Chapter 12 - The Bloodline Thomas Wanted
Arthur and Thomas shared a mother.
Not a father.
Arthur learned the truth at age seventeen.
Thomas never knew.
Jonathan Vance raised both boys as his own.
Arthur’s biological father was a young naval engineer named Daniel Hale.
Katherine’s distant cousin.
Elena stared at her father through the secure video call.
“So Mom and you were related?”
“Fourth cousins by marriage lines, not closely by blood.”
“That’s not the point.”
“No.”
“Why does this matter?”
Arthur looked at William.
William took over.
“Because Jonathan Vance’s bloodline did not continue through Arthur.”
Elena felt cold.
“Thomas.”
“Yes.”
“And Marrow cares about bloodline.”
“Apparently.”
Elena remembered Katherine’s note.
Thomas wants the line, not the girl.
She had assumed the line meant Elena’s descendants.
Maybe not.
“What does Thomas want from me if I’m not Jonathan’s biological granddaughter?”
William looked troubled.
“That is what we misunderstood.”
Margaret spread old family records across the table.
Jonathan Vance had one confirmed biological son.
Thomas.
Thomas never married.
No known children.
If Marrow had been built around Jonathan’s network and Thomas later inherited or controlled parts of it, perhaps succession required his biological descendant.
But that was not Elena.
Unless…
She thought of Julian’s DNA test.
No Vance match.
Serena.
No.
Maya.
Elena’s stomach tightened.
“Test Maya.”
Arthur stared.
“What?”
“DNA.”
“No.”
“Dad.”
“She is your daughter.”
“I know.”
“And Julian’s.”
Elena looked directly at him.
“Do we?”
Arthur understood.
Julian and Elena had conceived Maya naturally.
At least Elena believed they had.
But during the pregnancy there had been tests.
Blood draws.
Genetic screening.
A procedure at twelve weeks after an abnormal result.
Julian arranged the specialist.
Marrow connected doctors.
Elena suddenly felt nauseated.
“No.”
Margaret said quietly, “Elena.”
“No.”
Maya had Julian’s nose.
Her dark hair.
At least everyone said so.
But newborns changed.
And parents saw what they expected to see.
They ran the test through an independent forensic laboratory under federal observation.
Elena waited seven hours.
The result arrived at 9:22 p.m.
Maya was Elena’s biological daughter.
Probability greater than 99.99 percent.
Paternal relationship to Julian Vance:
Excluded.
Elena read the sentence once.
Twice.
Three times.
Arthur stood behind her.
No one spoke.
Elena’s first feeling was not horror.
It was rage.
Not because Julian was not Maya’s father.
Because someone had altered Elena’s reproductive life without consent.
“How?”
Margaret’s voice was careful.
“Did you undergo fertility treatment?”
“No.”
“Any procedure involving embryo transfer?”
“No.”
Elena stopped.
The miscarriage.
Three years earlier.
Afterward doctors told her she had complications.
She and Julian tried unsuccessfully for two years.
Then a specialist recommended a minor procedure.
Elena remembered sedation.
Julian holding her hand.
The physician saying everything looked normal.
Six months later, she became pregnant.
Margaret asked, “Name of the specialist?”
Elena already knew before searching.
Dr. Aaron Bell.
Former consultant.
Marrow Center.
Arthur looked ready to break something.
Elena did not.
Her anger had passed beyond physical reaction.
“Find Maya’s biological father.”
The laboratory cross-referenced available samples.
No immediate match.
William suggested federal databases.
That required warrants.
They waited.
At dawn, a partial familial hit appeared against an archived government employee profile.
Not father.
Close paternal relation.
Arthur read the name.
His face changed.
“Impossible.”
Elena took the page.
THOMAS VANCE.
Estimated relationship to Maya:
PATERNAL GRANDFATHER OR GREAT-UNCLE RANGE.
Elena stared.
Maya’s biological father was almost certainly Thomas Vance’s son.
A son no one knew existed.
Suddenly Marrow’s obsession made sense.
Maya carried Jonathan Vance’s direct bloodline.
Not through Elena.
Through whoever had fathered her.
Elena felt sick.
“They used me to produce an heir.”
William nodded grimly.
Arthur whispered, “Thomas wanted the line.”
Elena looked upstairs toward Maya.
“No.”
Her voice became hard.
“He wanted ownership of the line.”
Margaret’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Elena.
“It’s Julian’s attorney.”
“What?”
“Julian wants to speak to you.”
Arthur said, “Absolutely not.”
Elena ignored him.
The federal detention room separated them by thick glass.
Julian looked tired.
No suit.
No arrogance.
Elena sat.
Placed the DNA report against the glass.
He read it.
Closed his eyes.
“You knew.”
Julian did not answer.
“You knew Maya wasn’t biologically yours.”
“Yes.”
Elena wanted to scream.
Instead she whispered, “Who is her father?”
“I don’t know his real name.”
“Try.”
“Marrow called him Shepherd.”
“Who is he?”
“Thomas’s son.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you agree to this?”
Julian’s eyes filled with something Elena had never seen.
“No.”
“Did you know before I became pregnant?”
“No.”
“When did you find out?”
“Two months into the pregnancy.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I tried to find him.”
“Why?”
“Because once Maya was born, Thomas would come for her.”
Elena leaned toward the glass.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“Because by then I had already lied to you for ten years.”
“That didn’t stop you from lying for one more.”
“No.”
He looked at the DNA report.
“I thought I could protect you without you ever knowing.”
“You failed.”
“Yes.”
“You humiliated me.”
“Yes.”
“You terrorized me.”
“Yes.”
“You let Serena into my home.”
“Yes.”
“You broke Maya’s crib.”
Julian’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
Elena stood.
“I hope whatever story you tell yourself about protecting me keeps you warm in prison.”
She turned.
Julian spoke.
“Elena.”
She stopped.
“Thomas isn’t Maya’s grandfather.”
Elena slowly turned.
Julian looked at her through the glass.
“The DNA range is wrong because the laboratory doesn’t have the right reference.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Shepherd isn’t Thomas’s son.”
Elena stared.
“Then who is he?”
May you like
Julian’s answer made her sit again.
“Thomas himself.”
