Chapter 3 - The Report Carter Never Expected
Carter tore open the envelope and said:
"Then let's end this."
The independent DNA report unfolded beneath his hands.
One number appeared beside his name.
99.9998%.
Carter stared at it.
The first report had been fake.
This one was not.
He read the page once.
Then again.
His mouth opened slightly.
No sound came out.
I watched his eyes travel from his name to Lily's.
Alleged Father: Carter James Prescott.
Child: Lily Grace Prescott.
Probability of Paternity: 99.9998%.
He slowly sat down.
"No."
It was barely audible.
Edward stood across from him.
"Yes."
Carter shook his head.
"That can be manipulated."
Martin answered.
"The independent laboratory chain of custody has already been verified."
Carter looked at me.
"You planned this."
"I protected myself."
"You planned it."
"I found a fake lab order with my forged signature."
"That doesn't prove I knew."
"No," I said. "It doesn't."
His anger paused.
He wasn't expecting that.
I continued.
"That's why I haven't accused you of forging it."
Victoria looked at me.
I met her eyes.
"Yet."
Lily had stopped crying.
She was exhausted now.
Her cheek rested against my shoulder.
Her eyelashes were still wet.
Every few seconds she sniffled softly.
I wanted to take her upstairs.
I wanted to change her into pajamas, read Goodnight Moon for the thousandth time, and pretend adults had not spent half an hour discussing whether she belonged in her own family.
But I also knew leaving that room too soon would allow Victoria to rewrite what had happened.
She was already preparing.
"I was deceived," Victoria said.
Edward looked at her.
"By whom?"
"I hired a service."
"For what?"
"To verify information I received."
"What information?"
Victoria hesitated.
"That Hannah had been unfaithful."
"From whom?"
"I won't drag another person into this."
Denise closed her laptop halfway.
"That's convenient."
Victoria glared.
"Excuse me?"
"The company you used received money from a Prescott vendor account. Your signature authorized the transfer."
"I have authority over discretionary consulting expenses."
"Not for personal investigations."
"It wasn't personal. Hannah's marriage to Carter has financial implications for the family."
I felt something cold move through me.
There it was.
The truth beneath the excuse.
Money.
Not love.
Not concern.
Not even suspicion.
Financial implications.
Edward's face hardened.
"She is your daughter-in-law."
"She signed a prenup."
"That doesn't make her a line item."
Victoria laughed.
"Please. Everyone at this table knows why she married him."
For six years, I had heard variations of that sentence.
Not always directly.
Sometimes it arrived disguised as a joke.
"You certainly upgraded neighborhoods."
"Must be nice marrying into Prescott money."
"Hannah was smart enough to choose well."
No one seemed interested in the fact that when I met Carter, I already had a career.
I was a senior project manager at an architecture firm.
I owned a small townhouse.
I had retirement savings.
I had student loans nearly paid off.
I didn't have Prescott money.
Almost nobody did.
But I didn't need it.
When Lily was born, Carter asked me to reduce my work schedule.
Not quit.
Reduce.
He traveled constantly.
We had childcare, but he wanted one parent with more flexibility.
I agreed.
Later, after his promotion, I reduced my hours again.
Then Victoria began calling me dependent.
The trap was almost elegant.
A woman makes sacrifices for her family.
Then the family uses those sacrifices as proof she wanted their money.
I looked at Victoria.
"You've spent six years saying I married Carter for money."
"You did."
"Then why did you need a fake DNA test?"
Her smile disappeared.
I continued.
"If I were only a gold digger, wouldn't a divorce be enough?"
Nobody spoke.
"You needed me to be guilty of something."
Victoria's jaw tightened.
"You are guilty."
"Of what?"
"Manipulating my son."
I almost smiled.
Carter's head dropped.
For the first time all evening, he looked tired rather than angry.
Edward turned to Martin.
"Tell us about the two samples."
Martin opened his folder.
"The original laboratory records show an online order created twelve days ago under Hannah's name."
I already knew part of this.
But not everything.
"The order requested comparison of two samples labeled Carter Prescott and Lily Prescott. Neither collection followed legal chain-of-custody procedures."
Carter rubbed his forehead.
"So it wasn't valid anyway."
"Correct."
"Then why are we discussing it?"
"Because the laboratory rejected the order."
Carter looked up.
"What?"
Martin slid a printed email across the table.
"The lab notified the customer that the samples were inadequate and the signatures did not meet their requirements."
Victoria went very still.
"The report on this table," Martin said, "did not come from that laboratory."
Carter turned toward his mother.
"Where did it come from?"
She didn't answer.
"Mother."
"I told you. A document service."
"You told me it was the lab."
"I told you the result was reliable."
"You showed me their logo."
Victoria's voice sharpened.
"Do not make me the villain because you were eager to believe your wife cheated."
That hit him.
I saw it.
Carter stared at her.
So did everyone else.
Victoria realized her mistake.
Again.
Edward's expression became almost unreadable.
"Interesting choice of words."
Victoria looked away.
Martin continued.
"The rejected samples were retained temporarily under laboratory policy. We obtained identifying information through counsel after the preservation request."
Carter frowned.
"You said two samples were submitted under Lily's name."
"One was labeled Lily."
"And?"
Martin turned one page.
"The genetic profile was inconsistent with a female child."
Silence.
Carter stared.
"What does that mean?"
"The sample submitted as Lily's came from an adult male."
My heart began beating harder.
Edward looked toward Denise.
She opened another file.
"We believe the sample came from someone with access to the estate."
Victoria sat down.
Not gracefully.
Her chair caught against the rug.
Carter stood.
"Whose?"
Martin looked at Edward.
Edward nodded.
"Tell him."
Martin faced Carter.
"The sample submitted as Lily Prescott showed a first-degree paternal relationship to you."
Carter blinked.
"I don't understand."
I did.
Not fully.
But enough.
A first-degree paternal relationship.
Father.
Son.
Brother.
Carter didn't have a son.
Edward spoke.
"It was mine."
The room went silent.
Carter looked at his father.
"What?"
"The sample labeled as Lily's was genetically consistent with me."
Victoria whispered:
"Edward..."
His eyes moved toward her.
"You submitted my DNA."
"No."
"Someone did."
Carter stared between them.
"Why would Mother use Dad's DNA as Lily's sample?"
Nobody answered immediately.
Because the answer wasn't obvious.
If you were trying to fake a negative paternity result, almost any unrelated DNA would work.
Using Edward's created risk.
Unless whoever submitted it hadn't known whose sample they were using.
Denise reached into her folder.
"Do you remember the medical screening kits the family completed last year?"
Carter nodded slowly.
Prescott Holdings had sponsored optional genetic health screenings for senior executives and family members after Edward's older brother developed a hereditary cardiac condition.
Several people had participated.
Edward.
Carter.
Victoria.
Two cousins.
Even I remembered Carter bringing the kit home.
"The leftover reference swabs were supposed to be destroyed," Denise said.
Edward looked at Victoria.
"They weren't."
Victoria's face went pale.
"I had nothing to do with storage."
"No," Edward said. "But your assistant requested access to archived executive medical files eleven days ago."
Victoria stood again.
"My assistant handles dozens of things for me."
"She used your authorization code."
"Then ask her."
"We did."
That sentence landed like glass breaking.
Victoria's eyes widened.
Edward continued.
"At 5:30 this afternoon."
Carter looked at his father.
"You've been investigating all day?"
"Three days."
"Without telling me?"
Edward's expression hardened.
"My granddaughter was about to be publicly accused with forged evidence. I wasn't interested in preserving your comfort."
Carter's eyes dropped toward Lily.
She was watching him now.
No tears.
Just confusion.
"Daddy?"
He looked at her.
For one second, the entire room disappeared from his face.
He was simply Lily's father again.
He stepped toward us.
I instinctively tightened my arms around her.
He stopped.
The movement hurt him.
I saw it.
Good.
Some hurt should be felt.
"Lily," he said quietly.
She pressed her cheek against me.
"Are you still mad?"
"No."
"At me?"
His voice broke slightly.
"No, baby."
Victoria made an impatient sound.
Edward turned on her.
"Not one word."
She actually obeyed.
Carter crouched several feet away.
He didn't try to touch Lily.
"I'm not mad at you."
"Then why did you say I'm not yours?"
He swallowed.
"Because I believed something that wasn't true."
"Mommy said I didn't do anything."
"Mommy was right."
Lily looked at me.
Then back at him.
"Are you my daddy?"
Carter's face collapsed.
Not dramatically.
His eyes filled.
His shoulders dropped.
"Yes."
She waited.
"Really?"
"Really."
I looked away.
Not to protect Carter.
To protect myself.
Because some part of me remembered a different man holding a newborn Lily against his chest and whispering that he would always take care of her.
That man had existed.
And tonight's man had betrayed him too.
Lily didn't reach for Carter.
That was the consequence he wasn't ready for.
She put her face back against my shoulder.
Carter stood slowly.
His voice was different when he spoke to me.
"Hannah."
"No."
"I just want—"
"No."
He stopped.
I met his eyes.
"You don't get to repair this while she's still standing in the room where you broke it."
That silenced him.
Edward nodded toward the sitting room.
"Martin, have Claire take Hannah and Lily somewhere quiet."
I almost agreed.
Then Denise's phone vibrated.
She looked at it.
"Wait."
Edward turned.
"What?"
She read the message twice.
Then she looked directly at Victoria.
"We found the source document."
Victoria's expression emptied.
Carter frowned.
"What source document?"
"The template used to create the fake report."
Denise opened her laptop again.
"It wasn't created by the outside service."
Victoria stared at her.
"It was uploaded to them already completed."
Edward's voice became cold.
"From where?"
Denise hesitated.
Then turned the screen.
An IP log.
One source.
One timestamp.
One device identifier.
Carter leaned closer.
His face changed.
"That's impossible."
I recognized the device name too.
CP-MacBook-Pro.
Carter's personal laptop.
He looked at me.
Then at his mother.
Then toward the hallway leading to his office.
"My laptop was locked."
Victoria said nothing.
Carter's breathing changed.
"Mother."
She still didn't answer.
He took one step toward her.
"How did you get into my computer?"
Victoria finally spoke.
"I didn't."
Denise closed the laptop.
"Then someone else did."
Martin's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then covered the receiver.
"Edward."
"What now?"
"The security team pulled the office camera archive."
Carter looked toward the hall.
Martin's face was grim.
"The person who entered Carter's office wasn't Victoria."
May you like
He lowered the phone.
"And they're still inside the estate.
