Chapter 8 - The Waiting Room
The formal collection was rigorous.
Unlike the cheap home kit Nolan had ordered online, this was a strict, legal chain-of-custody procedure. A certified technician verified everyone's government IDs, took digital photographs of Nolan, myself, and all three babies, and logged every detail into a legal ledger.
The technician carefully swabbed the inside of Willa's cheek using three separate sterile swabs, sealing them into tamper-evident vials right in front of us. Nolan had his cheeks swabbed as well.
"Results for a legal chain-of-custody test take five to seven business days," the technician explained, sealing the evidence envelope with red security tape. "The official sealed report will be sent directly to both of your attorneys and the family court judge."
We walked out of the clinic into the windy parking lot.
Nolan followed me to my SUV, hovering awkwardly while I loaded the heavy infant car seats into the back row one by one.
"Chloe, can we please just talk for ten minutes?" Nolan begged, standing by the open trunk. "I'm staying in a terrible one-bedroom sublet near the highway. My mom is driving me crazy, my dad won't answer my phone calls... I am losing my mind."
I strapped Willa into her middle car seat, making sure the harness was snug against her chest.
"You're suffering from the consequences of your own choices, Nolan," I said, turning to face him. "You didn't care about my mind when you walked out on Sunday. You didn't care about how I was going to feed three babies or pay for daycare."
"I was stupid! I was confused!" he yelled, tears finally spilling over his eyelashes. "I saw 'No Result' and I panicked! I thought... I thought you had lied to me!"
"That's the core of the problem, isn't it?" I said softly, looking at him with pity rather than anger. "You had known me for seven years, Nolan. We built a home together. We brought three lives into this world together. And yet, the second a random piece of paper gave you a flimsy excuse to doubt me, you chose to believe I was a liar rather than trust your wife. You trusted a two-word error code more than you trusted me."
He lowered his head, sobbing quietly into his hands.
"I can't change what you think of me," Nolan choked out. "But I love those babies, Chloe. I love all three of them. God help me, I miss her so much..." He looked over my shoulder toward Willa’s car seat.
"Then you'd better pray that laboratory report comes back fast," I said calmly. "Because until it does, you are a stranger to this family."
I got into the driver's seat, pulled out of the parking lot, and left him standing alone in the cold wind.
The next six days were an excruciating test of endurance.
Every time my phone chimed with an email notification, my heart stopped. I threw myself into my work during the day, crunching numbers and running payroll audits for hundreds of nurses and doctors, and spent my nights cradling my three infants.
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Russell came over every single evening. He sat in the rocking chair in the nursery, feeding Willa her late-night bottle, humming old classic rock tunes to her until she fell asleep in his arms.
"She's a Mercer, Chloe," Russell whispered to me one night as he placed Willa gently into her crib. "I don't need a lab paper to tell me that. She's got my mother's spirit and her dad's stubbornness. Nolan is blind, but he'll wake up. I just hope it's not too late for him."
