Episode 29

The sterile scent of the police station clung to Johns clothes, a phantom reminder of the ordeal. He’d given the DNA swab without hesitation, a grim duty he’d accepted the moment the detective’s gaze had settled on him. It was a necessary step, a confirmation of his own innocence, a final severing of any lingering, grotesque doubt that might have been twisted by David’s machinations. But the act itself, the cold swab against his cheek, had sparked something else within him, a bitter resentment that had been simmering beneath the surface of his grief and shame.

“You did it, then?”

The voice, sharp and laced with an accusation that Daniel had come to expect, sliced through the quiet of the living room. His younger half-brother, the one whose life David had so meticulously attempted to shatter, stood in the doorway, his arms crossed, his face a mask of barely concealed fury. This brother, let’s call him Daniel, had always been the more volatile one, the one most directly in James crosshairs, the one whose life David had actively tried to ruin. met his gaze, the exhaustion of weeks of legal proceedings and personal turmoil etched onto his features. “Yes, Daniel. I gave the swab.”