The Billionaire’s Enemy Has His Child

Chapter 8:The DNA test

The white envelope was on the bakery counter at 6 AM and Elena stared at it like it was a bomb that could explode her whole life. It was from Austin DNA Lab, 123 Medical Plaza, and it had Adrian's name and her name on it. Inside was the answer to 4 years of secrets. Leo was upstairs still sleeping in his Lightning McQueen bed, his little snore that Elena loved, and Elena held the envelope with shaking hands that had flour under the nails because she had been making dough since 4 AM. Adrian came at 5 AM as usual, in his jeans and white t-shirt and his faded pink KISS THE BAKER apron, ready to learn to make croissants, but today Elena said, "We are not baking today, we are opening this." She showed him the envelope. Adrian's face went white, even whiter than flour. For 4 years, Elena had never told any man that Leo was his son. She had left Paris when she was 2 months pregnant after Adrian Knight, the billionaire CEO, told a newspaper that her bakery dreams were stupid and small. She never called him, never told him, never asked for money. She built a life in Austin alone. But 2 weeks ago, when Adrian started coming at 5 AM to wear a pink apron and learn to bake, when Leo started calling him Daddy because he saw his blue eyes matched, Elena knew she had to know for sure and Adrian had to know for sure. Not just feelings, but science. So they had gone to the DNA lab together on Monday, both nervous, holding Leo's hand, Leo thought it was a game, they swabbed his cheek with a cotton stick, he said "Tickles Mommy!" The lab said results in 3 days. Now it was Thursday, 6 AM, the envelope was here. "Do you want to open it or should I?" Adrian asked, his CEO voice gone, his voice small like a boy. "We open it together," Elena said, tears already in her eyes. She ripped the envelope open, pulled out the paper, and they both read it at the same time under the warm bakery lights. The paper said in big black letters: DNA PATERNITY TEST RESULTS - 99.9999% PROBABILITY OF PATERNITY - ADRIAN KNIGHT IS THE BIOLOGICAL FATHER OF LEO CARTER. 99.9999%. Not 50%, not maybe, not almost. Almost 100%. Science said what Elena's heart had known for 4 years and what Adrian's heart had known for 2 weeks since he met Leo. Leo was his son. Adrian sat down hard on the bakery floor, right on the floury floor, in his pink apron, holding the paper, tears running down his face, something Elena had never seen before, the billionaire who never cries in board meetings crying on a bakery floor at 6 AM. "He is my son," Adrian whispered, touching the paper like it was gold. "He is really my son, my blood, my eyes, my nose, my little boss baby." Elena knelt next to him, crying too, "I never lied, I never wanted your money, I just wanted to protect him." Adrian hugged her tight, flour and tears mixing, "I know, I know you protected him alone for 4 years, you were so strong, you are the strongest mother I know, I was so stupid in Paris, I am so sorry I was not there when he was born, when he took his first steps, when he said his first word." Just then, Leo came downstairs in his dinosaur pajamas, rubbing his eyes, holding his little stuffed croissant toy, "Mommy, Daddy, why are you sitting on the floor? Is it a picnic? Can I have a picnic on the floor?" Adrian picked up Leo, held him on his lap on the floury floor, and said, "Leo, little boss, do you know what this paper says? It says you are my son, officially, scientifically, for real, forever." Leo looked at the paper, didn't understand the numbers, but he understood Daddy was crying and Mommy was crying, and he said, "Does that mean you will wear the pink apron forever, Daddy?" Adrian laughed through tears and said, "Yes, I will wear the pink apron forever, I will wear it to board meetings, I will wear it to New York, I will wear it until it has 100 holes." Elena laughed too, wiping tears with her floury hands, leaving white marks on her cheeks. That morning, they did not open the bakery at 7 AM. They put a sign on the door: CLOSED TODAY FOR FAMILY DAY - DNA SAYS WE ARE FAMILY. And they spent the whole day on the bakery floor, eating ugly croissants that Adrian made, playing with Lightning McQueen cars, and Adrian called his mother Victoria in New York and said, "Mother, the DNA test came back, 99.9999%, you have a grandson, his name is Leo, he is 4, he loves croissants, and he leaves flour handprints on my R35,000 pants." Victoria was silent for a long time, then she said, "99.9999%? That's more certain than our hotel profits. Bring him to New York, or better, I will come to Austin. I have a grandson and I didn't know for 4 years." Adrian said, "Mother, you will come to Austin, you will come to a small bakery on East 6th Street, you will not wear a black suit, you will eat a croissant, and you will meet your grandson who is the boss baby." Elena listened and cried happy tears, because for 4 years she was scared Victoria would take Leo away, but now Victoria's voice had softness. After the call, Adrian hung up and looked at Elena and Leo playing on the floury floor, and he said, "The DNA test was just a piece of paper, but it changed everything. It turned a secret into a family, it turned an enemy into a father, it turned a billionaire CEO who only cared about hotels into a dad in a pink apron sitting on a floury floor at 6 AM crying with happiness because he has a son." Leo fell asleep on the floor that afternoon, tired from playing, with his head on Adrian's lap, flour in his hair, and Adrian didn't move for 2 hours because he didn't want to wake him. Elena took a photo of them, Adrian in pink apron sleeping on the bakery floor with Leo on his lap, and she posted it on the bakery wall with a note: "DNA says 99.9999% family. Our family." That photo later got 1 million likes when Mrs. Henderson posted it, but Elena didn't care about likes, she cared that for the first time in 4 years, she didn't have to protect the secret alone. The secret was now a family, and the family was together on a floury floor at 6 AM