She had never searched.

“I thought he probably hated us.”

Sarah said Maya told her.

That sentence stayed with me.

Caleb had not even known she existed.

Yet Richard’s choices had already taught an innocent girl to imagine another innocent child might hate her.

PART 13 — THE DNA TEST

Caleb and Maya spoke online for nearly two weeks before meeting.

Then they arranged a sibling DNA test.

Not because Richard’s old paternity result was necessarily false.