Chapter 40
Chapter
Forty
For several seconds, Nora couldn’t move.
They’d been waiting for these results.
They had been told the testing could take several weeks. Nora had checked the mail every day and tried not to think about the fact that nothing had arrived.
But the envelope had arrived.
Christian had gotten to it first and hidden it.
Nora lowered herself onto the edge of the bed. Her bruised ribs tightened, but she barely noticed.
The flap had already been torn open.
She removed the report with trembling fingers.
Several pages of technical information came first. Sample numbers. Dates. Genetic markers she didn’t understand.
Nora turned to the final page.
Her eyes found the results.
She read them.
Then she read them again.
The tested individuals are excluded from having the stated biological relationship.
The language was clinical, but its meaning was clear.
The boy they believed was Christian wasn’t her parents’ son.
A roaring sound filled Nora’s ears.
She stared at the report until the letters blurred.
Christian had known what this report would say. So he’d intercepted the envelope and tucked it beneath his mattress so the Loveless family would continue believing their son had returned.
Nora pressed her hand against her mouth.
The boy sitting beside the fire wasn’t her brother.
Christian hadn’t come home.
Yet for three weeks, Nora had cared for the boy. She’d watched to see whether he ate enough, worried when he wandered at night, and taken his hand after she fell—even though, for one awful moment, she’d been afraid to.
He had lied about who he was. None of her concern for him had been a lie.
Which made things that much worse.
But somewhere, the real Christian might still be waiting for them to find him.
Through the closed bedroom window, Nora saw her family gathered around the fire.
Mom tipped her head back in laughter. Dad sat beside her, finally home. And between them was the boy they believed they had lost ten years ago.
Except he wasn’t Christian.
Nora lowered her gaze to the report.
Maybe there had been a mistake at the lab. Samples could have been switched. Paperwork could have been mislabeled.
She clung to each possibility for only a second before the next one appeared.
Because even if the results were wrong, Christian had hidden them.
He’d intercepted the envelope. Opened it. Read it.
Then he’d tucked it beneath his mattress and allowed the family to keep believing he was their son.
Why?
She pressed her eyes closed.
Three weeks of strange behavior rearranged themselves in her mind.
Christian digging near the barn in the middle of the night.
His reaction to the Renshaws.
The facts he knew but claimed not to remember learning.
The hymnal page.
The way he’d walked barefoot toward the woods whispering, Sinner, come home.
The papers he’d tried to burn.
And the pressure between Nora’s shoulder blades before she fell.
Had she imagined that? She still didn’t know whether he had pushed her down the stairs—or what he knew about her brother.
Nora lowered her gaze to the report. The paper shook in her hand, and she forced her fingers to still.
She needed to confront him.
The instinct came quickly and fiercely. March outside. Put the report in front of him. Demand his real name and ask what he had done with her brother.
But Christian wouldn’t be alone. Her parents would be with him.
Mom would see the results. She’d watch the son she believed had returned disappear for a second time.
Which was exactly what Nora had tried to avoid.
Dad would demand answers Christian might not be willing to give.
Her sisters . . . she should tell them. But they’d be crushed also. She just needed more time to figure this out.
Besides, if the boy outside had pushed Nora down the stairs, what might he do when cornered?
She couldn’t risk it. Not yet.
Nora needed to determine whether the results could be verified. Most of all, she needed to speak with Austin.
She’d prayed for wisdom about Christian from the beginning. She’d asked God to show her the truth. And now the truth was in her hands—but it required her to be the bearer of devastating knowledge. It required her to be the one who broke her family apart again.
She wondered if this was what she’d actually been praying for.
As long as Christian didn’t know that she knew, nothing had to change, at least for now.
He would have no reason to run. No reason to hurt anyone.
At least that was what Nora told herself.
Movement outside drew her attention back to the window.
Mom began gathering the food from the folding table while Christian rose from his chair. Dad reached for the hose near the barn.
They were packing up.
Nora pulled her phone from her back pocket and opened the camera. Her hands shook badly enough that the first photograph blurred.
She took another, then one of the page containing the conclusion and another showing the laboratory information at the top.
The back door opened, and voices entered the kitchen.
Nora froze.
She had to get out of here.