Chapter 4 Four

Nick had thought the results would bring peace, but they hadn't. It had been two days since the email confirmed what logic should have told him all along that Mason and Maire were his. His children, his blood, his legacy. Every line of the report had shouted it at him with certainty, and yet, instead of dissolving the weight that had been crushing his chest, it only seemed to have pressed harder. Because relief wasn't the only thing the test had brought. It had also brought guilt and worry, immense worry.

The clinic had sent over the DNA test results in paper, and he had hidden them. Still unsure if he should confess what he had done to Noel. If she would somehow find it before he told her. And worse, underneath the guilt and the fear, some sliver of mistrust still lingered. Like smoke after a fire, refusing to clear, staining everything it touched.

He caught himself studying Mason's face too often, searching for traces of himself as though the test hadn't already proved it. He found himself watching Noel with a sharpness that startled him, was her laugh too light with others? He hated himself for it, he didn't know why he couldn't just accept what the test results had shown him, but he couldn't stop.

Noel noticed his change in attitude; of course, she did. She was far too perceptive not to.

"You've been strange lately," she said one evening as they cleared the dinner table. Her voice was gentle but edged with worry.

"Restless, distracted. I know you said the deadlines were getting to you before, but are you sure it's just work?" she asked.

Nick forced a smile, shaking his head.

"Of course, that's all it is", he said reassuringly.

But the lie came too quickly, too easily, and Noel had been married to him for far too long not to see that but yet she said nothing.

***

It was a Saturday morning when everything came apart. Nick had been careless. Maybe he was too tired, but he had left his laptop open in the study. The email was still on the screen. He had meant to delete it, to erase the evidence of his betrayal, but the weight of work had distracted him. He was in the garage when Noel found it.

"Nick!" Her voice carried through the house, sharper than usual, tight with something he didn't recognise.

He froze, a coil of dread tightening in his gut. Wiping his hands on a rag, he stepped into the hallway. Noel stood at the doorway of his study, her face pale, her hand gripping the edge of the desk as though she needed it to stay upright.

"What is this?" She asked, pointing at his laptop, her voice low, trembling.

Nick's heart dropped. Her eyes darted back to the screen, then to him.

"You... you tested the children?"

"Noel...", he started forward, but she held up a hand, stopping him cold.

"Don't", she said sharply, her voice cracking. "Don't you dare"

Nick swallowed hard, shame burning his throat.

"I just... I needed to be sure..."

"Sure of what?" Her voice rose slightly, the heartbreak in it cutting deeper than if she had actually shouted.

"That I'm a liar? That our children aren't yours? That I've spent years deceiving you?"

Nick winced.

"It wasn't like that. I..."

Noel laughed, bitter and sharp.

"It wasn't like that? Nick, you took pieces of them, of our babies, and sent them away- mere samples. As if their love for you, as if my love, needed proof stamped on some piece of paper"

Nick's mouth opened, then closed again. What could he say? That Bella's comment had lodged in him like a splinter? That every time he looked at Mason, he heard Joe's name? That the doubt had eaten at him until he couldn't breathe?

"I was scared", he said finally, his voice breaking. "Scared of losing what we have. Scared that everything I've built, everything we've built, wasn't real, scared that it was founded on lies and if it was that it would all crumble to the ground"

Noel's eyes filled with tears, but they were hard, angry tears.

"And instead of trusting me, you chose suspicion. Instead of talking to me, you chose to betray me?!" she yelled at him.

Her words struck him like blows. He reached for her, desperately, but she stepped back.

"I have stood by you through everything, Nick. Through your long nights at the firm, through your father's illness, through your endless drive for perfection. I have given up dreams, ambitions, parts of myself - because I believed in this family. And this is how you repay me? With a test?"

"Noel, please...", he tried to plead, but she shook her head, tears spilling over now.

"I can forgive many things, Nick. But I can't forgive not being trusted. Not by you"

The children appeared in the hallway then, Mason's eyes wide with confusion, Maire clutching her doll.

"Mom!" Mason called softly. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Noel swiped at her cheeks then looked up at them, forcing a steadier voice, she spoke:

"Pack a bag, Mason, you too, Maire"

Nick's chest seized. "Noel, don't..."

She turned on him, fire in her gaze.

"You've already broken this, broken me, Nick. I won't let you break them too"

Mason hesitated.

"Are we going somewhere?" he asked.

"Yes, we're going to Nana and Papa's for a while", Noel said firmly, crouching to meet his eyes.

Mason looked between his parents, sensing that something was wrong even if he didn't understand it. He nodded slowly, leading Maire upstairs.

Nick's hands shook as he spoke, "You can't just take them away"

Noel laughed loudly, but it was hollow.

"Watch me", she said spitefully.

He stepped forward, desperation clawing at him.

"Noel, don't do this. Don't take them. Don't leave"

"I don't have a choice", she said, her voice breaking.

"I can't stay in a home where I'm suspected, with a man that doesn't trust me, my children with a father that doesn't love them enough to believe they are his. They deserve better. I deserve better"

Nick's throat tightened, words choking him. He wanted to beg, to fall to his knees, to promise he would never doubt her again. But the truth was, he already had, she knew it, and that was really all it took.

***

An hour later, the house was quiet, hollow. Nick stood in the doorway, watching Noel's car pull out of the driveway, Mason and Maire visible through the rear window. Maire waved, small and uncertain, her doll clutched tight. Mason didn't look back. The silence that followed was deafening. He stepped back inside, the house echoing with absence. Toys lay scattered in the living room, Mason's workbook sat open on the coffee table, Maire's doll blanket draped over the arm of the sofa. The traces of them were everywhere, but the life was gone.

Nick sank onto the couch, his hands covering his face. He had wanted proof to quiet his doubts, to bring peace. Instead, it had detonated the very foundation of his family. The test had told him the truth about his children, but it had also revealed another truth, one far harder to face; Trust, once fractured, could not be repaired.

That night, Nick wandered the empty halls, the house cavernous without the hum of Noel's laughter, without Mason's footsteps pounding down the stairs, without Maire's little songs. He ended up in the children's room, sitting on the edge of Mason's bed. The sheets were still tangled from the night before, the pillow still smelled faintly of his son's shampoo. Nick pressed his face into the pillow, grief clawing at him. He had everything, and in his fear of losing it, he had lost it anyway.

The clock ticked steadily, indifferent to his unravelling. When dawn broke, painting the sky in pale gray, Nick was still awake, sitting in the silence of the children's room. The toys around him, the empty beds, the absence of his family pressed down on him, and for the first time in years, Nick felt truly hollow.