“I found the records.”
I looked up. Mr. Charleston was watching me with quiet kindness.
“The marriage,” I whispered. “It was to protect her wish.”
“Yes,” the lawyer said. “A will naming you outright would have invited Marcus to challenge your identity in probate for years. He’d argue the DNA was fabricated, the adoption records forged, or the sealed file tampered with. But a legal spouse is next of kin the moment the certificate is signed. No challenge could freeze the estate.”
“It was to protect her wish.”
Mr. Charleston slid a thick folder across the desk toward Marcus.
“The unsealed adoption file, your father’s birth certificate, and a DNA comparison Gloria commissioned last spring, using her own sample and a coffee cup you left in her room one afternoon. Ninety-nine point nine percent. Contest it if you like.”
Marcus stared at the folder. Then he suddenly stood, opened his mouth, and closed it again.
