Chapter 2: The Message at the Worst Possible Moment
My hands went cold.
"Afraid of what?" I asked.
"Just say it."
He set the file down and looked at me the way people look at someone they've wronged.
"Daniel, six months ago I sent your samples to a second lab.
A private one.
I didn't tell you because I wasn't sure, and I didn't want to give you false hope."
"And?"
He slid a single sheet across the desk.
"The original diagnosis was based on a contaminated sample.
The disease markers we were tracking…
they were never yours."
The room tilted.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying the condition we've been treating you for — you may not have it.
Not the terminal form.
Possibly not at all."
I couldn't speak.
I thought of Carrie at home, doing her homework at the kitchen table, still checking on me every night before she slept.
"How long have you known this?" I finally asked.
He looked down.
"Eight weeks."
Eight weeks.
While I was saying quiet goodbyes.
While Carrie was learning to be brave about losing another parent.
Then my phone buzzed on the desk between us.
It was my sister.
The message read: *Daniel, there's a man at the door.
He says he's Carrie's biological father.
He has legal papers.*
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What Daniel finds out next — about his health, about Carrie, and about the man at that door — will change everything.
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