Chapter 12 - THE ENGAGEMENT WAS A JOB
Nathan read the email three times.
Grace watched him from across the study.
“I’m sorry.”
Nathan looked up. “Don’t be.”
“You loved her.”
“I loved a performance.”
Claire leaned against the desk. “We need to reopen the archive before they destroy the rest.”
Rebecca arranged an emergency session at First Arizona Trust.
Grace, Nathan, Claire, and an independent trustee entered the secure room together.
This time the system accepted Grace’s fingerprint.
A hidden directory appeared.
Folders filled the screen.
VALE SURVEILLANCE.
BENNETT COERCION.
DANE TRANSFERS.
DNA ORIGINAL.
Nathan clicked the last one.
The test result was simple.
Probability of paternity: 99.9998%.
He stared at the number until Grace touched his hand.
“She never needed a number to know,” Grace said.
“I did.”
“No. You needed the truth.”
Nathan looked at Lily through the glass wall, drawing with Claire in the waiting area.
His daughter.
Then Rebecca opened another file.
“Guys.”
Her voice had changed.
A video loaded.
Charles Cole appeared on screen, thinner than Nathan remembered, oxygen tubing under his nose.
“If you are watching this,” Charles said, “then Victoria Dane has likely attempted to remove the child.”
Nathan’s jaw clenched.
Charles continued.
“I deserve no forgiveness for what I did to Grace Bennett. But understand this: Malcolm Dane’s plan was never merely financial.”
The video cut to scanned medical documents.
Rebecca zoomed in.
They were not Grace’s records.
They were Nathan’s.
A fertility report.
A genetic screening.
And an unauthorized sample collection order.
Grace whispered, “Why would they need your DNA?”
May you like
Charles answered from the screen.
“Because they intended to manufacture an heir.”
