Harry smiled as he watched his boys laughing at something at the pediatrician’s office. “Dr. Dennison,” Harry stood up nervously as the doctor entered.
“Mr. Campbell. Please have a seat,” the doctor shook Harry’s hands and sat across from him. “I actually wanted to talk to you in private, Mr. Campbell. The boys can wait outside.”
Harry’s heart raced, wondering if it was bad news. Although his boys were twins, Josh had severe anemia, so Dr. Dennison had advised running more tests and asked Harry to get a blood checkup in case a transfusion was needed. Thankfully, his other son, Andrew, was perfectly healthy.
“So, do we have a final clarity on how to proceed?” Harry asked the doctor restlessly as the boys left.
“Calm down, Mr. Campbell,” Dr. Dennison leaned back in his chair. “Right now, my primary concern isn’t Josh. Yes, he has an iron deficiency, but we’ll start with supplements, possibly intravenously. I wanted to talk to you about something else.”
Harry heaved a sigh of relief. His son’s condition wasn’t bad.
“Did you adopt the boys, Mr. Campbell?” the doctor asked, sending chills down Harry’s spine. “This is a little sensitive, but your blood type is incompatible with the boys.”
“Well, that isn’t very strange, right? I mean, in a lot of cases, biological parents can’t donate to their kids because they are a mix of two people,” Harry argued.
“Yes, sir. Some biological parents can’t donate,” the doctor agreed. “But what I mean is that you can’t be the boys’ father. Blood type isn’t the ultimate factor in determining paternity, but both your twins’ blood types are A. You and your wife are both B.”
“What…But this is impossible,” Harry muttered under his breath.
“I’m sorry, sir. I saw these results a couple of days ago, so I took the liberty of running a DNA test on your samples too. I understand this is hard to hear, but there’s more,” said the doctor, pushing a couple of documents toward Harry.
Harry stared at the doctor in disbelief as he grabbed papers to read. There were a lot of medical terms he didn’t understand, but the words “half-siblings” in the documents stared back at him.
Harry looked up at Dr. Dennison in shock. “That’s right, Mr. Campbell. Andrew and Josh and technically your half-siblings, not your sons.”
Harry couldn’t believe it. The kids he had raised for 12 years weren’t his. In fact, they had to be his father’s, which meant Nancy had been with him. But it didn’t make any sense. She was already pregnant when he introduced her to his parents.
Harry took longer to get out of the car once they were home. Suddenly, he heard his boys yelling, “Grandpa! We missed you!”
Harry balled his fists tightly, his eyes red. But he couldn’t storm into the house and confront his father and wife because Josh and Andrew would be there. So he forced a smile as he walked in.
“What are you doing here, Dad?” he asked tightly.
But he didn’t even wait for his father to respond. The anger he had contained all the way from the doctor’s made Harry’s blood boil. “Boys, weren’t you going to Bobby’s house for a game night?” He turned to the boys, forcing a grin.
“Right, Daddy! Andrew, let’s go!” As the boys collected their controllers and left the house, Harry lost his cool.
“Did you sleep with my father, Nancy?” he exploded at his wife.
Nancy’s face turned pale.
“Son, look, it’s not what you think,” his father, Robert, interjected. But Harry wasn’t listening to him.
“DNA doesn’t lie, Nancy!” He glared at his wife. “I want to know the truth!”
Nancy couldn’t look her husband in the eye. “Harry has every right to be angry,” she told herself as he recalled the fateful night 13 years ago…
Nancy was enjoying the beat of the music as she moved through the dance floor to reach the bar area. While she was waiting for her drinks, a whiff of expensive male perfume met her nostrils.
At her left, Nancy found a man with silver hair and a sharp jawline smiling at her. “Can I buy you a drink?” he asked brazenly, and Nancy was flattered by the attention. The man was twice her age, but he was attractive.
“I’m already getting something for my girlfriends!” she almost shouted at him over the loud music.
”Oh, you’re on a girls’ trip with your friends?” the man continued, smiling in the most charming way, and got closer to her.
When the bartender brought her shots, Nancy didn’t even notice. “I’m Nancy.”