My SIL Demanded $5,000 a Month or She’d Show My Husband a DNA Test – One Small Detail Ruined Her Life
“Open it,” she told Ethan, her voice sharp with satisfaction. “Since your wife has told you the truth.”
Ethan picked up the envelope slowly, as if he had all the time in the world.
Bri watched him with a hungry expression, like she couldn’t wait to see him break all over again.
He pulled out the papers inside and scanned the first page. Then the second.
His face showed zero signs of shock or anger, just an eerie stillness.
“Since your wife has told you the truth.”
Then he looked up at Bri and asked quietly, “Do you know whose name is on this?”
Bri’s smile faltered. “What do you mean? Of course, it’s…”
“Read it,” Ethan said, sliding the papers across the counter toward her.
Bri snatched them up, her eyes moving across the text. Confident at first. Then confused. Then frozen.
The color drained from her face as if someone had pulled a plug.
“Do you know whose name is on this?”
“Oh my God! That’s not…” Her voice came out strangled. “That’s not possible.”
“It is,” Ethan declared. “That’s YOUR paternity test, Bri. The one you begged me to keep two years ago because you didn’t want Mark to know the baby isn’t his.”
Bri’s hands started shaking as the papers rattled.
“That’s YOUR paternity test.”
I watched the realization crash over her in slow motion. She’d seen the clinic logo and immediately jumped to the darkest conclusion because that’s how her mind works. She’d assumed scandal and betrayal.
She just assumed it was about me.
“You didn’t even read it,” I added. “You saw a DNA test and thought you’d found your golden ticket. You didn’t bother checking whose life you were about to destroy.”
“You saw a DNA test and thought you’d found your golden ticket.”
Bri’s eyes snapped to mine, wild and panicked. “This isn’t… you can’t…”
“Can’t what?” Ethan’s voice cut through like a knife. “Can’t hold you accountable for trying to blackmail my wife? For threatening my family? Over something you did?”
“I needed the money,” Bri choked out. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”
“So you thought you’d extort it from us?” I snapped. “You thought you’d use my child as leverage to fund whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into?”
“So you thought you’d extort it from us?”
Bri opened her mouth, then closed it, tears streaming down her face. Not the tears of someone who’s sorry. The tears of someone who’s been exposed.
Ethan pulled out his phone.
“Mark deserves to know the truth.”
Bri lunged forward. “No! Ethan, please, you can’t…”
“Watch me,” he said, already dialing.
“No! Ethan, please, you can’t…”
Mark answered on the third ring. “Hey, what’s up, pal?”
The sound made Bri’s face crumple.
“Mark,” Ethan said evenly. “You need to come over. Right now.”
“Why?”
“Something’s very wrong. And you deserve to hear it from me.”
“I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”
“You need to come over. Right now.”
Mark burst through the door, worry written across his face. When he saw Bri’s wrecked expression and Ethan’s cold one, he went still.
“What’s going on?”
Ethan handed him the papers. Mark read them. Once. Twice. When he looked up at Bri, his eyes were shining.
“Is this real?”
Bri reached for him. “Mark, I can explain…”
Ethan handed him the papers.
He jerked back. “Is. It. Real?”
“I didn’t want you to find out…”
“You didn’t want me to find out at all.” His voice cracked. He looked at us. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t owe us anything,” Ethan said softly.
Mark folded the papers carefully, then walked out without another word, his shoulders hunched.
Bri collapsed into a chair, sobbing.
“You didn’t want me to find out at all.”
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