During the following days, Trevor returned to the room but he refused to sit anywhere near my hospital bed. He focused on the paperwork and spoke to the doctors about my vitals while avoiding any mention of the pregnancy.
My daughters were not allowed to visit because Trevor did not know how to explain the situation to them yet. I understood his hesitation, but the isolation made every passing hour feel like a slow form of torture.
The DNA results finally arrived on a gray afternoon while rain lashed against the windows of the hospital. Dr. Jennings entered the room with a blue folder and requested that the door be locked for privacy.
“The baby belongs to Madeline, but the paternal markers do not match Trevor,” she stated clearly. Trevor clenched his jaw so hard I thought his teeth might break under the immense pressure.
“Then that confirms it is not my child,” he said with a voice full of cold resentment. “It is not that simple because there is a very high genetic match that suggests a close relative,” the doctor added.
“The data suggests the father is someone related to you, possibly a brother,” she explained further. Trevor turned deathly pale as a single name escaped his lips in a horrified gasp.
“Simon,” he whispered while thinking of his younger brother who had been staying with us. Simon was a decorated officer and a respected man who served as the godfather to our two young daughters.
When my accident happened, Simon had supposedly traveled from the coast to support the family during the crisis. I started to remember blurry fragments of my time in the coma that I had previously dismissed as dreams.
I recalled a hand on my forehead and a voice that sounded like Trevor’s whispering sweet things to me. “Wake up, beautiful, because I cannot imagine my life without you,” the voice had said.
