My husband refused to do a DNA test for our daughter’s school project – so I did it behind his back, and the results prompted me to call the police.

“I never signed…”

**

Three months earlier

“Tiffany, slow down,” I said, laughing, catching the edge of her backpack before it knocked over a pile of mail. “It looks like a tornado!”

She pulled a crumpled kit from the front compartment and brandished it like a trophy.

“Mom! We’re doing genetics! We have to take samples from our families and send them in the mail, like real scientists!”

“Okay, Dr. Tiffany. Take off your shoes and wash your hands first, then we’ll see what this is about.”

“It looks like a tornado!”

She ran away. I was still smiling when Greg walked through the door.

“Hey, baby,” I said.

“Hey.” He was already distracted. He kissed me absentmindedly on the cheek and headed towards the refrigerator.

Tiffany reappeared and jumped up to hug him.

He was already distracted.

“Hey, insect. What’s all this?” he asked, nodding towards the kit.

“This is my genetics project for school,” she said, brandishing a sterile swab like a trophy. “Open it, Dad! I need a sample from you and Mom!”

Greg turned around. He looked at the swab, then at me… then at our daughter.

His fingers bent as if he wanted to tear it from his hand.

“I need a sample of you and Mom!”

His face had lost all color. His voice, when it was finally heard, was not that of the man I had married.

” No. ”

“Huh?” Tiffany blinked. “But it’s for school, Dad.”

“I said no,” he replied curtly. “We’re not going to register our DNA in a surveillance system. That’s how they track you. I’ll give you a note for school, Tiffany. But we’re not doing that.”

I looked at my husband — we had Alexa in every room, Echo in the hallway and a Ring camera on the porch — and I frowned.