Chapter 4: The Receipt
The morning after finding the paternity test receipt, Emily felt as if the world had shifted beneath her feet. The house was eerily quiet as she sat in the kitchen, staring at the small piece of paper she had found crumpled in James’s coat pocket the night before. The receipt was simple, almost mundane in appearance, but the words on it made her heart race. “Riverton Diagnostics | Paternity DNA Testing | Paid in Full.”
Her mind spun. It couldn’t be real. Surely, there was a mistake. There had to be another explanation. Maybe it was from some other time, some forgotten test. But the more she tried to rationalize it, the more the truth clawed its way to the surface. James had doubts. He didn’t believe their baby was his.
Her hands trembled as she placed the receipt back on the counter, the thought of confronting him looming like a heavy storm. What would she even say? How could she even begin to ask about it without accusing him outright? The silence between them had already grown so thick, so unbreakable, and now this—the revelation that he had secretly tested their daughter’s paternity.
James had been acting distant, but this was something else entirely. This wasn’t just the fatigue of new parenthood or a rough adjustment to fatherhood. This was something much deeper. Something that made her question the very foundation of their marriage. If he didn’t trust her—if he didn’t trust the child they had both longed for—what did that mean for their future?
She needed answers. But as Emily looked out the kitchen window, watching the rain streak the glass, she knew that confronting James now wouldn’t bring the peace she so desperately craved. She had to wait. She had to let him come to her, let him explain himself.
That night, as she and James ate dinner in strained silence, she tried to act normal. She asked about his day, about work, anything to keep the conversation light. But James was distant as always, his mind clearly elsewhere. Emily’s stomach twisted. She wanted to say something, to confront him, but fear held her back. What if his answer shattered everything?
Later, as James retreated to the living room to watch TV, Emily sat in the nursery, staring at the baby asleep in the crib. The soft sound of her breathing was the only comfort in the room. She ran her fingers over the baby’s tiny hand, thinking about how much she loved her, how much she wanted this to work. But if James couldn’t see the truth, if he couldn’t see the love they had created, how could she keep pretending?
She closed her eyes for a moment, the weight of it all pressing on her chest. The quiet hum of the baby monitor was a stark reminder that, in the end, it wasn’t just her and James anymore. It was all three of them. And the fracture between them had already begun.
To be continued…
What will Emily do with the truth she now knows? Will confronting James bring answers or only more pain? Find out in Chapter 5.