Chapter 5 - The Test Victoria Tried to Stop
Nathan called his personal physician before eight in the morning.
Grace expected Victoria to argue.
Instead, she became calm.
That frightened Grace more.
By nine, Nathan had arranged a private collection appointment with a licensed laboratory in Stamford.
He would provide a cheek swab.
Lily would provide one.
Results would be expedited.
Grace dressed Lily in her pale-gray coat.
Nathan waited near the front door.
Victoria came down the staircase.
“Where are you going?”
Nathan did not answer.
She approached him.
“You have a board meeting.”
“I canceled it.”
“Nathan.”
He looked at her.
“For the first time in years, there is something more important than the company.”
Victoria’s face tightened.
“You’re allowing a maid to destroy your life.”
Grace remained silent.
Nathan opened the front door.
Victoria followed.
“If the test says you’re the father, what then?”
Nathan turned.
“Then I find out why I missed four years of my daughter’s life.”
Victoria flinched at the word daughter.
Grace noticed.
So did Nathan.
The drive to Stamford was quiet.
Lily sat beside Grace in the back seat.
Nathan drove himself.
At a red light, he looked in the mirror.
“Lily?”
“Yes?”
“Are you nervous?”
“No.”
“I am.”
She considered that.
“Why?”
Nathan smiled sadly.
“Because sometimes adults get scared when something matters a lot.”
Lily reached forward between the seats.
Nathan looked at her tiny hand.
He held it for the rest of the red light.
Grace turned toward the window.
She wished Sarah could see it.
At the laboratory, the procedure took less than ten minutes.
Nathan requested legal-chain documentation.
Grace signed as Lily’s guardian.
The technician sealed the samples.
“Twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
Nathan nodded.
Grace noticed a man in a dark jacket standing near the elevator.
He was looking at them.
When Grace looked directly at him, he turned away.
“Do you know him?” she asked Nathan.
Nathan glanced.
The man disappeared into the elevator.
“No.”
Grace felt uneasy.
On the drive home, Nathan asked about Sarah.
Not the pregnancy.
Sarah.
“What did she do after she left?”
“She worked.”
“Where?”
“Mostly childcare centers.”
“Was she happy?”
Grace hesitated.
“Sometimes.”
Nathan’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“Did she ever marry?”
“No.”
“Did she hate me?”
“No.”
That answer seemed to hurt him more.
“She should have.”
“She thought you rejected her.”
“I did, as far as she knew.”
Grace looked at him.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Nathan stared at the road.
“But I should have.”
When they reached the mansion, Victoria was gone.
Mrs. Dawson said she had left for the city.
Nathan went into his office and locked the door.
Grace took Lily upstairs.
Two hours later, Nathan called her down.
He had spread Sarah’s documents across his desk.
“I found something.”
Grace approached.
Nathan turned his laptop.
An archived corporate schedule from four years earlier showed that Sarah had requested three appointments through Nathan’s office.
All three had been canceled.
By V. Hale.
“Victoria.”
Nathan nodded.
“There’s more.”
He opened another file.
A scanned internal mail log.
An envelope had been received from Sarah Miller.
Nathan’s name was listed as recipient.
The signature confirming delivery belonged to Victoria.
Grace stared.
“She had it.”
“Yes.”
Nathan leaned back.
“She lied this morning.”
Grace looked at him.
“You sound surprised.”
“I am.”
“You’re engaged to her.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Grace felt some of her anger soften.
Not disappear.
But soften.
This was not the man Sarah had believed abandoned her.
This was a man discovering someone had constructed four years of his life around a lie.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Nathan answered.
“Cole.”
He listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Grace watched him stand.
“When?”
He listened again.
“I’m coming.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?”
“The laboratory.”
Grace’s stomach tightened.
“What about it?”
“The sample package was damaged before processing.”
“What does that mean?”
Nathan grabbed his jacket.
“It means they need new samples.”
Grace stared at him.
“That man at the elevator.”
Nathan stopped.
“You saw him too?”
“Yes.”
Nathan’s jaw hardened.
He called his security director.
“Daniel, pull every camera from the Stamford testing center and the parking garage. I want the identity of a man in a dark jacket who left around ten fifteen.”
He ended the call.
Grace whispered, “You think Victoria did this?”
Nathan looked toward the doorway.
“I don’t know.”
Then his phone buzzed.
A message appeared.
Nathan read it.
Grace watched the blood drain from his face.
“What?”
He turned the screen.
A photograph showed Lily leaving the laboratory.
May you like
Below it were four words.
Stop testing the child.
