Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack (Evelyn and Damon) novel Chapter 171

Damon pov

I was holding Ethan in the living room, his small fingers wrapped around my thumb, when my phone dinged from where I'd left it on the side table.

I shifted him carefully to one arm, reaching for the phone, and felt my heart rate spike immediately at the sender—the lab we'd contracted for the DNA verification.

*Results confirmed. Genetic analysis shows no direct paternal match between subject Robert Cross and subject Nadia [Ashworth]. However, analysis does confirm a familial relationship consistent with an uncle-niece connection through paternal lineage.*

I read it twice, disbelief and confused relief both crashing through me simultaneously, before the actual implication settled fully into place.

Not my father's daughter.

But related to our family regardless.

"Evelyn," I called out, my voice tight with sudden, urgent need to actually process this with someone.

She appeared quickly, alarm crossing her face at my obvious tension, and I showed her the message, watching her expression shift through the same confused relief I'd just experienced.

"She's not his daughter," Evelyn said slowly, reading it again. "But she's still related, through—" She paused, working through the implication. "Through your uncle?"

"I think so," I said, still processing the genuine, unexpected shift this represented. "My father has a brother, Marcus. We don't talk to him much, haven't in years, honestly. There was some kind of falling out before I was even born, though Dad's never fully explained the details."

"So Nadia's actually your cousin," Evelyn said, "not your sister."

"It seems that way," I confirmed, relief building steadily beneath my continued confusion. "Which means whatever happened to my father at that club all those years ago—if it genuinely happened at all—didn't actually result in this particular child."

I moved quickly to find my father, understanding he deserved this information immediately given everything he'd been struggling through these past several days of uncertain, agonizing waiting.

I found him in his study, staring blankly at nothing in particular, and I felt fresh concern at how hollow and exhausted he appeared, clearly still trapped in whatever spiral of guilt and confusion this entire situation had triggered.

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