Chapter 3 - What Lucas Actually Tested
Lucas came to the medical center the next morning.
I did not allow him into my room.
We met in a conference suite with Gideon and two attorneys present.
He looked awful.
Good.
He began:
“Evelyn—”
“No.”
He stopped.
“Answer questions.”
He nodded.
“Did you take DNA from the boys?”
“Mom did.”
“Did you know beforehand?”
“No.”
“Did you stop her?”
“I tried.”
“You carried the samples away.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A private lab.”
I stared.
“So you did test them.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Lucas looked confused.
“They’re mine.”
Silence.
I leaned back.
“What?”
“The test I ordered showed I’m their father.”
“Then why did you throw us out?”
His face twisted.
“Because I got a second report.”
Margot.
Two reports.
One real.
One fake.
Lucas explained.
After catching Margot taking samples, he was furious.
She claimed she had reason to doubt the fertility clinic.
Lucas secretly sent the samples to an independent lab under coded names.
Result:
99.99% probability Lucas Sterling was biological father of both boys.
He confronted Margot.
She did not apologize.
She told him the lab had been compromised.
Then Marian Cross sent the Northbridge report claiming the opposite.
“Why believe the second one?”
Lucas looked down.
“Because it included details only the fertility clinic should have had.”
Embryo batch numbers.
Dates.
Cycle identifiers.
Medical notes.
The fake report was built from real confidential records.
Someone had access.
Lucas believed the first lab might have accidentally compared his sample against the wrong children.
Ridiculous?
Maybe.
But enough to destabilize a frightened, arrogant man already being manipulated by his mother.
I asked:
“Did you call our doctor?”
“No.”
“Did you ask me?”
“No.”
“Did you retest?”
“No.”
His face reddened.
“I was angry.”
“You put newborns into a snowstorm because you were angry.”
“I know.”
“No, Lucas. You don’t get to say that like it closes the distance.”
He went silent.
Then Gideon asked:
“Why submit a proposal to transfer Sterling & Co. shares?”
Lucas stared.
“I didn’t.”
“We have your credentials.”
“I didn’t.”
He requested the login logs.
Gideon showed him.
Access occurred at 3:41 a.m.
Two nights earlier.
Location:
Sterling mansion.
Lucas frowned.
“I was at the hospital with Evelyn.”
Correct.
I remembered.
He slept in the chair beside me that night.
Who was at the house?
Margot.
House staff.
And Marian Cross.
Then Lucas suddenly said:
“Mom asked for my phone.”
“When?”
“That afternoon. She said hers died.”
His executive authentication app was installed on it.
Had she used it?
Maybe.
Then I asked:
“Who is Marian?”
Lucas looked confused.
“Mom’s attorney.”
“Beyond that.”
“What do you mean?”
Gideon had already run background checks.
Marian Cross was not merely Margot’s lawyer.
Twenty-nine years earlier, she had been Marian Sterling.
Lucas’s father, Edwin Sterling, had a younger sister.
Marian.
Lucas’s aunt.
Margot had never called her family in front of me.
Why?
Because Marian’s legal name changed after marriage and the women intentionally kept their family connection quiet.
That alone was strange.
Then Gideon found something worse.
Marian sat on the board of a private fertility-data company.
Company:
Helix Provenance.
The platform managed genetic chain-of-custody systems for several clinics.
Including mine.
That explained the stolen medical information.
But why use it against me?
Lucas looked at Gideon.
“What does Aunt Marian get if Evelyn leaves?”
Gideon turned the screen.
Helix Provenance owed Sterling & Co. $74 million.
Debt coming due in fourteen days.
Sterling & Co. was about to acquire the company in default.
Unless control of Sterling & Co. changed.
Margot wasn’t merely trying to get rid of a daughter-in-law.
May you like
She was trying to save Marian’s company.
And my sons’ paternity had been turned into the weapon.
