Page 68 of Destiny

“What is it?” he says once we’re outside the room.

“Do you see how she didn’t answer me?”

“No.”

“You’ve said she has a brilliant mind, Dad, and I believe you. But she’s old, and she’s been in a medically induced coma for months. Her mind isn’t as sharp as she thinks it is. She made a misstep.”

“What misstep?”

“She specifically said granddaughterinstead of grandchild.”

“And you think that means…”

“I think, Dad, that it means I’mnother first grandchild from your father. Only her first granddaughter.”

“You mean… But Jack comes from my father’s half brother.”

“Yes, but knowing how Wendy’s mind works, she only considers progeny from her liaison with your father to count.”

“Are you saying…” He shakes his head. “Yes. Damn it. I should have seen this. I should have known.”

I nod. “I’m beginning to think your father’s so-called half brother may not exist at all.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Brendan

Ruby pulls more vials out of the small freezer.

“Tom Simpson,” she says. “Larry Wade.” Then she gulps. “Theodore Matthias.”

“Who are they?” I ask.

“Wendy’s minions,” she says dryly.

Dad is still holding the vial of Sean Murphy and staring at it.

“You know, this is great and all,” I say, “but storing sperm in a house?”

Ruby rubs her forehead. “Oh, the sperm isn’t good. If it evenissperm. It’s probably just some kind of decoy. For sperm to remain viable, it needs to be processed in a special lab in liquid nitrogen storage tanks.”

“What about those mail-in sperm-freezing kits?” Dad finally says.

I drop my jaw, staring at him. “Mail-in sperm-freezing kits?”

“I read about them somewhere,” he says.

“Yeah, some companies do that,” Ruby says. “They send you a kit, which allows you to collect the”—she clears her throat—“specimenin the privacy of your own home and then mail it in for processing, and the company stores it for you in cryo-tanks.”

“I see.” Dad reddens a little.

“So,” I say, “first of all, we need to find out if this is indeed sperm, which I doubt it is. If Wendy Madigan is as smart as you all seem to think she is, she knows very well that you can’t store sperm at home. Not without specialized equipment, which I do not see here. This is a simple freezer.”

“How can we find out?” Jack asks.

Ruby pulls out the rest of the samples. “I can contact Tucker, and he can thaw these and look at them. See if there’s actual sperm there. But I can already tell you there isn’t.”

“Why would she keep fake sperm?” Jack shakes his head.

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