CHAPTER 8 THE WRONG FATHER
THE WRONG FATHER
Vivienne smiled when she heard the result.
It was the first genuine smile she had shown all night.
Nathaniel stood across from her in the library.
Elena remained near the door.
Eleanor sat beside the fireplace with both hands clasped tightly around her cane.
“Whose son is he?” Nathaniel asked.
Vivienne crossed her legs.
“You spent six years calling him yours.”
“He is still my son.”
“But you want to know whose blood runs through his veins.”
Nathaniel leaned forward.
“I want the truth.”
Vivienne glanced at Elena.
“Ask her.”
Elena stared back.
“I never met the sperm donor.”
“That is what they told you.”
Nathaniel turned toward Marcus.
“Test every sample again.”
Marcus nodded.
Vivienne laughed.
“You can test the entire city.”
“You still will not like the answer.”
Eleanor struck her cane against the floor.
“Enough.”
Vivienne’s smile vanished.
Eleanor faced Nathaniel.
“The embryo used to create Lucas did not come from your genetic material.”
Nathaniel’s voice became hollow.
“You knew.”
“I discovered the substitution after Lucas was born.”
“Who authorized it?”
Eleanor looked at Vivienne.
“My husband’s will required a biological Hart heir before Nathaniel’s fortieth birthday.”
“Without one, controlling shares of Hart Global would transfer to Theodore’s charitable trust.”
Vivienne had known about the clause.
She had also known Nathaniel’s fertility samples had been compromised after childhood chemotherapy.
Nathaniel remembered being told the procedure had succeeded despite low probability.
Now it made sense.
Vivienne could not produce a child with him.
So she had created one carrying enough Hart blood to satisfy a fraudulent DNA test.
Nathaniel turned toward Eleanor.
“Which Hart man was used?”
Eleanor hesitated.
Elena suddenly understood.
“Jonathan.”
Nathaniel frowned.
“He died thirty years ago.”
“His genetic material was stored during fertility treatment,” Eleanor said.
“Theodore kept the samples.”
Nathaniel looked at Elena.
If Jonathan’s sperm had been used with Elena’s egg, then Lucas had been created from a father and his biological daughter.
Elena staggered backward.
“No.”
Eleanor’s voice softened.
“I believed the clinic had destroyed Jonathan’s samples.”
“Vivienne found them.”
Elena pressed both hands over her mouth.
Nathaniel crossed the room and held her shoulders.
Lucas was not merely the victim of fraud.
His conception had been an act of deliberate genetic violation.
Vivienne rose from her chair.
“Do not look at me as if I designed the world.”
“I only learned how to survive in it.”
“You created a child to steal a company,” Nathaniel said.
“I created the heir your mother demanded.”
“You tried to kill him.”
Vivienne’s confidence faltered.
“I never ordered that.”
“Then who did?”
Eleanor’s cane slipped from her hand.
Everyone turned toward her.
The old woman looked at Lucas’s drawing lying on the desk.
“Theodore’s will contained another condition.”
Nathaniel waited.
Eleanor whispered the words.
“If the heir was proven illegitimate, every Hart asset would pass to Jonathan’s oldest surviving child.”
Elena stared at her.
Nathaniel looked from the will to Elena.
May you like
Jonathan’s oldest surviving child was not Lucas.
It was Elena.
