Chapter 1 - The Forgery
Evelyn stared at the laboratory report lying next to her coffee cup.
Probability of biological paternity: less than one percent.
She looked up at Dominic, the man who had promised her forever in a quiet chapel just seven months ago.
“This is fake, Dominic,” Evelyn said, her voice terrifyingly calm.
Dominic leaned against the marble counter, arms crossed, his face a mask of absolute coldness.
“It has the official seal of the Moretti private medical clinic, Evelyn,” he said softly.
“Are you suggesting my own doctors forged a paternity test?”
Evelyn stood up, the chair scraping loudly against the hardwood floor.
“I am suggesting someone paid them to,” she fired back.
“I have not been with another man since the day I met you.”
“You know that.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
He looked away, staring out the massive kitchen window at the pouring rain.
“Do I?” he asked quietly.
The two words hit her harder than a physical blow.
He didn't believe her.
The man who had supposedly loved her unconditionally was ready to discard her over a single piece of paper.
“Dominic, look at me,” Evelyn demanded, stepping closer.
He slowly turned his head.
“Whoever switched Vanessa’s pills also accessed my medical records,” Evelyn explained desperately.
“They knew I was pregnant before I even told you.”
“They manufactured this crisis to destroy our marriage.”
Dominic let out a harsh, bitter laugh.
“So Vanessa poisoned herself to frame you, and then hacked a secure hospital database to fake a DNA test?”
“That sounds insane, Evelyn.”
“It sounds exactly like something she would do to get rid of me!” Evelyn shouted.
Before Dominic could respond, the kitchen doors swung open.
Vanessa walked in, leaning heavily on a cane, looking frail and deeply traumatized.
Margaret Hart walked beside her, glaring at Evelyn with pure, unadulterated hatred.
“How dare you raise your voice in this house,” Margaret sneered.
“After what you did to my daughter last night, you are lucky we haven't called the police.”
Evelyn looked at her mother.
The woman who had wept uncontrollably when Evelyn was found alive ten years ago.
Now, she looked at Evelyn as if she were a rabid animal that needed to be put down.
“I didn't do anything,” Evelyn whispered, the heartbreak evident in her voice.
Vanessa sniffled, wiping away a perfectly timed tear.
“Dominic,” Vanessa said, her voice shaking.
“The doctors said if the dosage had been any higher, my heart would have stopped.”
Dominic immediately walked over and placed a comforting hand on Vanessa’s shoulder.
He didn't touch Evelyn.
He touched Vanessa.
Evelyn felt the last shred of her marriage shatter into a million irreparable pieces.
She realized then that this was not just about jealousy or a fake paternity test.
This was a calculated, synchronized execution of her place in the family.
“I am leaving,” Evelyn said coldly, turning toward the door.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Richard Hart’s voice boomed as he entered the kitchen.
He was flanked by three massive security guards.
“Until we figure out exactly what kind of liability you have become to our companies, you are confined to your wing of the estate.”
Evelyn stared at her father in disbelief.
“You’re holding me prisoner in my own home?”
Richard adjusted his expensive suit jacket.
“I am protecting the family assets.”
Evelyn looked at Dominic one last time, praying he would intervene.
He simply looked away.
The guards stepped forward, grabbing Evelyn aggressively by the arms.
She didn't fight them.
She let them drag her upstairs, her mind racing with a terrifying realization.
They weren't locking her up to investigate.
They were locking her up to silence her before she could prove her innocence.
As the heavy bedroom door slammed shut, her burner phone vibrated in her pocket.
It was Caleb.
“Evelyn,” Caleb said urgently.
“I dug deeper into the medical foundation’s server.”
“The person who ordered the sedative wasn't Vanessa.”
“It was your father’s private assistant, Owen Price.”
Evelyn’s breath caught in her throat.
“And there’s something else,” Caleb continued, his voice dropping to a whisper.
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“I found a massive offshore transfer authorized by Dominic’s father, Victor Moretti.”
“Five million dollars was wired to the exact clinic that printed your fake paternity test.”
