Chapter 1 — One DNA Test, Two Truths

My mother-in-law threw a dramatic tantrum, adamantly demanding a paternity test. She declared that my son, little Lac Lac, bore no resemblance to anyone in her family. My husband, Truong Dinh, verbally claimed to trust me, yet behind my back, he kept coaxing me into compliance.

"You know how my mother is. Just do it to shut her up, and we can finally put this whole mess behind us."

He hugged me with supreme confidence, assuming this was merely a trivial inconvenience to appease an elderly woman. I only smiled in silence. Little did he know that, as a psychological profiler, I had long since deciphered the deep-seated fear and colossal secret hidden beneath my mother-in-law's stubborn words, rigid actions, and micro-expressions. What he knew even less was that two separate test results had been sent to me. One proved my absolute innocence. The other proved that he was not his father's biological son. Now, could this matter truly be put to rest?

Inside the private dining room of a restaurant where the family had gathered, the table was fully laden with food. My mother-in-law, Tran Tu Lan, slammed her chopsticks down hard against the wooden surface.

"This child—from his eyebrows and eyes down to his nose, does he bear a single feature of our Truong family?"

She pointed directly at Lac Lac, my one-year-old son resting quietly in my arms. The chopsticks of every relative at the table froze mid-air. My arm cradling Lac Lac tightened instinctively.

"Mother, the baby is still very young. His facial features have not fully developed yet."

"Not fully developed?"

She let out a cold, mocking laugh.

"Hua Van, what kind of shameful deeds you have been up to behind my back, you know best in your heart!"

"Do not take our Truong family for fools!"

I drew a deep breath, forcing myself to remain calm and analytical. I noticed that as she spoke those words, Tran Tu Lan’s pupils dilated, and her jaw clenched tightly—a textbook defensive posture triggered by psychological stress. Based on her behavioral patterns, her obsessive fixation on bloodlines was nothing more than a profound psychological projection.

"Mother, accusations require evidence."

"Evidence? The fact that he looks nothing like anyone in the Truong family is the greatest evidence of all!"

My husband, Truong Dinh, finally spoke up. He grabbed my arm, his grip uncomfortably tight.

"Van Van, say no more."

Then, forcing a smile, he turned to his mother.

"Mother, all our relatives are here. Please do not let a minor issue upset you."

"A minor issue?"

Tran Tu Lan’s voice soared to a shrill pitch.

"This concerns the pure bloodline of our Truong family! How can you call this a minor issue?"

She abruptly stood up and pointed straight at my face.

"Hua Van, I am laying it out clearly today!"

"You must take a paternity test!"

"Otherwise, take your bastard child, who knows where he crawled out from, and get out of my house!"

"Mother!"

Truong Dinh’s expression shifted uncomfortably. The relatives all lowered their heads, pretending to be deeply engrossed in their food. I looked at Truong Dinh, but he deliberately avoided my gaze. The family dinner ended in bitter misery. On the ride home, the atmosphere inside the car was suffocatingly heavy. I stared out the window, remaining entirely silent. Truong Dinh heaved a heavy sigh and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Van Van, do not hold it against my mother. Her bark is much worse than her bite."

I ignored him entirely.

"She is getting old, her mind is a bit muddled, and she gets fixated on her own stubborn notions."

"Let us just go take the test once, alright? Once it is done, she will have peace of mind, and this whole thing will be over and done with."

There was not a shred of guilt on his face, only an air of supreme entitlement. In his eyes, I could read a deep-seated evasion and underlying fear—he was terrified of this topic being probed any further.

"Do you feel that I should take this test as well?"

He was startled for a fraction of a second, then immediately flashed an expression of annoyance.

"Of course? What, should I start a catastrophic war with her instead? Do you only feel satisfied when you turn this entire household upside down?"

"It is just a paternity test; it is not like you are losing a limb."

"Just consider it a formality to humor an old woman."

I looked at him and suddenly let out a soft laugh.

"Very well."

I said:

"Let us go take it."

He visibly breathed a sigh of relief and shifted the car back into gear.

"That is more like it. A harmonious family brings prosperity to everything."

He began humming a cheerful tune with absolute self-assurance. He believed this was merely a minor domestic squabble firmly under his control, and that my eventual submission was a foregone conclusion. He had no inkling that the moment I gave my consent, this performance ceased to be a simple family dispute. And in all my professional cases, I had never once lost.

The following morning, after Truong Dinh finished washing up, I slipped into the walk-in closet and retrieved a single hair with an intact root from the collar of a shirt he had worn the night before. Afterward, I walked out to the living room. The ashtray my father-in-law had used the previous evening still sat on the coffee table. I picked up a cigarette butt that still bore traces of his saliva. I placed both items into evidence bags and tucked them securely into my handbag.

Truong Dinh urged me onward:

"Van Van, hurry up. Our appointment is at nine o'clock."

I gazed into the mirror and smiled faintly.

"I am coming."

We arrived at an expensive private genetic testing center. The samples were collected swiftly using oral swabs and a prick of the fingertip, the entire process completed in mere minutes. Truong Dinh gently patted my hand, his tone casual and reassuring.

"Do not be afraid, it will be over in a moment."

I watched his profile as he lowered his head to scroll through his phone, replying to work messages, the corners of his lips curved upward in complacency. After the collection was finished, I pressed a small bandage over my fingertip.

"I need to use the restroom."

Without lifting his head, he replied:

"Go ahead, I will wait for you here."

I turned on my heel and walked toward the end of the corridor. Then, looping around discreetly, I returned to the reception area I had just left. The manager who had greeted us earlier was still seated behind the desk. I pulled an envelope from my handbag and slid it across the surface. Inside was a thick stack of cash.

"Hello, I would like to commission two confidential private DNA tests."

The manager glanced at the money, then up at me, a polite smile forming on her lips.

"Please go ahead."

I placed the two evidence bags containing the hair and the cigarette butt onto the desk.

"Sample A belongs to my husband, Truong Dinh."

"Sample B belongs to my father-in-law, Truong Kien Quoc."

"Please compare the genetic profiles of these two individuals."

The manager looked surprised, but quickly regained her composure.

"Private confidential tests do not require the presence of the involved parties, but the results will hold no legal validity. Are you certain you wish to proceed?"

I pushed an even thicker envelope across the desk toward her.

"I only require the truth. Please expedite the process and maintain absolute confidentiality."

"I am not doing this to seek mere peace of mind."

I said calmly:

"I am here to verify a hypothesis."

She remained silent for a few seconds before gathering the items from the desk.

"Very well, Ms. Hua. Please provide your full name and identification number."

"Once the report is ready, send it to this email address."

I handed her a slip of paper.

"Please encrypt the file."

She nodded.

"No problem at all."

Stepping out of the testing center, the midday sunlight was blindingly bright. Truong Dinh was leaning against the car waiting for me, his expression showing a trace of impatience.

"Why did you take so long in there?"

"My stomach was acting up."

He asked no further questions and opened the car door for me.

"There, it is all settled now. Nothing more to worry about."

"When we get home, I will talk to my mother and tell her never to bring this up again."

"I told you, once it is done, the matter is closed."

I looked at his self-satisfied profile and remained silent. Indeed. It was finally time to turn the page.

In the days spent waiting for the results, the atmosphere at home was suffocatingly tense. Tran Tu Lan no longer pointed fingers at me directly, but every single day at the dining table, she dropped veiled insults.

"The world is truly falling apart these days; any manner of indecent woman can manage to sneak into someone else's household."

"It would be one thing if you raised a hen that couldn't lay eggs, but you constantly live in fear that it might hatch a wild jungle fowl."

As she spoke, she cast sideways glances in my direction. My father-in-law, Truong Kien Quoc, kept his head down over his rice bowl, uttering not a single word from beginning to end. Truong Dinh picked up a piece of pork rib and placed it in my bowl.

"Mother, please just eat your meal."

Tran Tu Lan slammed her chopsticks down.

"I am full! Looking at someone who makes my stomach turn makes it impossible to swallow a single bite!"

She stood up, stomped toward her bedroom, and slammed the door shut with a deafening bang. Truong Dinh sighed and turned his gaze to me.

Another day of waiting passed slowly. On Friday afternoon, while I was at the office, my phone vibrated softly. A new email had arrived. The subject line read: Your encrypted report has been completed. I hurried into the restroom and locked the door behind me. I opened the email. Two PDF attachments were waiting inside. I opened the first file: the paternity verification report between Truong Lac and Truong Dinh. I quickly scrolled down to the final page. Conclusion: Truong Dinh is confirmed as the biological father of Truong Lac, with a probability of 99.9999%.

I leaned back against the tiled wall, slowly releasing a long breath. The heavy stone that had weighed upon my chest finally dropped away, at least halfway. Then, I opened the second file: the paternity verification report between Truong Dinh and Truong Kien Quoc. My fingertips felt suddenly chilled. I took a deep breath and scrolled straight to the final page. Conclusion: Based on DNA analysis, the possibility of Truong Kien Quoc being the biological father of Truong Dinh is entirely excluded.

I stared blankly at those words for a full minute. I repeatedly cross-checked the full names and ID numbers. There were no mistakes. Truong Dinh was not the biological son of my father-in-law, Truong Kien Quoc. Everything had unfolded precisely as my hypothesis predicted. A profound surge of vindication and retribution washed over me. I could not help it; I burst into laughter, laughing until tears streamed down my face. Tran Tu Lan.