CHAPTER 7 THE BLOOD TEST
THE BLOOD TEST
Nathaniel ordered private DNA testing before sunrise.
Samples were collected from Nathaniel, Elena, Lucas, and Eleanor.
A laboratory owned by neither the Hart family nor Hart Global received them under sealed identification numbers.
Until the results arrived, no one was allowed to leave the mansion.
Vivienne demanded an attorney.
Eleanor demanded privacy.
Nathaniel granted neither request.
Elena sat beside Lucas in the breakfast room.
The boy had fallen asleep with his head in her lap.
Nathaniel stood near the window.
Rain streaked the glass.
“Did you know we might be related?” he asked.
Elena shook her head.
“My mother never said Theodore was my father.”
“She only said she had been forced to leave the estate after I was born.”
“Then why did you accuse Eleanor?”
“Because I found my mother’s letters in the hidden room.”
She handed him a bundle tied with blue ribbon.
The letters were addressed to Theodore.
In the first, Elena’s mother begged him to protect her child.
In the second, she wrote that Eleanor had discovered the truth.
The final letter was unfinished.
The ink ended in the middle of a sentence.
Nathaniel read it aloud.
“Elena must never learn what happened the night you brought the baby home.”
He looked up.
“What baby?”
Eleanor entered without knocking.
“You.”
Nathaniel stared at his mother.
She closed the door behind her.
“Theodore and I lost our first child during childbirth.”
“I could no longer carry another pregnancy.”
“Your father’s younger brother, Jonathan, had an affair with Elena’s mother.”
“When she gave birth to you, she was already pregnant with another child.”
Elena rose carefully so she would not wake Lucas.
“My mother had two children?”
Eleanor nodded.
“Jonathan wanted to leave the country with her.”
“Theodore stopped him.”
“Why?”
“Jonathan had been stealing from the company.”
“He threatened to expose Theodore’s financial crimes.”
“One night, the brothers fought.”
“Jonathan fell from the west balcony.”
Nathaniel remembered the family story.
Uncle Jonathan had supposedly died in a boating accident.
“What happened to the children?” Nathaniel asked.
Eleanor looked at him.
“You were born to a woman named Rebecca Lane.”
“Jonathan’s first mistress.”
Elena’s face changed.
“And me?”
“You were born seven months later to Sofia Reyes.”
“Also Jonathan’s child.”
Nathaniel sank into a chair.
Elena held the table for support.
They shared a father.
They were half siblings.
But Lucas had been created from Nathaniel’s sperm and Elena’s egg.
Nathaniel’s stomach turned.
Eleanor spoke quickly.
“No one knew Elena was Jonathan’s daughter when the clinic selected her.”
“I discovered it after the procedure.”
“Then you continued anyway,” Elena said.
“The embryo had already been implanted.”
“You could have told us.”
“And destroy the Hart name?”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“So you chose to destroy us instead.”
Nathaniel looked at Lucas.
The child slept peacefully, unaware of the nightmare surrounding his birth.
A phone rang.
Marcus answered.
The laboratory director spoke for less than a minute.
Marcus’s face became unreadable.
He ended the call.
“The preliminary results are ready.”
Nathaniel stood.
Marcus handed him the report.
Nathaniel read the first line.
Then he read it again.
Elena covered her mouth.
“What does it say?”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“We are not related.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
May you like
Marcus continued.
“But Lucas is not Nathaniel’s biological son.”
