The DNA Results
Chapter 07 - The DNA Results
The DNA results arrived nine days after the sample collection, confirming with overwhelming statistical certainty what Nathan had already come to believe entirely.
Not simply half-siblings. Identical twins, separated at birth, raised in entirely different worlds for thirty-four years.
Nathan read the report alone in his apartment, tears rising unexpectedly, the specific, complicated grief of confirming a truth that explained so much of his life while also revealing exactly how much had been stolen from him without his knowledge.
He called Sarah immediately. "It's confirmed. We're identical twins."
"I expected as much, given everything else," Sarah said. "This changes the case considerably. We now have documented, biological proof establishing exactly the motive I suspected. I want to move quickly toward formal charges before Victor has time to consider any further action against you."
Victor, informed of the DNA results through his own attorney, retreated into a fortress of legal representation, refusing further comment beyond a brief statement denying any connection between his business decisions and his newly discovered brother.
"He's not going to simply confess," Sarah warned Nathan. "Men like Victor rarely do, absent overwhelming pressure. I want to build a case strong enough that his denial becomes irrelevant."
Nathan, meanwhile, found himself navigating an entirely unexpected grief alongside the investigation's practical demands, mourning a father he'd never known, a life he might have lived, a brother relationship that had apparently existed only as a threat to be eliminated rather than a connection worth exploring.
"I keep thinking about what it would have been like," he told his adoptive mother, Diane, during a difficult phone call. "Growing up knowing I had a twin brother. I don't know if that life would have been better. I just wish I'd had the chance to actually choose, instead of having it decided for me before I was even a day old."
"You had a good life," Diane said gently. "I don't think that's diminished by learning this new, painful truth alongside it. Both things can be real at once."
Nathan considered that, understanding the specific wisdom in it, even while the raw shock of the past two weeks continued settling unevenly through every part of his understanding of himself.
Frank, informed of the full situation once Nathan felt ready to share it, offered a specific, steady kind of support that surprised Nathan with its depth.
"I owe you my life," Frank told him. "I don't fully understand everything happening with your family, but I want you to know, whatever you need, however this shakes out, you've got someone in your corner who isn't measuring any of this against money or inheritance."
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Nathan felt genuinely grateful for that, a specific, uncomplicated loyalty that stood in sharp relief against the calculated, self-interested cruelty his own brother had apparently been capable of.
"Thank you," Nathan said. "I think I'm going to need people like you, considerably more than I need whatever Victor's company is actually worth."
