Chapter 10 - The Blood Test
Mark did not want to believe the note.
Vanessa lied instinctively. She twisted facts into weapons and used uncertainty to divide people.
Yet the question followed him into Anna’s recovery room.
Leo sat beside her bed, holding her hand. Anna looked fragile beneath the white sheets, but when she saw her son, something bright returned to her face.
“You’re so big,” she whispered.
Leo smiled through tears.
“I waited for you.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you come home?”
Anna looked toward Mark.
He could see the answer hurting her before she spoke.
“I couldn’t.”
“Vanessa said you didn’t want us.”
“She lied.”
“Did she put you in the cellar?”
“Sometimes.”
Leo lowered his head.
“She put me in a cage.”
Anna’s expression changed.
The weakness vanished.
A fierce anger appeared in its place.
Mark had almost forgotten that side of her. Anna had been gentle, but never weak.
“She will never touch you again,” Anna said.
“She escaped,” Mark told her.
Anna closed her eyes.
“Of course she did.”
“She left a message.”
Mark handed her the note.
Anna read it.
Her face went white.
“What does it mean?” he asked.
“Not here.”
“Anna.”
“Leo should not hear this.”
The boy immediately protested.
“I want to know.”
Anna squeezed his hand.
“You deserve the truth, but some truths need to be given carefully.”
Mark asked a nurse to stay with Leo and followed Anna’s request to speak privately.
Once the door closed, he held up the note.
“Is Leo my son?”
“Yes.”
“Are you certain?”
“Completely.”
“Then why would his blood not match mine?”
Anna looked toward the window.
“Because the medical records you have are false.”
“What records?”
“The blood type recorded after Leo’s birth.”
Mark remembered signing hospital forms but had never studied the details.
“What is his actual blood type?”
“O negative.”
Mark’s was A positive.
“That does not prove anything.”
“No. But Vanessa will use it to create doubt.”
“Why were the records changed?”
“To hide a medical procedure.”
“What procedure?”
Anna’s fingers tightened around the blanket.
“Leo needed a transfusion hours after birth.”
“Why didn’t I know?”
“Your father ordered the doctors not to tell you.”
Mark stared at her.
“What happened to him?”
“He was born healthy, but someone injected him with an anticoagulant.”
The room seemed to become silent.
“Someone tried to kill him?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“We believed it was Gerald.”
“Believed?”
“He had access to the hospital and knew Leo’s birth threatened his claim.”
Mark sat beside the bed.
“How did Leo survive?”
“A donor was available.”
“Who?”
Anna’s eyes filled with tears.
“His sister.”
Mark stopped moving.
“Elise?”
“Yes.”
“You brought her to the hospital?”
“Evelyn did. Elise’s blood was compatible.”
“That is why you began investigating Bellweather.”
Anna nodded.
“I had already discovered pieces of the truth. The transfusion confirmed the connection between the children.”
“Why hide Leo’s blood type?”
“To prevent Gerald from discovering Elise had been there.”
Mark looked at the closed door.
Leo had survived because of a sister he had never met.
“Where is she?”
Anna looked devastated.
“I don’t know anymore.”
“You placed her with a family.”
“I arranged an adoption through people I trusted.”
“Names.”
“Daniel and Rebecca Mercer.”
Moreno searched the name immediately.
Daniel Mercer had worked as an accountant for a shipping company. Rebecca had been a primary school teacher. Both died in a house fire four years earlier.
Their adopted daughter was listed among the dead.
No remains had been conclusively identified.
Anna studied the report from her hospital bed.
“Gerald found them.”
“Maybe,” Moreno said. “Or the family escaped.”
“Where would they go?” Mark asked.
Anna shook her head.
“Rebecca knew one emergency location. A coastal town called Grayhaven.”
Moreno began arranging a search.
Mark returned to Leo.
The boy looked at him carefully.
“Is something wrong with my blood?”
“No.”
“Vanessa said I wasn’t really yours.”
Mark sat beside him.
“She wanted you to doubt me.”
“Do you?”
“Never.”
Leo leaned against him.
Anna watched from the bed.
For the first time since the hospital rescue, Mark allowed himself to believe the worst might be over.
Vanessa was wanted across multiple states.
Gerald’s face had been distributed to every law enforcement agency.
Anna was alive.
Leo was safe.
They had a place to search for Elise.
Then Mark’s phone rang.
The board chairman of Harrison Global spoke without greeting.
“Mark, you need to turn on the news.”
A television in the corner displayed the financial channel.
Vanessa appeared at a press conference.
She wore a black suit, her injuries hidden beneath professional makeup. Gerald stood beside her.
Reporters crowded around them.
Vanessa faced the cameras.
“My husband has suffered a psychological collapse,” she announced. “He kidnapped his own son, assaulted me and fabricated allegations to conceal a family secret.”
Mark increased the volume.
Gerald held up legal documents.
“As the surviving brother of Richard Harrison, I have petitioned the court for emergency control of Harrison Global and guardianship of the Harrison children.”
A reporter shouted, “Which children?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Leo Harrison and his twin sister.”
Mark looked at Anna.
She stared at the screen in horror.
May you like
Leo was not a twin.
Unless one more part of their history had been changed.
