A heavy silence settled over the room, thick and suffocating. Evelyn's heart pounded against her ribs, each beat sending a sharp, painful echo through her body. Her vision swam with dizziness, the weight of Damien's revelation crashing down on her. She swayed, but Zevian's strong grip on her shoulder kept her anchored, though her nails bit into his shirt as if she needed to grasp something real.
"This… this has to be a joke!" Avery's voice shook, her own disbelief mirrored in her wide eyes. She grabbed the phone from Damien, zooming in on the DNA report. Her breath hitched when she saw the glaring truth—zero percent match. William's DNA was a complete mismatch with Evelyn's, just like Annabelle, who was a total stranger, unlike Evelyn.