Chapter 12 - TWO DNA TESTS
The second report carried a legitimate laboratory seal.
The signatures were real.
The result was devastating.
Zero percent probability of paternity.
Rosa stared at the document.
“That’s impossible.”
Ethan agreed.
But a courtroom did not care about certainty.
It cared about evidence.
Samuel examined both reports.
“The first sample was collected at the hospital.”
“The second supposedly came from Ethan’s private physician.”
Ethan shook his head.
“I never gave another sample.”
“Then someone used biological material belonging to someone else.”
The judge temporarily froze the trust transfer.
Edward regained proxy control until the conflict could be resolved.
Exactly what the conspiracy needed.
Rosa looked toward Ethan.
“They only needed confusion.”
“Yes.”
“Not proof.”
“Just enough delay.”
The next morning, reporters surrounded the courthouse.
Victoria arrived in a cream coat.
Perfectly composed.
She stopped before the cameras.
“I have never wished harm on Rosa or her daughter.”
Rosa watched from inside the car.
Her jaw tightened.
Victoria continued.
“I hope the truth is established privately for the child’s sake.”
Ethan turned off the screen.
“She knew.”
Rosa looked at him.
“About Lily.”
“Yes.”
“And she still pushed her.”
“Yes.”
For the first time since the hospital, Rosa’s anger surpassed her fear.
Inside the courthouse, the judge ordered an independent DNA test.
Three observers attended.
Samples were sealed immediately.
No private courier.
No Caldwell employee.
No Haynes employee.
Forty-eight hours later, the result arrived.
99.99 percent.
Lily was Ethan’s daughter.
The second test was officially declared fraudulent.
The trust transfer resumed.
But Samuel was more interested in the chain of custody.
“The false sample came from someone genetically related to you.”
Ethan frowned.
“How closely?”
Samuel looked at him.
“Possibly paternal family.”
“Edward?”
“No.”
Samuel handed him the analysis.
“The donor is much younger.”
Ethan stared.
“I don’t have a brother.”
Samuel said nothing.
Rosa slowly looked at him.
“Are you sure?”
Ethan almost laughed.
“My father had one child.”
Samuel placed another file down.
“Officially.”
The word changed the room.
Eleanor’s hidden records contained one unexplained monthly payment lasting nineteen years.
Same recipient.
Same date.
A woman named Catherine Vale.
Marcus Vale’s older sister.
Ethan felt the pieces shifting.
“Marcus wasn’t chosen randomly.”
Samuel nodded.
“No.”
Marcus’s involvement went deeper than consulting.
And somewhere in the past, Ethan’s father had hidden something from his family.
That evening, Ethan returned to the piano compartment.
He unfolded the sheet music again.
This time Rosa noticed handwritten numbers along the bottom.
4.
5.
6.
7.
They were not musical notes.
They were dates.
Rosa checked Eleanor’s letters.
Every date matched a payment to Catherine Vale.
Ethan looked toward the old piano.
His mother had not hidden one secret inside it.
She had hidden a map.
May you like
And the next place on that map was a cemetery.
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