Chapter 6 - THE IMPOSSIBLE PATERNITY
Nathan refused to believe the recording.
He demanded blood tests.
He demanded clinic records.
He demanded an explanation that did not make him feel as if the floor had disappeared beneath him.
Elena contacted the fertility clinic and obtained an emergency warrant.
The clinic’s electronic database had been erased.
Paper records remained inside a locked storage room.
Nathan’s name appeared on a donor-consent form dated three years earlier.
The signature looked genuine.
The identification number belonged to Nathan.
The attached copy of his driver’s license was real.
Nathan remembered the date.
He had undergone treatment for a minor urological condition after an operating-room injury.
A tissue sample had been collected.
He had signed forms authorizing medical analysis.
Someone had retained genetic material without his knowledge.
Victor had controlled the clinic through a private investment company.
Sarah’s medical records showed that Marcus had forced her into fertility treatment after learning the trust required direct Pierce descendants.
The clinic had used Nathan’s stolen sample.
Nathan stood inside the records room, unable to speak.
The twins were Sarah’s children.
They were also biologically his.
Not in any natural or ethical sense.
Not through any choice either sibling had made.
But through a deliberate act of medical violation designed to manipulate a trust.
Elena closed the file.
“This was done to both of you.”
Nathan looked at her.
“They used my body.”
“Yes.”
“They used Sarah’s body.”
“Yes.”
Nathan turned away and pressed one hand against a metal cabinet.
For years, he had thought of Victor as family.
Victor had entered his hospital, taken his genetic material, and used it to control Sarah’s inheritance.
“He made children into financial instruments.”
Elena’s voice softened.
“The children are not what he did.”
Nathan looked through the window at the city below.
“They are my niece and nephews.”
“They are.”
“Biology does not change that.”
“No.”
Nathan needed to say the words aloud.
He needed to separate the infants in the hospital from the crime that created them.
“Owen and Ethan are Sarah’s sons.”
Elena waited.
“And they are children who need protection.”
“Yes.”
Nathan closed the file.
“That is all that matters.”
Back at the hospital, Lily was drawing a picture.
It showed a glass house beneath enormous white clouds.
Five figures stood in front.
Nathan recognized Lily, Sarah, and two small circles representing the twins.
The fifth figure was tall.
“Who is that?”
“You.”
Nathan sat beside her.
“I was not at the house.”
“You are now.”
She continued coloring.
Nathan watched her for a moment.
“Lily, did your mother ever talk about how the twins were born?”
“She said bad doctors helped Daddy steal something.”
“Did she say what?”
“No.”
Lily looked up.
“Are they still my brothers?”
The question startled him.
“Of course.”
“Even if Daddy lied?”
“Nothing Marcus said can change who they are to you.”
She appeared satisfied.
“Then they’re your family too.”
Nathan looked at Owen sleeping in the bassinet.
“Yes.”
A nurse entered and whispered to him.
Ethan’s condition had worsened.
Nathan hurried to the intensive-care unit.
The baby’s heart rate was falling.
Nora stood at the bedside issuing instructions.
“His left lung is collapsing.”
Nathan reviewed the scan.
Fluid surrounded the lung and compressed it.
“He needs a chest tube now.”
“I agree.”
Nora prepared the procedure.
Nathan remained outside the sterile field.
Every instinct told him to take control.
Every ethical rule told him not to treat a close family member.
He watched Nora insert the tube.
Dark fluid drained.
Ethan’s oxygen level began to rise.
Nathan released the breath he had been holding.
Then the cardiac monitor changed.
The rhythm became irregular.
Nora called for medication.
Nathan stared at the screen.
He knew that rhythm.
Ethan had a congenital heart defect.
A subtle one.
One that would not necessarily appear during routine prenatal imaging.
Nathan had repaired the same defect in dozens of infants.
He recognized it because it ran in his father’s family.
It also appeared in Nathan’s own medical history.
The paternity record was true.
Nora stabilized Ethan.
“He will need surgery.”
“When?”
“As soon as the infection is under control.”
Nathan looked at the baby.
“I know the procedure.”
“You cannot perform it.”
“I know.”
The words felt like surrender.
“I’ll bring in Dr. Chen from Portland.”
Nora nodded.
“He is the best choice.”
Nathan’s phone rang.
Victor’s number appeared.
Elena motioned for him to answer while officers traced the call.
Nathan stepped into an empty consultation room.
“Where is Sarah?”
“Alive.”
Victor sounded calm.
“You discovered the clinic.”
“You violated both of us.”
“I preserved the Pierce line.”
“You committed crimes against my sister.”
“Your sister was going to sell her shares.”
“They were hers to sell.”
“She would have destroyed the company.”
“No.”
Nathan lowered his voice.
“She would have removed you.”
Victor was silent.
Nathan continued.
“You were stealing from Pierce Medical Holdings.”
“I built that organization with your father.”
“You worked for him.”
“I saved him from his own weaknesses.”
“You mean his love for his children.”
“Love makes men careless.”
Nathan looked through the glass at Lily.
“What do you want?”
“The original bracelet.”
“You know Elena has the patient list.”
“The list is incomplete.”
“What else is inside it?”
Victor laughed softly.
“You still have not understood.”
“Explain it.”
“The film contains seventeen patient records.”
“I know.”
“There were eighteen patients.”
Nathan’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Who was the eighteenth?”
“Your mother.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Nathan’s mother, Margaret Pierce, had died in the same car accident as his father.
Victor continued.
“She discovered what your father and I were doing.”
“What you were doing.”
“She threatened to expose us.”
Nathan could barely hear his own voice.
“Did you commit her?”
“For six weeks.”
“My father would never have allowed that.”
“Your father signed the order.”
Nathan remembered Sarah’s recording.
The first forged order came from inside Pierce Medical Center.
It was signed by Nathan.
And the signature was real.
Victor had learned the method from Nathan’s father.
Or he had manipulated him too.
“What happened after six weeks?”
“Margaret escaped.”
“And the car accident?”
Victor’s silence answered.
Nathan pressed the phone harder against his ear.
“You killed them.”
“I corrected an unstable situation.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“You murdered my parents.”
“I protected the company that made you wealthy.”
“You destroyed my family.”
“No, Nathan.”
Victor’s voice became colder.
“Your father destroyed it first.”
The call ended.
Elena entered.
“The trace failed.”
Nathan lowered the phone.
“He killed my parents.”
“We need proof.”
“My mother was the eighteenth patient.”
Elena looked toward the bracelet.
“If her record was removed, it may be stored elsewhere.”
Nathan remembered Lily’s brass key.
Room 317 had contained Sarah.
But the key had also opened the door to the truth.
“Sarah said the bracelet would tell us where the key goes.”
“It opened the room.”
“Maybe that was not the only lock.”
Nathan examined the bracelet again.
Three letters had been engraved beneath the Cedar Vale symbol.
M.P.C.
Margaret Pierce Carter.
His mother’s full maiden name.
Nathan turned the clasp beneath the light.
A second number appeared inside the hinge.
Elena searched the Cedar Vale property records.
Building 604 had been listed as a chapel.
It had burned down in 2019.
One archived photograph showed the interior before the fire.
Behind the altar was a wall of small memorial boxes.
Each had a brass lock.
Nathan enlarged the photograph.
Box 604 was marked with his mother’s initials.
Elena immediately contacted the team still searching the St. Agnes property.
The chapel had not burned completely.
Its basement remained.
An hour later, officers opened box 604.
Inside was a letter from Margaret Pierce.
There was also a cassette tape, a trust document, and a photograph.
Elena sent the photograph to Nathan’s phone.
It showed Victor standing beside Nathan’s father near a damaged black car.
The date was one day before the fatal accident.
A mechanic knelt beside the brake line.
On the back, Margaret had written seven words.
If we die, Victor Hale killed us.
Before Nathan could respond, alarms sounded inside Ethan’s room.
Nathan ran.
Nurses surrounded the infant.
Nora looked at Nathan through the glass.
May you like
Her face told him the truth before she spoke.
“His heart is failing.”
