Chapter 9 - the daughter in the genetic report
Agent Reed arranged for Elizabeth to be examined at a military medical facility outside the city.
The real doctors confirmed that she and the baby were stable.
The medication found in her blood had caused temporary cramping, but no lasting harm was detected.
The genetic sample remained the greater concern.
Someone had wanted proof that Elizabeth’s child carried the Vale bloodline.
That meant the baby might be able to activate the archive in the future.
Or inherit whatever remained hidden.
Julian refused to answer questions.
Margaret requested an attorney and claimed she had been coerced.
Victoria gave a partial statement, admitting she had displayed the forged documents at the baby shower but insisting Margaret told her the papers were legitimate.
Elizabeth did not believe her.
Victoria had smiled while Elizabeth believed her home and inheritance were gone.
She had enjoyed every second.
Still, Victoria had warned Elizabeth not to stop the archive transfer.
That action had likely saved the evidence.
Nothing about her sister was simple anymore.
At the military hospital, Michael sat on the other side of Elizabeth’s room.
They had not discussed their marriage.
There were too many immediate dangers, but the silence between them carried everything they had not said.
“I spoke to Marcus,” Michael said.
Elizabeth looked up.
“You found him?”
“He contacted me through an encrypted channel.”
“Where is he?”
“He would not say.”
“Is he part of Julian’s network?”
“He says he infiltrated it fourteen years ago.”
Agent Reed, standing near the door, crossed his arms.
“He also destroyed federal evidence and fled the country.”
“Marcus says the folder contained a trigger code,” Michael replied. “If it had been scanned into the central system, Julian’s network would have received the identities of every agent investigating them.”
“Convenient.”
“He burned it to stop the upload.”
“Then why did he not explain before setting fire to a government building?”
“Because someone above him is compromised.”
Elizabeth looked between them.
“Did he say who?”
“No. But he sent a file.”
Michael placed his phone on the table.
The file contained a genetic report dated twenty-eight years earlier.
Subject A was Anna Vale.
Subject B was infant Elizabeth.
The probability of maternity was listed as 99.98 percent.
A second section compared Elizabeth to Julian Cross.
Probability of paternity: 0 percent.
Elizabeth read it again.
“Julian is not my father.”
Agent Reed stepped closer.
“He admitted he was.”
“He lied.”
“Or this report is false.”
The file included Eleanor Vale’s signature and the seal of a private laboratory.
Michael opened another page.
It contained a handwritten note from Marcus.
Julian believes Elizabeth is his daughter because Anna allowed him to believe it. The real father is the reason Eleanor created the archive.
Elizabeth felt as though another floor had disappeared beneath her.
“Who was he?”
Marcus had not provided the name.
He had sent only a photograph.
Anna Vale stood beside a much younger Marcus Hale outside the lake house.
They were holding hands.
Michael stared at the image.
“That is my uncle.”
Elizabeth looked at him.
If Marcus was her biological father, then she and Michael were related.
The thought made her stomach turn.
Agent Reed saw the fear on both their faces.
“Do not assume anything. A photograph proves only that they knew each other.”
Michael searched the attached documents.
A second genetic report compared Elizabeth with Marcus Hale.
Probability of paternity: 0 percent.
Elizabeth exhaled shakily.
“Then why send the photograph?”
Agent Reed examined the background.
Behind Anna and Marcus stood another man, partly hidden by the open door of a car.
Only one side of his face was visible.
Michael enlarged the image.
He recognized him first.
“That is my father.”
Elizabeth’s eyes moved to him.
Michael’s father, David Hale, had died in a boating accident when Michael was twelve.
Michael had rarely spoken about him.
According to the family story, David had been a quiet accountant with no connection to the Vale family.
The file included no DNA comparison between David and Elizabeth.
There was only another note.
Anna trusted the wrong Hale brother.
Elizabeth looked at Michael.
Neither of them spoke.
Agent Reed took the phone.
“We need a confirmed DNA test before drawing conclusions.”
Michael stood.
“If my father was Elizabeth’s father…”
“Stop,” Elizabeth said.
He looked at her.
“We do not know that.”
“But if it is true, we cannot pretend it changes nothing.”
“I said stop.”
Michael turned away.
A nurse entered carrying a sealed envelope delivered by federal courier.
The laboratory had completed a new analysis using preserved samples from David Hale’s military records.
Agent Reed opened the result.
David Hale was not Elizabeth’s father.
Relief came so quickly that Elizabeth nearly cried.
Then the agent turned to the second page.
The laboratory had found a partial family relationship.
Elizabeth was not David’s daughter.
She was his niece.
One of David Hale’s siblings was Elizabeth’s biological parent.
Marcus had already been excluded.
There was only one known sibling left.
A younger sister named Rebecca Hale.
According to the Hale family, Rebecca died before Elizabeth was born.
The report said otherwise.
It identified Anna Vale as Elizabeth’s biological mother.
Rebecca Hale was listed as the other genetic parent.
Michael stared at the paper.
“That is impossible.”
Agent Reed did not respond.
The report had been processed through modern genetic analysis.
The chance of error was extremely low.
Elizabeth looked down at the child moving beneath her hand.
For her entire life, people had fought to control her bloodline.
Now she did not even understand what that bloodline was.
A message appeared on Michael’s phone.
It came from Marcus.
May you like
Rebecca Hale is alive.
And she is the woman who examined Elizabeth at the hospital.
