Chapter 2 - Claire’s Dead Husband
Adrian Vale had died in a boating accident off the coast of Maine.
That was the family story.
The boat was recovered damaged.
Adrian’s jacket was found caught beneath the deck railing.
His body was recovered three days later.
Or so Ethan had always believed.
The funeral was closed-casket because of water damage.
Claire had been thirty-six? Wait current 34 impossible eight years earlier age26. Correct. Claire had been twenty-six.
She and Adrian had been married eleven months.
Ethan remembered her collapsing at cemetery.
He remembered Richard Vale—Adrian’s father—handling everything.
Death certificate.
Insurance.
Estate.
There had been no mystery.
Until now.
Police arrived after mansion confrontation.
Emma was examined immediately.
No serious injury.
No evidence the baby had been physically harmed.
Claire was separated and questioned about assault.
Ethan gave investigators DNA report.
Detective Maya Torres asked:
“Did Emma order this test?”
Emma shook her head.
“I didn’t even know it existed.”
“Ethan?”
“No.”
“Claire?”
Claire requested attorney.
The laboratory confirmed report was genuine.
A prenatal blood sample had been submitted under Emma’s name five days earlier.
Paternal comparison specimen had been labeled:
ADRIAN VALE — ARCHIVED REFERENCE.
Who ordered it?
Dr. Marcus Bell.
Emma’s obstetrician.
Except Marcus denied.
His electronic credentials had been used without authorization.
The order originated from a private genetics portal.
Billing account:
Vale Family Medical Trust.
Claire’s family trust.
That pointed toward Claire.
But still did not explain result.
Ethan asked lab director:
“Could a dead man’s old sample still produce paternity match?”
“Yes.”
“So Adrian doesn’t have to be alive.”
“No.”
Claire’s “Because he never died” might have been lie.
Or panic.
Then lab director added:
“But this reference sample was not old.”
Ethan froze.
“What?”
“Collection timestamp is six weeks ago.”
The paternal specimen attributed to Adrian Vale had been collected recently.
From a living person.
Emma whispered:
“So someone alive has Adrian’s DNA.”
Possibilities multiplied.
A close male relative could produce partial match.
But 99.98% paternity with proper markers made father or identical twin overwhelmingly more likely.
Did Adrian have identical twin?
Claire said no.
Family records supported no twin.
Then Ethan asked Emma something painful.
“Did you know Adrian?”
“No.”
“Ever meet him?”
“I met Claire after you and I married. Adrian had been dead for years.”
Emma’s dates aligned.
No affair.
No secret relationship.
More importantly, Emma had conceived through fertility treatment after Ethan’s low sperm count diagnosis.
The embryo had been created at Hawthorne Fertility Center six months earlier.
Ethan’s sperm.
Emma’s egg.
At least that was what they had been told.
Ethan looked at report.
“If Adrian is biological father…”
Emma finished:
“Then someone changed the sample.”
Claire had tried to stop the pregnancy because she knew.
But why wait until Emma was visibly pregnant?
Why not expose fertility error immediately?
Then Maya found a second document inside envelope.
Embryo transfer record.
At bottom, handwritten:
V-17 SUBSTITUTE APPROVED.
Signature:
Claire Vale.
May you like
Emma stared.
“She knew before transfer.”
