CHAPTER 13 — THE PATERNITY REPORT
Marcus told Khloe immediately.
She did not react with anger.
She reacted with disbelief.
“I never agreed to a prenatal paternity test.”
“Neither did I.”
Adrian investigated Khloe’s medical records.
During a routine prenatal procedure four months earlier, an additional sample had been collected without her informed consent.
The order carried Marcus’s digital signature.
Marcus proved he had been out of the country when the authorization was created.
Richard had ordered the test to manufacture doubt between them.
Federal agents opened Richard’s safe.
Inside was a sealed laboratory envelope.
The report stated that Marcus was not Ava’s biological father.
Marcus stared at the result.
Khloe looked as if the floor had disappeared beneath her.
“That is impossible.”
“I believe you,” Marcus said.
“You hesitated.”
“For half a second.”
“That was enough.”
“I was shocked by the paper, not by you.”
An independent DNA test was ordered using samples taken directly under federal supervision.
While they waited, the media obtained the first report.
Headlines accused Khloe of trapping a billionaire with another man’s child.
Protesters gathered outside Thorne headquarters.
Board members demanded she step aside.
Khloe refused.
“A fraudulent document will not decide who I am.”
Marcus publicly stood beside her.
“Ava is my daughter, legally, emotionally, and in every way that matters. Anyone attacking my wife or child answers to me.”
It was the first time he had called Khloe his wife since the separation.
She heard it.
But she did not respond.
The independent results arrived forty-eight hours later.
Marcus was Ava’s biological father.
The first report had been falsified.
Richard had bribed the same laboratory director who created Isabella’s fake pregnancy report.
Isabella had believed the false paternity test.
She thought that if Khloe were removed, Marcus would reject Ava and turn to her.
It did not excuse the attack.
It proved how effectively Richard had weaponized everyone’s weaknesses.
The prosecutors prepared their final case.
Richard faced decades in prison.
Vivian accepted a plea agreement.
Samuel agreed to testify.
Isabella agreed to testify, too.
But on the morning of the trial, Isabella’s transport vehicle arrived at the courthouse empty.
The officers assigned to escort her had been found unconscious.
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Isabella had disappeared.
And the last signal from her phone came from inside Khloe’s home.
