toward the doors.
The ceremony was scheduled to begin in less than an hour. Guests were already seated in the garden courtyard, where white chairs faced an arch covered in roses.
Her wedding dress had been altered three times. Her bouquet had been delivered that morning. Her friends had spent months planning the celebration.
And now she was standing in the reception hall wondering whether she knew the biological identity of the man who had raised her.
“Tell Emily the ceremony is delayed,” Aaliyah said.
Daniel nodded.
“Do you want to postpone it?””
She looked at him.
“I don't know.””
He took her hands.
“Then we don't have to decide this second.””
Aaliyah searched his face.
“You're not angry?””
“I'm worried about you.””
“This is supposed to be our wedding day.””
“It still can be.””
“But everything is falling apart.””
Daniel smiled sadly.
“Then we'll decide what matters enough to save.””
She leaned forward and rested her forehead against his.
For the first time that afternoon, she felt her breathing slow.
Then Marcus's phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
“It's my brother.””
He answered.
“Hello?””
A woman's voice came through the speaker, too faint for Aaliyah to hear clearly.
Marcus's expression changed.
“What do you mean you found it?””
He stood abruptly.
“Where?””
Aaliyah moved closer.
Marcus listened for several seconds.
Then he said, “Don't touch anything. I'll be there as soon as I can.””
He ended the call.
“What happened?”” Aaliyah asked.
Marcus looked at her.
“My brother is clearing out our mother's house. He found a box of old family documents.””
“So?””
“One of the envelopes has Adrian's name on it.””
Robert stepped forward.
“Adrian left something at your mother's house?””
“I don't know. My brother says the envelope is addressed to me, but there's another name written beneath mine.””
Aaliyah's heart began to race.
“What name?””
Marcus hesitated.
Then he turned the phone toward her.
A photograph of an old cream-colored envelope filled the screen.
The writing was faded but readable.
*Marcus Cole — to be opened when Aaliyah asks who her father is.*
Aaliyah felt her knees weaken.
Daniel caught her hand.
“Liyah?””
She stared at the screen.
“Call him back.””
Marcus did.
His brother answered almost immediately.
“Marcus, are you still there?””
“Yes. Tell me exactly what you found.””
“An envelope inside the old cedar chest. It was tucked beneath some photographs and a stack of insurance documents.””
“Did you open it?””
“No. I thought you'd want to see it first.””
Marcus closed his eyes briefly.
“Thank you. Keep it safe. I'm coming over.””
He ended the call.
Aaliyah grabbed her handbag from the chair.
“I'm coming with you.””
Marcus shook his head.
“Sweetheart, you don't need to spend your wedding day digging through old papers.””
She stared at him.
“That's exactly what I've been doing all day.””
He didn't argue.
Daniel turned to her.
“I'll come, too.””
Aaliyah nodded.
Robert stepped forward.
“I should come. Adrian's name is on the envelope.””
Aaliyah hesitated.
She looked at him for a long moment.
Then she said, “You can come, but you don't get to decide what happens when we open it.””
Robert lowered his eyes.
“Fair enough.””
Denise remained seated.
Aaliyah looked at her mother.
“Are you coming?””
Denise's face crumpled.
“I don't think I can.””
Aaliyah nodded slowly.
“Then stay here.””
She didn't say it cruelly.
That almost made it worse.
Twenty minutes later, the four of them were driving toward Marcus's childhood home.
The wedding coordinator had agreed to delay the ceremony. Daniel had arranged for his best man to keep the guests informed without sharing the details.
The city moved past the windows in streaks of sunlight and traffic.
Nobody spoke much.
Robert sat in the back seat, clutching his briefcase.
Daniel drove.
Aaliyah sat beside him, holding her bouquet in her lap.
Marcus sat in the passenger seat, staring at the road.
Finally, Aaliyah broke the silence.
“Dad?””
Marcus turned.
“Yeah?””
“Whatever that letter says, I need you to know something.””
He looked at her.
“I don't know what my DNA will say. I don't know whether Adrian was my biological father. But I don't want you thinking that the answer will erase everything you've done.””
Marcus's eyes filled.
“Thank you.””
She looked down at her bouquet.
“I wish you'd trusted me enough to tell me the truth earlier.””
“So do I.””
They drove the rest of the way in silence.
Marcus's childhood home stood at the end of a quiet residential street, a modest brick house with a white porch and an old maple tree leaning over the driveway.
His brother, Thomas, waited outside with a cardboard box.
When the car stopped, he approached the passenger door.
“Marcus.””
Marcus stepped out.
“Where's the envelope?””
Thomas lifted the box.
“Inside.””
They followed him into the house.
The living room smelled of dust, old wood, and the lavender polish their mother had used on the furniture. Family photographs covered the walls.
Aaliyah recognized Marcus as a young man in several of them.
In one, he stood beside a woman with silver hair and a warm smile. In another, he was holding a baby whose face was turned away from the camera.
She paused.
“Who's that?””
Marcus followed her gaze.
“Me.””
“You had a baby?””
He shook his head.
“No. That's you.””
Aaliyah stared at the photograph.
It was taken when she was three, shortly after her operation. Marcus was holding her against his chest, his cheek pressed to her forehead.
He looked exhausted.
And completely in love with the little girl in his arms.
Aaliyah swallowed hard.
Thomas placed the cardboard box on the coffee table.
“The envelope was in here.””
He lifted a stack of papers and removed a thick cream envelope.
Aaliyah recognized the handwriting from the note Adrian had left.
The same distinctive capital A.
The same long strokes.
Marcus took it carefully.
He turned it over.
The seal was intact.
Beneath his name was a second line.
*If I am wrong about the paternity, do not let Aaliyah lose the only father she has ever known.*
Marcus went pale.
Robert stared at the words.
Daniel moved closer.
Aaliyah looked at Marcus.
“Open it.””
He broke the seal.
Inside was a letter, a small photograph, and a folded document.
Marcus unfolded the letter first.
He read the opening line.
Then he stopped.
Aaliyah watched his expression change from confusion to disbelief.
“Dad?””
He looked up at her.
His eyes were full of tears.
“Adrian wrote this before he died.””
“What does it say?””
Marcus swallowed.
“He says he finally learned the truth.””
Aaliyah's heart pounded.
“About my father?””
Marcus nodded.
Then he read the next line aloud.
Marcus, if you are reading this, it means Denise never found the courage to tell Aaliyah what we discovered.
He stopped again.
Aaliyah leaned forward.
“Keep reading.””
Marcus looked at the folded document.
Then at Robert.
Then at Aaliyah.
Finally, he whispered, “Adrian says the original DNA results proved that Robert isn't your biological father.””
Robert staggered backward.
Aaliyah gripped the edge of the table.
“Then who is?””
Marcus unfolded the final page.
The result was typed in black ink.
*Probability of biological paternity: 99.99%.*
Below it was a name.
Marcus stared at it as though the letters might rearrange themselves.
Then he looked at Aaliyah.
May you like
And for the second time that day, he could barely speak.
“It's me.””
