Chapter 7 — The Four Words
Chapter 7 — The Four Words
THE TEST WASN'T THE LIE.
Nathan read the words again.
Then again.
Four ordinary words.
Four words that somehow made the entire room feel smaller.
The man outside the nursery was gone.
The black car had disappeared from the driveway.
Only the envelope remained in Nathan's mind.
DNA — ORIGINAL.
He looked at Grace.
"What did my mother mean?"
Grace shook her head.
"I don't know."
"You've known about Elena. You've known about my father. You've known about my mother."
"I didn't know this."
"You knew enough to be afraid."
Grace flinched.
Nathan immediately regretted his tone.
But fear was turning into anger.
Not at Grace.
At five years of missing memories.
At his father's lies.
At Victoria's perfect evidence.
At a dead man who might still be alive.
At a mother who had apparently watched from the shadows while her son lost his daughter.
Most of all, at the possibility that Lily's entire existence had been manipulated by people who considered children pieces on a chessboard.
Lily tugged his sleeve.
"Daddy?"
Nathan looked down.
She held the stuffed rabbit.
"What's wrong?"
Nathan crouched.
"Nothing, sweetheart."
"You're sad."
He smiled.
"Sometimes grown-ups get confused."
Lily thought about that.
"Mommy says confused people need hugs."
Nathan's eyes burned.
"Your mommy is right."
Lily wrapped her arms around his neck.
Nathan held her.
For a moment, everything else disappeared.
Then someone knocked downstairs.
Three slow knocks.
Grace went rigid.
Nathan stood.
Daniel reached inside his jacket.
"Stay here."
"No."
Nathan looked at him.
"Nobody comes near my daughter without me."
They descended the stairs.
The house was silent.
Another knock.
Nathan opened the front door.
Nobody stood there.
Only an envelope rested on the porch.
He picked it up.
The handwriting matched the message.
DNA — ORIGINAL.
Grace stood behind him.
"Open it."
Nathan tore the envelope.
Inside was a laboratory report.
Not a copy.
An original.
Stamped.
Signed.
Verified.
The date was five years old.
Nathan scanned the first page.
His name.
Grace's name.
Lily's name.
Everything matched.
Father.
Mother.
Child.
He looked at Grace.
"What's wrong?"
Nathan turned the page.
At the bottom was a handwritten note.
Paternity confirmed.
Then another line.
Secondary genetic profile detected.
Nathan's heart stopped.
"Secondary profile?"
Grace stepped closer.
"What does that mean?"
Daniel took the paper.
He read it.
Then his face changed.
"It's impossible."
"What?"
Daniel looked at Nathan.
"This sample contains genetic material from four individuals."
Grace stared.
"Four?"
Nathan nodded slowly.
"Me. Grace. Lily."
Daniel pointed to the fourth profile.
"And someone else."
They called Dr. Pierce.
He answered after the third ring.
"Nathan?"
"You sent the report?"
"No."
"Someone did."
Silence.
"What report?"
Nathan read the laboratory number.
Pierce went quiet.
"Where did you get that?"
"It was left at my house."
"Do not show it to anyone."
"We already know."
"What?"
"There's a fourth genetic profile."
Pierce exhaled.
"I was afraid you'd find that."
Nathan's stomach tightened.
"You knew?"
"I suspected."
"Tell me."
"Not over the phone."
"Samuel."
"I need you to come here."
"We're coming."
"No."
Pierce's voice became urgent.
"Don't come to the laboratory."
Nathan frowned.
"Why?"
"Because someone is watching it."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
A pause.
Then:
"Someone came looking for Lily's sample last night."
Nathan's expression hardened.
"Who?"
"They said they were from your legal department."
"My legal department?"
"Yes."
"I didn't send them."
"I know."
Nathan closed his eyes.
"Who was it?"
Pierce hesitated.
"A woman."
"Victoria?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Pierce whispered:
"Elena Vale."
The line went dead.
Grace covered her mouth.
"She's alive."
Nathan stared at the phone.
"And she was at the lab."
Daniel immediately began typing.
"Can you track the call?"
"No."
"Then find the cameras."
"I already am."
Nathan looked toward Lily.
She was asleep on the couch.
He lowered his voice.
"Why would Elena steal the sample?"
Grace answered:
"Because she knows what the fourth profile means."
Three hours later, they met an old geneticist in a private office.
His name was Dr. Malcolm Reyes.
He had worked with Pierce twenty years earlier.
He studied the report.
Then the original sample identification.
His face became increasingly serious.
"This is not contamination."
Nathan leaned forward.
"How do you know?"
"Because the fourth profile appears repeatedly."
"Meaning?"
"The child's cells contain a mitochondrial anomaly."
Grace frowned.
"Explain that."
Dr. Reyes looked at Nathan.
"Lily inherited something from her maternal line that shouldn't be there."
Nathan stared.
"What?"
"A genetic modification."
Silence.
Grace whispered:
"Someone changed her?"
"Not exactly."
Dr. Reyes pointed to the report.
"This isn't an engineered gene."
"Then what?"
"A marker."
"What kind?"
He hesitated.
"One associated with an experimental treatment."
Nathan's expression hardened.
"What treatment?"
Dr. Reyes looked at him.
"Regenerative medicine."
Nathan knew the term.
His company had invested heavily in regenerative medicine.
But that research had begun years after Lily's birth.
At least publicly.
"What does that have to do with my father?"
Dr. Reyes sighed.
"Everything."
He opened an old file.
A photograph showed Charles Cole standing beside several researchers.
One was Elena.
Another was Nathan's grandfather.
Nathan stared.
"This project was classified."
"Why?"
"Because it involved human subjects."
Grace's face went pale.
"Lily?"
"No."
Dr. Reyes shook his head.
"Adults."
"Then why is she involved?"
"Because the research required a specific genetic marker."
Nathan's stomach dropped.
"My daughter has it."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Dr. Reyes looked at Grace.
"Because her mother carries it."
Grace shook her head.
"No."
"Yes."
"I was never part of a clinical trial."
Dr. Reyes looked at her.
"Not knowingly."
Grace stared.
Nathan felt the pieces moving.
"Someone tested Grace."
"Before Lily was born."
"Why?"
Dr. Reyes answered:
"Because your father believed the marker could be inherited."
Nathan's blood went cold.
"And if it was?"
"Then Lily would become extremely valuable."
Grace's voice trembled.
"Valuable to whom?"
Dr. Reyes didn't answer.
Nathan did.
"To whoever wanted the research."
Victoria had been waiting.
She sat in a dark room with Martin Shaw.
A monitor showed Nathan's movements.
The camera feed from the lake house had gone blank.
"Where is he?" she asked.
"We lost the signal."
Victoria frowned.
"How?"
"Someone disabled the tracker."
"Who?"
"We don't know."
Victoria stood.
"Find him."
Martin hesitated.
"There's another problem."
"What?"
"Elena."
Victoria turned.
"What about her?"
"She's been seen."
Victoria's face hardened.
"Where?"
"At the laboratory."
For the first time, fear appeared in her eyes.
"Then Charles failed."
Martin stared.
"What?"
Victoria whispered:
"He said Elena would never come back."
"Who?"
Victoria didn't answer.
She walked toward the window.
Her reflection stared back.
Five years ago, she had believed the plan was simple.
Nathan would marry her.
Lily would disappear.
Grace would be discredited.
The trust would eventually transfer.
And Victoria would control everything.
But now Elena was alive.
Nathan knew about the DNA.
And someone was moving pieces Victoria couldn't see.
She picked up her phone.
"Call him."
Martin frowned.
"Who?"
"Charles."
"You said he was dead."
Victoria smiled bitterly.
"He never was."
Nathan returned to the hotel that night.
Lily was asleep.
Grace sat beside the window.
"Are you angry with me?"
Nathan stopped.
"What?"
Grace looked down.
"About the genetic marker."
"No."
"You should be."
"Why?"
"Because I knew something was wrong."
Nathan sat beside her.
"What did you know?"
"That your father had doctors monitoring me."
"During pregnancy?"
"Before."
"How long?"
Grace closed her eyes.
"Months."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because every time I tried, something happened."
"What?"
"My apartment was searched."
"My phone stopped working."
"My father's business was audited."
"My bank account was frozen."
Nathan's jaw tightened.
"And you still stayed?"
"I had nowhere to go."
He looked at her.
"You had me."
Grace laughed sadly.
"Your father made sure I couldn't reach you."
Nathan took her hand.
"I'm sorry."
Grace squeezed his fingers.
"Don't apologize for what he did."
"I should have protected you."
"You were his son."
Nathan looked at her.
"That doesn't excuse it."
"No."
She smiled faintly.
"But it explains it."
At midnight, the phone rang again.
This time, Nathan answered.
"Hello?"
A woman's voice.
Elena.
"You have the report."
Nathan stood.
"Yes."
"Then you know."
"I know there's another genetic profile."
"Not another father."
Nathan froze.
"Then what?"
"The four words."
"What four words?"
Her voice became quieter.
"Your daughter was never supposed to survive."
Nathan felt the blood drain from his face.
Grace stood.
"What?"
Nathan put the phone on speaker.
Elena continued.
"Charles didn't want Lily."
"Then what did he want?"
"Her blood."
Grace covered her mouth.
Nathan's voice shook.
"Why?"
"Because Lily carries the marker."
"What marker?"
"A marker connected to the treatment."
"What treatment?"
Elena hesitated.
"The treatment your grandfather developed."
Nathan stared.
"My grandfather?"
"Yes."
"Then why did my father take it?"
"Because he wanted immortality."
Silence.
Nathan felt something cold move through him.
"That's impossible."
"No."
Elena's voice was calm.
"Not immortality as you imagine it."
"Then what?"
"Regeneration."
Nathan thought of the company.
The medical division.
The missing research.
The patents.
The sudden fortune.
His father's obsession with health.
The supposedly experimental treatments.
Elena continued.
"Your grandfather discovered a way to regenerate damaged tissue."
"Your father discovered that the treatment worked better with Lily's genetic marker."
Nathan's hands trembled.
"He experimented on her?"
"Before she was born."
Grace began crying.
"No."
"Grace..."
Elena's voice softened.
"I'm sorry."
Nathan's anger exploded.
"Where is my father?"
Silence.
"Elena!"
"He knows you're looking."
"Where is he?"
"I can't tell you."
"Why?"
"Because he's coming for Lily."
Nathan looked at his daughter.
She slept peacefully.
"How soon?"
Elena's answer came quietly.
"Tonight."
The call ended.
A crash sounded downstairs.
Nathan turned.
Daniel reached for his weapon.
Grace grabbed Lily.
The lights went out.
Someone screamed outside.
Glass shattered.
Nathan ran toward the stairs.
A shadow moved across the hallway.
"Who's there?"
No answer.
Then a man's voice.
Deep.
Familiar.
A voice Nathan had not heard in five years.
"Hello, son."
Nathan stopped breathing.
The lights flickered back on.
At the bottom of the staircase stood an older man in a dark coat.
Gray hair.
Silver cane.
Cold blue eyes.
Nathan stared at him.
His father smiled.
"Did you miss me?"
Grace pulled Lily behind her.
Nathan stepped forward.
"You died."
Charles laughed.
"No."
He looked toward Lily.
"I simply became inconvenient."
Nathan's fists tightened.
"Stay away from my daughter."
Charles's smile disappeared.
"Your daughter?"
He looked at the child.
Then at Nathan.
"You still don't understand."
Nathan stepped closer.
"What don't I understand?"
Charles lifted his cane.
The silver handle concealed a small blade.
"I didn't come back for Lily."
He smiled.
"I came back for you."
Nathan froze.
Charles continued:
"Because your grandfather's trust has activated."
Nathan's heart dropped.
"And now," Charles said, "the entire Cole empire belongs to the man who can prove you are unfit to inherit it."
His eyes moved toward Grace.
Then Lily.
"And I brought the evidence."
Nathan looked at the folder in his father's hand.
It was the same folder Victoria had used.
The forged confession.
But Charles opened it.
Inside was something Nathan had never seen.
A birth certificate.
Not Lily's.
Grace's.
Nathan stared.
Then his father's final words made the world stop.
"Before you decide whether Grace is innocent, you should ask her who Lily's biological mother really is."
Grace went white.
Nathan turned toward her.
"Grace?"
She couldn't speak.
Charles smiled.
And for the first time, Nathan realized the four words had never been about the DNA test.
May you like
They were about a secret even Grace had been terrified to tell him.
THE TEST WASN'T THE LIE.
