Chapter 17 - The Lie Inside the Truth
The claim was devastating because it sounded possible.
Victor’s attorney produced an email supposedly sent to Luca four years earlier.
SUBJECT: CARTER PATERNITY CONFIRMED.
The attached report matched the secret DNA test.
Luca’s corporate account showed the message as opened.
I stared at him across Lena’s conference table.
“Tell me the truth.”
“I never saw it.”
“Luca.”
“I swear to you.”
Every old wound inside me woke up.
This was the problem with broken trust. Even truth arrived looking guilty.
Evelyn examined the metadata. “The message was opened from Luca’s office computer at 2:14 a.m.”
“Were you there?” Lena asked.
“No. I was in Tokyo.”
We checked travel records.
He had been on a plane over the Pacific when the email was opened.
Victor’s defense collapsed in under an hour.
But the damage inside me didn’t vanish as quickly.
Luca found me alone afterward.
“You thought I knew.”
“I had to consider it.”
He nodded slowly. “I earned that.”
That answer made me angrier than denial would have.
“Stop agreeing with everything I say.”
A faint smile touched his mouth. “You used to complain I never did.”
“Don’t get charming.”
“I’m terrified. Charm is muscle memory.”
I laughed before I could stop myself.
For one second, we were twenty-eight again, eating takeout on the floor of a tiny apartment while Luca dreamed about a company no one had heard of.
Then the moment passed.
“We can’t go backward,” I said.
“I know.”
“Whatever happens, the kids come first.”
“Always.”
Lena entered with a folder.
“Victor’s plea offer was rejected.”
“Why?”
“Because prosecutors found proof tying him to attempted kidnapping and the planned murder.”
She hesitated.
“And because Dr. Hargrove agreed to testify.”
I felt no relief.
Lena’s expression warned me there was more.
“Hargrove says Victor wasn’t the first person to suggest that your fertility results should be manipulated.”
Luca went still.
“Who was?”
May you like
Lena looked directly at him.
“Your mother.”
