Chapter 1 - THE NAME ON THE LINE
My name is Avery Bennett.
And until the morning my daughter was born, I believed the worst thing my husband could ever do was cheat on me.
I was wrong.
Watching Mason Bennett walk out of St. Catherine Medical Center with another woman while I held our newborn daughter was worse than any affair.
It was abandonment.
It was humiliation.
And somehow, it still wasn't the cruelest thing he had done.
The tattooed stranger standing beside me slid the black pen back into his coat.
Luka Moretti.
That was the name he had written on the hospital form beneath the word FATHER.
I stared at the ink.
Then I stared at him.
"You can't just do that."
Luka remained calm.
"I know."
A nurse standing beside us looked almost as stunned as I felt.
"Mr. Moretti, this is only the hospital's preliminary parent information form."
She pulled the clipboard closer.
"Nothing becomes part of the legal birth record without Ms. Bennett's authorization."
Luka nodded.
"Good."
His response confused me.
"Good?"
He looked at me.
"I wanted my name attached to the paperwork before somebody made the paperwork disappear."
My stomach tightened.
"What does that mean?"
The softness vanished from his face.
He reached inside his black jacket.
For one terrifying second, I didn't know what he was reaching for.
Then he removed a folded sheet of paper.
It wasn't a weapon.
It was a laboratory report.
Across the top were the words ST. CATHERINE REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE CENTER.
Several sections had been blacked out.
One hadn't.
CASE IDENTIFICATION: M-17.
I looked from the page to Luka.
"What is that?"
"Something your husband hoped you'd never see."
My newborn stirred against my chest.
I instinctively held her closer.
Luka noticed.
His entire posture changed.
He stepped back slightly.
He wasn't trying to frighten me.
That somehow frightened me more.
"Why do you know my husband?"
"I don't."
"Then why were you here?"
"Because someone accessed a sealed medical file eleven days ago."
My mouth went dry.
"What file?"
"Mine."
I stared at him.
Luka lowered his voice.
"Nine years ago, before surgery, I stored genetic material at a private medical facility."
I felt my pulse beginning to race.
"I never authorized anyone to use it."
The hospital hallway suddenly felt too bright.
Too narrow.
Too quiet.
"What does that have to do with me?"
Luka looked at my daughter.
Then back at me.
"Three weeks ago, an attorney contacted me."
"He said a sealed sample connected to my name had been flagged during a private audit."
I shook my head.
"No."
"The trail led here."
"No."
"And yesterday, somebody deleted the original entry."
I could hear my own breathing.
"Luka."
He didn't blink.
"What are you saying?"
He looked at the sleeping baby in my arms.
"I'm saying there's a possibility your daughter isn't Mason Bennett's biological child."
The hallway seemed to tilt beneath me.
I grabbed the railing.
My daughter made a tiny sound.
I closed my eyes.
"No."
Mason and I had struggled for almost two years to conceive.
There had been appointments.
Tests.
Hormone injections.
Procedures.
Mason had attended some of them.
He had complained through most of them.
But the clinic had eventually told us the treatment had worked.
I had never questioned how.
I had never imagined I needed to.
"Luka."
My voice shook.
"Are you saying you're her father?"
His jaw tightened.
"I'm saying I don't know."
That answer was somehow worse.
He reached for the paper again.
"There are two copies of the M-17 file left."
"One is with my attorney."
"And the other?"
Luka's expression hardened.
"Was supposed to be inside this hospital."
A door slammed somewhere down the corridor.
Luka immediately turned.
At the far end of the hallway stood Mason.
He wasn't with his mistress anymore.
He was with two hospital administrators.
And when his eyes landed on the paper in Luka's hand, all the color drained from his face.
May you like
That was when I understood something.
Mason knew exactly what M-17 was.
