Chapter 1: The DNA Test

The words came so suddenly that Ava thought she must have imagined them.

“Do a DNA test.”

For a brief moment, she lay still on the hospital bed, her mind struggling to catch up with what she had just heard. The exhaustion from childbirth still weighed heavily on her body, her limbs weak and aching, but none of that compared to the sharp confusion now piercing through her chest. Slowly, she turned her head, her gaze settling on the woman standing at the foot of her bed, elegant and composed as always, with not a single trace of warmth in her expression.

“Mrs. Carter… what did you say?” Ava asked, her voice soft but strained.

Mrs. Carter didn’t hesitate, as though she had been waiting for this moment. “I said those twins cannot possibly belong to my son,” she repeated, her tone calm, almost dismissive, as if she were stating an obvious fact rather than making a cruel accusation.

The room fell into an uncomfortable silence, thick enough to suffocate. Ava’s eyes instinctively moved toward the cribs beside her, where her newborn twins lay sleeping peacefully, unaware of the tension surrounding them. Her heart tightened painfully at the sight before she forced herself to look away and turned to the one person whose reaction mattered the most.

Lucas.

He stood near the window, his posture stiff, his expression unreadable, yet there was something in his eyes that made Ava’s stomach drop.

“Lucas,” she called softly, searching his face for reassurance, for denial, for anything that would prove this was all some terrible misunderstanding. “Please say something.”

He hesitated.

That single moment of hesitation felt longer than it should have, long enough for doubt to creep into her heart where certainty once lived. Ava’s fingers curled slightly against the bedsheet as she held her breath, silently begging him to speak in her defense.

“I think…” Lucas began, his voice slower than usual, as though he were choosing each word carefully, “it wouldn’t hurt to be sure.”

Ava stared at him, the meaning of his words sinking in with painful clarity. “Be sure?” she repeated, almost in disbelief. Her lips parted as though she wanted to say more, but nothing came out at first. When she finally found her voice, it trembled despite her effort to stay composed. “Lucas, I just gave birth to your children. I carried them for nine months, went through hours of pain, and this is what you’re saying to me right now?”

“It’s not like that,” he replied quickly, though his tone lacked conviction.

“Then what is it like?” Ava asked, her voice rising slightly, the hurt she had been holding back beginning to surface. She shifted carefully on the bed, ignoring the discomfort that shot through her body, because right now, the emotional pain was far worse. “Because from where I’m sitting, it sounds like you’re questioning my loyalty.”

Before Lucas could respond, Mrs. Carter let out a quiet sigh, clearly unimpressed. “If you have nothing to hide, then you shouldn’t be reacting this way,” she said, her eyes fixed on Ava with thinly veiled disdain.

That was when something inside Ava shifted.

For years, she had tolerated that tone, that constant sense of not being good enough, all because she loved Lucas and believed that, eventually, things would change. She had convinced herself that patience would earn her acceptance, that loyalty would be enough. But standing there now, accused at her most vulnerable moment, she finally saw the truth she had been avoiding.

Her gaze returned to Lucas, slower this time, steadier.

“I trusted you,” she said quietly, and the simplicity of those words carried more weight than any accusation. “Even when your mother didn’t accept me, I believed you would stand by me.”

Lucas exhaled, running a hand through his hair, clearly uncomfortable under her gaze. “Ava, you’re taking this too personally. It’s just a test.”

“Just a test,” she echoed, a faint, humorless smile touching her lips. She glanced briefly at her children before looking back at him, and this time, there was something different in her eyes—something colder. “You’re asking me to prove that I didn’t betray you. Do you even hear yourself?”

He didn’t answer.

And that silence was louder than anything he could have said.

Ava nodded slowly, as if confirming something to herself. The tears that had been threatening to fall earlier no longer came. Instead, a strange calm settled over her, one that surprised even her.

“I see,” she murmured.

Carefully, she reached out and adjusted the blanket around one of the twins, her movements gentle, protective. “They deserve better than this,” she continued softly, her voice no longer shaking. “Better than being doubted before they even have a chance to be loved.”

Lucas frowned slightly. “Better than what, Ava?”

She looked at him fully now, her expression composed in a way he had never seen before. “Better than a father who needs proof to claim them.”

The words landed harder than she expected, but she didn’t take them back.

For a moment, Lucas seemed at a loss, his usual confidence nowhere to be found. “You’re overreacting,” he said eventually, though it sounded more like an attempt to convince himself than her.

Ava shook her head gently. “No,” she said. “For the first time, I’m reacting exactly the way I should have a long time ago.”

She drew in a slow breath, steadying herself, then met his eyes one last time.

“You want a DNA test?” she asked.

Mrs. Carter answered immediately. “Yes.”

Ava didn’t look at her. She kept her gaze on Lucas, giving him one final chance to say something different, to fix what had already begun to break.

“…Yes,” he said quietly.

That was all she needed.

Ava nodded once, her decision settling firmly in her chest.

“Then you’ll never get it