Chapter 5 - What Victoria Gave Claire
DNA answered quickly.
Victoria was genetically related to Lily.
But not as her mother.
The relationship was closer to aunt.
Ethan stared at the report.
Victoria looked equally confused.
“I donated eggs.”
The clinic records showed otherwise.
Victoria had begun the donor process.
Then withdrew before retrieval.
Claire later used another donor.
Anonymous.
So why did Lily share DNA with Victoria?
The answer emerged from Victoria’s family.
Her younger sister:
Isabella Laurent.
Dead eight years.
Isabella had donated eggs anonymously while in college.
The clinic confirmed one stored embryo created from Isabella’s egg had later been transferred to Claire.
Ethan was the biological father.
Isabella was the genetic mother.
Victoria was Lily’s biological aunt.
Claire was Lily’s mother in every lived, legal and emotional sense.
But genetically, Victoria and Lily shared blood.
Claire knew.
Victoria did not.
At least she claimed not to.
Why had Claire asked Victoria to donate if she already had Isabella’s embryo available?
Timeline corrected the assumption.
Claire did not know the anonymous donor was Isabella until years later.
She first asked Victoria because fertility treatment was failing.
Victoria agreed.
Then backed out.
Months later Claire and Ethan used an anonymous donor embryo arrangement involving Ethan’s sperm.
Lily was born.
Years afterward, Claire discovered the donor identity through a clinic data breach.
Isabella.
Victoria’s dead sister.
Claire began investigating.
Why had Isabella’s supposedly anonymous donation ended up with Claire specifically?
Random chance?
Maybe.
But the clinic’s allocation records were irregular.
The embryo had originally been assigned to another recipient.
Someone manually reassigned it to Claire.
Who?
The employee ID belonged to a woman named Miriam Shaw.
Miriam disappeared from clinic employment immediately afterward.
Ethan felt the mystery shift.
The will might not be the beginning.
Lily’s conception might be.
Victoria read Isabella’s old diary.
One passage changed everything.
I did something today for V. She can never know.
V.
Victoria assumed it meant her.
But what?
Another entry:
If the Whitmores keep their promise, one little girl will never have to grow up the way we did.
The Whitmores.
Before Lily was conceived.
Isabella had dealings with Ethan’s family.
Ethan knew nothing.
His father was alive then.
His mother too.
His brother Alexander worked for the family.
Any of them could be involved.
The inheritance theory expanded.
Perhaps Lily was not merely inheriting Claire’s money.
Perhaps she had been deliberately brought into the Whitmore bloodline.
Why?
Alexander found an old corporate agreement.
Isabella Laurent had once owned 4.8 percent of Whitmore Heritage Holdings through an inheritance from her grandfather.
When Isabella died, those shares were supposedly repurchased.
Except one clause stated that if Isabella had biological descendants, ownership rights could revive.
Lily was her biological descendant.
Value today:
approximately $240 million.
Victoria stared.
She had never known.
Now her treatment of Lily looked even worse.
Ethan turned toward her.
“You called her an orphan while knowing she might be your sister’s child?”
“I didn't know until today.”
“But you knew Claire had investigated Isabella.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew the will mattered.”
“Yes.”
“You knew enough to terrorize a six-year-old.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Again, no larger conspiracy erased that.
But money finally entered the story in a concrete way.
If Lily’s genetic parentage became legally documented, a massive ownership claim could activate.
Someone had reason to manipulate Claire’s will.
Someone had reason to classify Lily as having no surviving parent.
Someone had reason to control her guardianship.
And someone had reason to make Victoria look like the greedy woman trying to inherit through a child.
The obvious motive fit her perfectly.
Perhaps too perfectly.
Then Julian produced the packet Claire had left for Lily.
He did not open it.
But an X-ray revealed its contents.
A key card.
A photograph.
And an old cassette tape.
On the photograph, Isabella stood beside a man.
Ethan’s father.
Richard Whitmore.
They were holding a newborn baby.
Date stamped on the back:
twenty-eight years ago.
Long before Lily.
Ethan looked at Julian.
“Who is the baby?”
Julian shook his head.
Then Victoria whispered:
“I know.”
Everyone turned.
May you like
Her face had gone white.
“That baby was me.”
