Chapter 9 - Cousin EricEric denied everything for twenty minutes.
Then Harris showed him the lab footage.
He folded.
Margaret had told him Nathan needed help with a private family matter.
Grant gave him a sealed sample.
Eric submitted it under Nathan’s name.
“What was in the sample?” Nathan asked.
Eric stared at the floor.
“My DNA.”
Claire looked at Nathan.
That explained the zero percent result.
Eric was related to Nathan, but not Sophie’s father.
The test was designed to fail.
“Did you know why?” Harris asked.
Eric shook his head.
“Not at first.”
“At first?”
Eric swallowed.
“Grant promised me something.”
“What?”
“If the baby’s trust interest reverted, I’d be named successor beneficiary.”
Nathan felt disgust rise.
“So you knew later.”
Eric began crying.
“I didn’t know about Claire.”
“You knew you were helping remove a newborn from a trust.”
“I thought it was business.”
Nathan stood.
“That sentence is exactly the problem.”
Eric agreed to cooperate.
He turned over messages from Margaret.
One said:
Once the test is done, Nathan will do the rest himself.
Another:
He will never stay with a woman he thinks betrayed him.
Claire read it slowly.
Margaret had counted on Nathan’s pride.
Not the court.
Not the lab.
Him.
That hurt.
Because a year earlier, it might have worked.
Then Eric revealed one more thing.
Margaret had been pushing Nathan to sign a revised estate plan after Sophie’s birth.
Nathan remembered.
She said it was standard.
He never signed.
Eric said:
“Grant already had a draft with your signature.”
Rachel froze.
“What draft?”
Eric looked at Nathan.
“A will.”
The forged will left Nathan’s Brooks Holdings shares to a family management trust if he died before Sophie turned eighteen.
Trustees:
Margaret Brooks.
Grant Hale.
Nathan looked at Claire.
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Now the stakes were bigger than Sophie’s twenty-five percent.
Someone had prepared for his absence too.
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