Chapter 114 The Light at the tunnel
The study went completely still.
Lenora stared at the birth certificate in her hands.
Her mother’s name was printed clearly.
The line for the father was blank.
Attached to the document was an envelope that looked old enough to crumble if she held it too tightly.
Her grandmother took one step into the room.
“Lenora.”
“Don’t.”
The word came out sharper than she intended.
The hockey boy moved closer to her side. He didn’t say anything, but his shoulder brushed hers, steady and warm.
Lenora pulled the letter from the envelope.
The paper trembled slightly in her hand.
It was addressed to her mother.
She began to read.
Camille,
I am doing this because there is no other way to protect everyone involved.
The child cannot know.
My family cannot survive another scandal.
You have to move on and let this end here.
I will make sure you are provided for.
But the truth must stay buried.
For everyone’s sake.
There was no signature.
There didn’t need to be.
Lenora looked up slowly.
Her eyes moved to the hockey boy.
Then to her grandmother.
Then back to the letter.
“This was from his father.”
No one answered.
That silence was answer enough.
Lilibeth and Kylen had crept to the doorway. Neither of them spoke.
Lenora’s voice dropped.
“So my mother was pregnant.”
She swallowed.
“And he abandoned her.”
The hockey boy’s jaw tightened.
“My father wrote that?”
Lenora held up the letter.
“Looks like it.”
Her grandmother finally stepped forward.
“You need to understand the situation was more complicated.”
Lenora laughed once.
“Of course it was.”
The older woman ignored the remark.
“Your mother and his father were involved for years. He promised to leave his family. He never did.”
Lenora stared at her.
“And when she got pregnant?”
Her grandmother’s expression hardened.
“He chose his reputation.”
The hockey boy looked stunned.
He ran a hand through his hair.
“My dad never told me any of this.”
“Because he was ashamed,” the grandmother said.
Lenora’s chest tightened.
She looked down at the letter again.
Something about it bothered her.
She turned the page over.
Another sheet slipped free.
A DNA report.
Her breath caught.
The room tilted.
The hockey boy reached for her arm.
“Lenora.”
She barely heard him.
Her eyes were locked on the name listed under alleged father.
Not his father.
Her own father’s name.
The man who had raised her.
The man she had always called Dad.
The probability of paternity was 99.99%.
Lenora blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Then looked up.
“What is this?”
For the first time, her grandmother looked rattled.
Lenora held up the report.
“This says my father is my father.”
The hockey boy leaned in and read it.
Kylen frowned.
“Then why hide it?”
Lilibeth stepped farther into the room.
“Unless someone wanted her to believe something else.”
Lenora turned to her grandmother.
“You let me think my whole life was a lie.”
The older woman sat down slowly in the leather chair behind the desk.
Her shoulders seemed smaller than before.
“Your mother wanted to tell you when you were older.”
“Tell me what?”
Her grandmother looked at the DNA report.
“The timing.”
Lenora’s patience snapped.
“Stop speaking in riddles.”
The older woman folded her hands.
“When your mother became pregnant, there was doubt.”
Silence.
“She wasn’t sure who the father was.”
Lenora felt the floor shift beneath her.
The hockey boy stiffened beside her.
Her grandmother continued.
“She had already reconciled with your father. He knew there was a possibility the child might not be his.”
Lenora’s throat tightened.
“And he stayed?”
“Yes.”
The word landed harder than anything else.
Her father knew.
He knew, and he chose her anyway.
Lenora sat down in the chair across from her grandmother before her knees gave out.
The hockey boy crouched beside her.
His hand closed around hers.
Warm. Steady.
Real.
Her grandmother looked at both of them.
“When the DNA results came back, your father was the biological father. But by then, too much damage had already been done.”
Lenora stared at the documents.
“So all this chaos happened over a child who was never his.”
“Yes.”
The older woman exhaled.
“Your mother lost her reputation. His father lost her trust. And I lost my daughter for years.”
The hockey boy looked at Lenora.
Relief and disbelief crossed his face.
“So we’re not related.”
Lilibeth threw a hand over her heart.
“Thank God. Because I was not emotionally prepared for that.”
Even Lenora let out a short, shaky laugh.
The tension broke for half a second.
Then she looked at her grandmother again.
“If the DNA proved the truth, why hide all this?”
Her grandmother’s expression darkened.
“Because someone else never accepted it.”
Lenora frowned.
“Who?”
Before the older woman could answer, footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Heavy. Fast.
The study door swung wider.
Lenora’s mother stood there.
Still in her coat.
Eyes fixed on the blue file in Lenora’s hands.
For a long moment, no one moved.
Then her mother looked at her and said the words Lenora never expected to hear.
“I told your grandmother to destroy that file.”
The room fell silent again.
Lenora rose slowly to her feet.
“Then maybe it’s time you told me why.”