THE SECOND DNA TEST

As soon as the parcel arrived, Kiara ripped it open to reveal a lot of jewellery. She recalled most of it as the ones which lady Pinkerton had gifted her mother. Not paying much attention to the items, the young lady fumbled in the box and pulled out a rolled tissue paper sealed up in a ziploc bag. With trembling hands, she unzipped the plastic and pulled the paper. Just as her mother had told her, three hair strands were inside the tissue paper.

Kiara's hands shook uncontrollably. She had everything set. She picked her son and headed to the place where she had been informed.

"I…I need to know if my son belongs to the man who I was with. The man passed away, but this hair is from his biological brother. Do you think you can do something to help me out?" she asked in almost a whisper.

"Yes we can do something. Please come in. Is it your first time ever to come here?" the man asked with a grin.

"Yes it is."

"Ok, fill in this form." He handed over a form to Kiara. He wore a pair of synthetic gloves and took the strands of hair.

As her hands began to sweat, Kiara filled out the forms.

***

"I have spent so many days looking for my child, and I cannot find her. Why do I keep having the feeling that you know where she is? Huh? Aletha! Talk to me!" Travis shouted at the top of his voice.

"I also have a feeling that you know where she is!" Aletha snapped at her husband.

"What? Me? How on earth would I know? Do you and Kiara ever involve me in your shenanigans? Wasn't she previously kidnapped and held hostage, and you kept it all away from me? I need to know where my child is, Aletha!"

"Leave me alone, don't touch me!" Aletha hurled her hand off, because her husband had moved closer and was about to hold her.

"Am I disgusting? Why don't you want me to touch you?" he asked with hurt.

Aletha did not respond. She really did not like the man. It was a fact that, for more than a couple of years now, Aletha had been regretting marrying Travis. He had failed dismally to meet any of her expectations, and she hated herself for choosing him in the first place. She had been in love; thinking that he was the one, but it took less than a year into the marriage for her to start seeing that she could have made a mistake.

By the time she realised that, Aletha was already expecting her child, Kiara. She kept the feelings to herself, and for the sake of the child, stayed in the marriage. Every night she hoped for a better marriage tomorrow; and most of the nights she fantasized about being with her ex.

As the years went by, Aletha cursed herself for ever choosing to stay. She told herself that she should have moved out while she was still young. She felt that all her years of life had been wasted by the man.

That was why Aletha felt more that convinced that if Kiara was not in love with Vine, no matter how rich the latter was, it was not necessary to force the poor girl to be married to that man. Aletha believed in marrying someone's true love. She could not watch as her daughter repeated the same mistake.

Jeremy was not as rich as Vine, but he was OK. He had a lot of potential. Of course he was not the type to drive around in limousines or to have a million bodyguards surrounding him, but she was sure that Jeremy was good for her daughter. The young man was hardworking, and Aletha strongly believed in her heart that is Jeremy and Kiara were to try again; theirs would be a happy family.

While she was engrossed in those thoughts, her phone rang.

She jumped to pick it, and Travis asked,

"It is a foreign number. Who is calling you?" he demanded.

"No-one," Aletha responded.

"Answer it! Answer it right here in front of me. Are you cheating on me?"

"Go to hell! If anyone is to cheat in this marriage, it would be you, loser!"

"What did you just call me?" Travis screamed. "Answer that phone now!"

Travis fought for the phone, and Aletha was holding on tightly to it. Aletha had the intention of switching it off during the said battle, but when she held it in position, Travis mistakenly slid his finger and activated the call.

On the other end of the line, Kiara did not wait for her mother to say anything. Instead, as soon as she realised that the call was connected, she cried into it.

"The child is his, mamma! Mamma, the child is Jeremy's! You were right! Nesisa was right too! Why did I not see it? It is his child! Mamma; it is his child! How did that DNA test make an error? How did they not know? The person who did the DNA test ruined my life mamma! If only they had told us from day one, that this child belonged to Jeremy, I would have never suffered as much as I have suffered, mamma! I would have gone back to Jeremy, my man, the man that I love so dearly…"

"Kiara," Aletha finally spoke.

"Mamma, I don't know what to do. I am heartbroken!"

"Kiara listen. You're all alone there, and you need to be strong, for the sake of the child," Aletha went on to talk, giving her daughter strength.

"Mamma, I don't know how to react to this piece of news."

"You need to come back home, Kiara. Come to me and we will be strong through it; together."

"No, mamma! I cannot come home now. If ever there was a time when Jeremy needed me, it is now! I need to find him, and tell him that the child is ours! I will search each and every place until I find the real father of my child!"

"Kiara but you cannot possibly do that alone. You now need to rope us in. Myself, Jacob and the Rain family." Aletha tried to plead with her daughter.

"No, mamma! The promise was between me and him! I promised him that I was going to find him!"

"You need help to do so, my daughter!" Aletha pleaded.

"I will have to find him, mamma! If it was him, he would have never left this country before finding me. I will find my man!" Kiara cried ever so bitterly.

"Kiara , my child…"

"That DNA result ruined my life, mamma! It ruined my life! Why did it come out positive? Why did it ever say that Vincent was Vine's child? He is Jeremy's son, mamma! Jeremy must know! I must find him, and I will inform him about this! This child was supposed to be Ethan Anesu. That was what myself and his father wanted to name him. Ethan Anesu; mamma! That is his name! Those are his names. He is not Vincent Lisandro Pinkerton, he is Ethan Anesu Rain. This boy is mine and Jeremy Richard Rain's child!"

"My child, please try and calm down."

"But I cannot calm down, mamma! I need to find Jeremy, and to reintroduce him to this boy, who is our child. I need us two to go and get a birth certificate, correcting all the wrongs. His name is Ethan Anesu. That is all Jeremy ever wanted; for his son to be called Ethan Anesu. That was all he wanted, mamma! And Vine took all that away from us. No, not Vine. The man who did the DNA test; he made an error, and he took it all away. He took the love of my life away from me, by his one silly mistake! Now I have to search everywhere for my man, and I am failing to find him!"

Aletha wiped off the tears from the corners of her eyes and did her best to comfort her daughter.

"Mamma, imagine how happy my life would have been, if I had been with Jeremy all this time"

Aletha listened as her daughter wailed, crying her soul out. It broke Aletha's heart into pieces. How she longed to be near, and to hug her child and tell her that everything was going to be well.

Travis did not say a word; but he heard everything from both sides of the call, for the phone was set on a very loud volume.

When the call finally ended, Kiara was slowly beginning to calm down.

Aletha placed the phone on the coffee table and sank into a seat.

"You can ask me anything. You can shout at me all you want," she said, avoiding her husband's eyes.

Travis sat next to his wife and said, "What shocked me the most is that you speak as if Jeremy is still alive?"

"He is alive," Aletha stated plainly.

"You and Kiara know where he is?" he asked.

"We don't. Kiara is out looking for him." The wife explained.

"And you know where our daughter is?" he asked.

"I do." She responded.

"That does not shock me. I have always suspected that," Travis said. "What I need to know is, for how long were you going to hide this from me? I am her father, Aletha. I deserve to know where she is."

"I'm sorry," Aletha was in no mood for the fights.

She waited for the man to say more, yet he remained silent.

"What about the DNA test? I thought you too were going to be shocked by it, just like how it has shocked Kiara and I. Vincent Lisandro is Jeremy Rain's child, apparently." Aletha said it in a tired tone.

"I know." He said.

"What do you mean by that, Travis?" Aletha was alarmed by the words spoken by her husband.

"The news that Jeremy Richard Rain is Vincent Lisandro's father does not shock me." Travis said calmly.