She added that Mike had clearly seen something that had never come up while the couple was dating. She reminded Robert that Eleanor had been raised conservatively and that, before the wedding, their physical relationship had gone no further than a few kisses. Robert stared at her in disbelief and flatly resisted what he was hearing.
He did not deny they had once had an affair. He remembered that chapter of his life all too well. But the idea that they might share a grown daughter sounded impossible to him. Back then, Linda had been married, and she was still married to the same man now.
For Linda, the truth threatened to blow apart the life she had built. For years she had sincerely believed Eleanor’s father was Daniel, her husband. He had been her steady partner through the decades, a good man, and a caring father.
Their marriage had always been built more on understanding than passion, and that lack of spark had once pushed Linda into making reckless choices. Daniel was serious by nature and devoted most of his energy to academic work. Physical intimacy was never especially important to him; he treated it more like one part of married life than the center of it.
He had never been the type to dream about children, either, though he had welcomed Eleanor warmly and done his best to care for her. Even so, she was never the center of his universe. That place belonged to his research and his work. Linda had long since made peace with that, especially since she herself had built a demanding career in medicine.
She had never been the kind of woman who wanted to spend every evening making casseroles and keeping a picture-perfect home. She cooked when she could, and Daniel never complained if the fridge was sparse. In fact, he appreciated the lack of domestic drama, because creature comforts mattered very little to him.
After sitting with the news for a moment, Robert said the first thing he needed to do was talk to his son. He suggested they make sure there were real grounds for alarm before heading to a lab. Still, he promised that if Mike’s suspicions lined up with Linda’s, he would arrange a DNA test right away.
He left the restaurant with a heavy heart and a mind full of dark thoughts. He had not revisited that old affair in years. Back then, he and Linda had worked in neighboring departments at the same college, and both had been hungry for the kind of excitement missing from their marriages…
