Page 51 of Destiny

I just hope it doesn’t cost me everything.

Chapter Fifteen

Brendan

By the next morning, my anger at Ava has dissipated. Now I feel only remorse. Sadness. I miss her. I don’t want to lose her, and I shouldn’t have told her to own up. I will apologize, but not just yet. I can’t face her right now.

The phone buzzes.

“Brendan Murphy.”

“Hey, Mr. Murphy, this is Tucker. I’ve got your DNA results.”

“Already? Ruby told me you were quick, but damn.”

“I have the best tech out there.”

“So…what did you find?”

“You’re definitely related to the other Mr. Murphy. I’d like all three of you to come into the city this morning if you can so we can discuss the results.”

“I can probably get my dad. As for the other Mr. Murphy, I can’t be sure.”

“Not a problem. You guys come on down, and I’ll go ahead and give him a call.”

“All right. I’ll be there soon.”

I quickly call my father.

Sure enough, Jack is at the lab when Dad and I get there.

“Seems we’re related after all,” Jack says to Dad and me.

I nod. “Sounds like it. Let’s see what Tucker has to say.”

We walk into the lab together, and Tucker greets us. “I’m glad you could all make it.”

“So I guess we’re third or fourth cousins, huh?” I chuckle.

“You’re related much more closely than that,” he says. “Let me show you my findings.”

He leads us over to a table where he’s printed out some documents. “This will all look like a mess to you, but these are the DNA strands that show the relation. Normally in situations like this, I expect to find that you shared a grandparent maybe three or four generations up. That’s not the case here.” He shuffles his documents and then slides a page in front of us. “Do you see the strand?”

We all nod, though it looks like nothing to me.

“Mr. Murphy,” he says to my father. “You and Jack share grandparents on the patrilineal side.”

Dad wrinkles his brow. “Say what?”

“It means,” Tucker continues, “that you have the same paternal grandparents.”

“My father had two siblings,” Dad says. “The one who I was named after, Sean Murphy, passed away without having children. The other, my father’s sister, was married and had three children, all by her husband.”

“She’d be a nonissue anyway. We know who Jack’s mother is, and this concerns the patrilineal line, not matrilineal.”

“Maybe it’s a grandparent on the other side,” I say. “No, wait. You said paternal side.”

“Right,” Tucker says.

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