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“We are here for a paternity test,” Placidie interposed. “They will compare your blood samples with a swab from Étienne’s cheek and then we’ll know for sure.”
“This is ridiculous,” I protested, “Étienne, you cannot think for a moment I would ever be unfaithful to you.”
I reached out for him, but he brushed my hand away.
“Then where did that condom come from?”
“One of the security guards, maybe? Someone on patrol?” I asked timidly.
“Do you really think any of the men under my command would dare go into my personal quarters without permission?” Étienne asked.
“But—”
I could not understand it.
“Why are you being like this?” I cried, trying to be brave but everything was so scary and upsetting and I kept getting painful Braxton-Hicks contractions all over my belly.
Everyone in the room was staring at me.
“Étienne you know I—have been in love with you ever since I was—18!” I said, unable to control the tremble in my voice.
Faustine made a little noise of derision in her throat, and I wanted to cry you were too!
“Have you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. “Or maybe you’re just a liar. I guess we’ll see what the paternity test says.”
He snapped his fingers at the nurse, who unwrapped a little cotton swab.
“Do it,” my husband said, his fingers tapping impatiently on the examination table. And I watched with a sickening lurch in my stomach as the nurse swiped his cheek. Tight, barely-controlled anger rolled off him in waves.
“Your father assured me you were a virgin. Was that a lie, too?”
“No, of course it wasn’t!” I cried. “I’ve only ever been with you.”
“Why should I believe you? You’re at home by yourself plenty.”
“Because you’re always away working!”
“I’ve been told you act inappropriately with men, too. Flirting, getting close. Touching them.”
“That’s also a lie! Who told you that?”
The tears were streaming down my face now. Because this was insanity. He could not possibly believe these lies over his own wife’s word!
“Be quiet, woman. We will get the results soon and then we will see if you’re telling the truth or you’re a little slut.”
I subsided into silence, trying to quiet my sniffles.
At least the paternity test would reassure his mind. And then maybe we could move past this, figure out why he had believed someone else, and fix it.
Because not only had I never been unfaithful, but I’d never even looked at another man.
Even the thought of another man was repulsive to me. Étienne had my whole heart and he always had.
But when the doctor strode back in his white coat, he looked at the two of us, and he said something I knew must be impossible.
“Mr. Bastide, you are not the father of your wife’s baby.”
CHAPTER 3
