The Inheritance Paradox
Copyright© 2026 by aroslav
Chapter 12 (My Story)
Time Travel Sex Story: Chapter 12 (My Story) - A gripping tale of time travel, family secrets, and redemption. Nathaniel Holbrook uncovers his father’s extraordinary past, spanning centuries and shaping humanity’s future, while confronting profound truths about legacy, love, and identity. A thought-provoking journey through time, history, and the enduring bonds of family.
Caution: This Time Travel Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Consensual Heterosexual Fiction Historical Time Travel
THE WEEK WAS FULL of graduation preparations. In the midst of that, both Megan and I had to work. Megan could work remotely and spent her off-time sorting through the things Dad and I had put in her room when we emptied the attic. I bet she would be discarding a lot of them. I, on the other hand, had to go to the office.
Brenda coordinated the graduation party plans. Graduation was Friday evening and we all planned to be there. Of course, the grads all wanted to have their own post-ceremony party, and several parents had gone together to provide a place and safe transportation for them without actually watching over them. We weren’t providing any alcohol, but we were all realistic enough to know that booze and weed would be around for anyone who wanted it. We’d simply be sitting up all night in case there was an emergency and we got a call.
Saturday, however, was a kind of floating open house. This was for parents and friends to congratulate the grads. Our kids had agreed to a two-hour slot for visits and gift-giving.
“You know, it’s more serious than we thought,” Brenda said one evening when we were getting ready for bed. I spit toothpaste into the sink.
“What’s more serious?” I asked, concerned.
“Zach and Val,” Brenda continued. “They’ve asked if they can have a joint reception rather than one at each of our houses.”
“Isn’t it kind of late to get that changed up?”
“Not really. It’s not like we were going to do a lot of decorating and have a hundred people over. There’s our family, of course. I think we only invited four people from your office who we’ve been close enough that Zach actually knows who they are. Loren and Theresa Aisley, of course. They’ve been close to the family since your high school days, and I know Zach has been talking to Loren about the Corvair. Mom’s sister already sent her regrets. I knew it would be too much for her to travel from Washington. There’s maybe half a dozen neighbors, but I doubt most will come.”
“So, what’s the plan, then?”
“Four until six on Saturday at the Johnsons’ house. Val and Zach will both be there and greet the guests from both sides. I’ve sent email to everyone we invited. Mom and I are helping prepare food and decorations,” Brenda said.
“That is more serious than we thought. You don’t think Zach will give up his acceptance at the automotive school and move to California with her, do you?” I asked as we slipped into bed.
“I don’t think it’s quite that far along yet, but I guess Val and Zach have been hanging out with each other most of this year. Just as part of the same kind of group. We’ve never been concerned about that because all those kids are stellar students and started hanging out on occasion as soon as they got to high school,” Brenda said. “It wouldn’t surprise me a lot if a move was eventually in the cards.”
“How could I miss anything so important in my son’s life?”
“You didn’t. It just wasn’t as pronounced as you expected. You were out in the garage with the two of them last night. You’ve known they were a couple. You just didn’t let the idea take root in your mind.”
Mom, Dad, Megan, Brenda, Lisa, and I sat in the auditorium Friday night as the graduates were recognized. Val was, indeed, the valedictorian. Zach’s grades weren’t as high, but he was an honor student. When the diplomas were presented, several students were also presented with additional graduate honors cords.
They didn’t have these things when I graduated. It’s a braided rope that is hung around the grad’s shoulders. Most of the kids had at least one cord, indicating their participation in a number of semesters of sports or service organizations and such. These had already been presented, and they wore them into the auditorium. When they were given their diploma, several students were also presented with honor cords, and significant achievement cords. Some looked like they were weighted down with the number of cords that hung around their necks.
After all the diplomas had been awarded and we delivered a standing ovation, the principal called for quiet.
“Before we dismiss this gathering,” he said, “we have one award I don’t believe the school has ever presented before. I’m holding two gold and black braided cords. I would like to call Val Johnson and Zach Holbrook back to the stage for this special presentation.”
We were all looking at each other wondering why my son and his girlfriend were being presented with an award. The two kids didn’t look like they were expecting anything either as they made their way to the principal. He continued the presentation to them.
“We’re aware that awards can be frivolous and seem to be meaningless. This is not an academic honor—both of these students have received enough of those. But we researched this carefully and this particular honor has never been achieved in our school district. It is for perfect attendance.”
There was laughter in the audience because it did seem like a frivolous award. It was almost an embarrassment.
“I’m not talking about perfect attendance as seniors, nor through their time at this high school. What sets this apart is that these two students have had perfect attendance through their entire twelve years in public school. I don’t know how you two achieved it, but I’m happy to present these gold and black cords in recognition of this accomplishment.”
That was kind of cool, I guessed. I tried to think back and couldn’t remember either Zach or Lisa ever being sick enough to stay home from school, except the one time Lisa broke her arm and stayed out of school a day because it hurt. I guessed she wouldn’t be getting one of these awards.
I think I could have had perfect attendance; except I didn’t treat school seriously enough to maintain attendance when there was something else interesting going on. I didn’t know about Megan. She’d completed her schooling in ten years instead of twelve. She was a PhD in genetic biology at twenty-two and an MD at twenty-three. She never went into residency because she went straight to a research institute. I glanced over at her. She looked deep in thought.
The party on Saturday was at four, but Brenda, Mom, Lisa, and Megan were all over at the Johnsons’ by three to help with the last-minute preparations. Dad and I got there about a quarter till four so we could greet guests. There were already gifts on two tables, one for Zach and one for Val.
Val came from a bigger family. She was the oldest of four with two brothers and a baby sister, all two years apart. I knew Lisa had once gone out with Del, the oldest of the brothers, but I didn’t think there had been a second date. Typical father, I paid more attention to who my daughter dated than who my son dated.
“So, does good health and perfect attendance run through all your family?” I asked Don. We didn’t quite live in the same neighborhood, but the kids had been in the same school district pretty much all their lives, so most of us parents were acquainted.
“Not me,” Don answered. “I was a sickly kid. Then, soon after Betts was born, I was diagnosed with cancer. I’m in remission now, but it was touch and go for a while.”
“I faced cancer when I was about that age,” Dad said. “I was told it was terminal, but it only ended up aging me an extra ten or twelve years. I suppose that means it probably contributed to my terminus, whenever it arrives.”
“Thankfully, the kids all take after Ruby more than me. They’ve all been pretty healthy,” Don said. “You, Nathaniel?”
“Yeah. I’ve always been pretty healthy. Brenda had COVID, but we were fortunate none of the rest of us came down with it,” I said. I really needed to talk to Megan about this stuff.
Later, I discovered she’d talked the entire Johnson family into contributing DNA samples.
In fact, Megan and I had a lot of opportunity to talk on Wednesday. She convinced me that we needed to do some primary research about Dad’s childhood. Having discovered through our grandfather’s obituary that Dad had been a minister just lit a fire under us to find out more. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to tell us anything other than his time travel adventures.
I picked her up at eight-thirty in the morning; just telling all the family I was going to spend a day with my sister while I had her in town. She’d be going back to North Carolina on Sunday. As soon as we were moving, we pulled into Starbucks to get fuel for the road trip. It was only eighty miles to Battle Creek, but we weren’t rushing things. She had her hot little computer open in the car all the way there.
“So, did you get any information on the Johnsons?” I asked. “I talked to Don about family health. He had a pretty severe brush with cancer about twelve years ago.”
“In fact, I got them to agree to all doing a DNA test. I sent it to the lab on Monday.”
“How’d you even get test kits over the weekend?” I asked.
“I have connections at the lab. I called after commencement Friday night and it was delivered while we were at the open house Saturday afternoon. I went over on Sunday and collected the samples. Of course, I already had Val’s. I’m wondering what leads to such good health in our families. It has to be the qRNA messenger I found.”
“qRNA?” I asked. I’d been exposed to a lot of terms from her work over the years, but that was a new one to me.
“It’s a working name. Might not stick. I actually term it a Gestalt RNA, but gRNA is already taken for Guide RNA. It’s the stuff I’ve been working on for the past three years,” she said.
I knew people studied tiny things for long periods of time. My sister was one of them.
“What does this qRNA do?” I asked.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out, silly. I know it’s there, but it’s so rare that I haven’t got many samples. I found it in my own DNA. That’s why I wanted samples from the rest of the family. I’ve had all of the samples analyzed for that single attribute and we all have it, except Brenda. Mom, Dad, you, me, Lisa, and Zach.”
“Val?”
“Until this weekend, I didn’t consider her sample to be a high priority in testing. Now, I’m waiting for the results from the whole family.”
“Where do we go from here, navigator?” I asked as we pulled into Battle Creek.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.