Chapter 3 - The Test Grant Never Took
Grant spent the next hour angry at a dead woman.
Question yourself?
What did that mean?
Then Tessa asked a simple question.
“Did you personally provide the sample used to create Noah?”
“Of course.”
“Did you watch it enter the clinic's custody?”
Grant stopped.
No.
A courier collected material from a specialist's office because Grant was flying to Chicago that afternoon.
Routine.
Or so he thought.
Tessa showed him Caroline's notes.
Grant's sample identification number had changed twice between collection and fertilization.
Could be clerical.
Could be serious.
DNA testing would answer the biological question.
Grant authorized it.
The result arrived two days later.
Probability of paternity:
Greater than 99.99%.
Grant sat down.
Noah was biologically his.
Relief hit him.
Then fear.
Because Caroline had still written:
Question yourself.
A maternity comparison was more difficult because Caroline was dead.
Stored medical specimens were available under legal authorization.
Testing followed.
Caroline was also Noah's biological mother.
So there had been no embryo substitution.
Why had she been investigating?
The answer was in the third recovered file.
A spreadsheet.
Not embryo records.
Payments.
Haven Bridge had paid $340,000 to a company called Cross Patient Advocacy.
Cross.
Vivienne Cross.
Grant felt sick.
The payments began before Caroline's pregnancy.
Continued throughout it.
Ended two weeks after Caroline died.
What was Vivienne being paid for?
Vivienne finally requested to speak.
Her attorney present.
She admitted knowing Caroline.
Admitted knowing Tessa.
Admitted lying to Grant.
But denied manipulating Noah's conception.
“What did Caroline hire you to do?” Detective Brooks asked.
“She didn't.”
“Then why were you meeting her?”
Vivienne looked down.
“Because she found me.”
Caroline had discovered Vivienne was receiving Haven Bridge money.
She assumed corruption.
The truth was different.
Vivienne was a whistleblower.
At least initially.
She had discovered Haven Bridge was diverting charitable funds to cover confidential settlements for fertility clinics.
Families with record problems were being quietly compensated through “grants.”
No admission.
No public disclosure.
Vivienne began copying evidence.
Caroline found her.
They worked together.
Then why did Vivienne later hide everything from Grant?
“Because I got scared.”
Of whom?
Vivienne refused to answer.
Then Grant asked:
“Why attack Noah?”
Vivienne's face collapsed.
There was no conspiracy behind that moment.
No secret mission.
No hidden justification.
She had been angry.
Noah took her lipstick.
She lost control.
Then Tessa intervened and humiliated her.
Vivienne escalated.
She admitted it.
“I did something unforgivable.”
Grant stared at her.
“You picked up a shard and went toward my son.”
Vivienne began crying.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“That isn't good enough.”
“No.”
It wasn't.
Then Detective Brooks placed the recovered photograph on the table.
Vivienne looked at Caroline.
Her expression changed.
“Where did you find this?”
“Inside Caroline's vase.”
Vivienne whispered:
“Then Grant needs to know what happened the night that picture was taken.”
Grant leaned forward.
Vivienne looked at him.
“Caroline wasn't investigating Noah.”
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“Then who?”
“You.”
