chapter388

After what felt like an eternity of agonizing tension, Elysia finally let her guard down. She took a slow, deliberate breath and exhaled, casting an indifferent gaze toward Tarquin. That look sent a cold shiver down his spine. When she was scared, it pained him—but this sudden, icy composure? It terrified him.

Her demeanor radiated a kind of grim resignation, as if she were a traveler ready to face a storm. Was she truly that averse to confronting the past? Or was it him she couldn't bear to face?

Tarquin’s lips parted, but no words came out. He shifted his gaze away, his brow furrowed, and proceeded to tear open the fourth and final envelope. He expected the result to be the same as the others. To him, the outcome was already a foregone conclusion, but he felt compelled to see it through—partly for the sake of completeness, and partly because her indifference had left him so off-balance that he needed the distraction of the paperwork to gather his thoughts.

"You should start thinking about your next explanation," Tarquin said, his voice low. "I told you it was you, and you continue to—"

He froze.

The words died in his throat. Not mother and son?

The fourth report was a complete curveball. It stated a 0% DNA match between Elysia and Elijah, categorically denying any biological link. Tarquin stared at the paper, his mind reeling. This made no sense. It was a direct contradiction to everything he thought he knew.

With his expression darkening like a gathering storm, he turned his gaze toward Benjamin. This specific report was Benjamin’s responsibility.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Tarquin demanded.

Benjamin began to tremble under the weight of that stare. "I—I don't know!" he stammered, feeling the sheer injustice of the situation. Why did every other test confirm the relationship while his produced an impossibility? The look on Tarquin’s face suggested a reckoning was coming.

"Explain to me," Tarquin pressed, his voice vibrating with suppressed fury, "why the results change the moment the task is handed to you?"

"I truly don't know!" Benjamin insisted, on the verge of a breakdown.

Sensing the shift in the atmosphere, Elysia snatched the report from Tarquin’s hands. When her eyes landed on the words Not mother and son, they widened in genuine shock. Her mind raced—could Elijah have somehow tampered with this? Regardless of the cause, this was the miracle she needed.

Her spirits, which had hit rock bottom, soared instantly. Her defensive instincts reignited with a fiery passion. She had been prepared for a direct confrontation, but now, the battlefield had shifted in her favor. Holding the report like a shield, Elysia’s attitude did a complete 180.

She looked up at Tarquin, her voice now steady and brimming with newfound confidence. "What is there to question? This proves exactly what I’ve been saying from the start. I told you, Tarquin—I am not the person you’ve been looking for."

Tarquin scowled, tapping the other documents. "Then how do you explain the other three reports?"

Elysia didn't miss a beat. "I can't speak for those, but I do know that Dr. Benjamin is a top-tier professional. He’s your close friend; he has no reason to deceive you. If anything, his report is the most credible one here. As for the others? Who knows who might have tampered with them to frame me!"

Tarquin turned back to Benjamin with a look so menacing the poor doctor looked ready to burst into tears, desperate to find a way to prove his innocence in a situation that defied all logic.