Chapter 8 - DNA
We did not trust jewelry as proof.
Julian insisted on that.
So did I.
A private lab conducted a legally documented relationship test.
The result arrived seventeen days later.
High probability of avuncular relationship.
Julian Sterling was my maternal uncle.
I stared at the report for several minutes.
Then cried in Rachel’s kitchen.
Not because I had found wealth.
Because at thirty-two, I suddenly had someone alive who remembered my mother as a person.
Julian remembered Claire stealing cigarettes from his father and flushing them.
Claire hiding him under her bed after he broke an antique lamp.
Claire singing badly.
Claire punching a boy who bullied Julian at school.
Claire wanting to become a photographer.
Claire hating orchids while their father kept giving her orchid jewelry because he thought the flower represented elegance.
That made me laugh through tears.
“She hated orchids?”
“Despised them.”
I touched the ring.
Julian smiled.
“She wore it because Dad gave it to her.”
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For the first time, the object around my neck became more than grief.
It became a story.
