Chapter 6 - PATIENT SEVENTEEN
Ethan hung up before I could ask another question.
Luka immediately called Grace.
By noon, she had sent us a second encrypted file.
This one contained a neonatal admission sheet from twenty-eight years earlier.
The patient name had been removed.
The date of birth matched Ethan’s birthday.
The physician was Richard Mercer’s oldest friend.
Dr. Malcolm Voss.
Across the top someone had written:
MATERNITY CASE 17.
I stared at the page.
“Ethan is M-17.”
Luka leaned against the desk.
“We still need proof.”
“What kind?”
“DNA.”
The answer made everything suddenly simple.
Ethan was Emma’s biological father.
If Emma’s sample had matched M-17, the archive might have been recognizing Ethan through her.
The same man who had abandoned his daughter had accidentally used her birth to expose the secret he had spent years hiding.
I almost laughed.
Instead, I cried.
Not because I wanted him back.
Because I finally understood how little of my life with him had been real.
That afternoon, my attorney arrived.
Mara Levin was fifty-two, sharply dressed, and completely unimpressed by Luka’s security team.
She read the trust documents in silence.
Then she looked at me.
“Your husband has committed enough financial misconduct here to keep several prosecutors busy.”
“Can I stop him from taking Emma?”
“Yes.”
She tapped the paperwork.
“And the fact that Mr. Moretti signed that acknowledgment created exactly the chaos he intended.”
I looked at Luka.
He didn’t smile.
Mara continued.
“Ethan now has to establish his rights formally if you challenge him.”
“He will demand DNA testing.”
“And the moment he does, we obtain a court-controlled sample.”
Luka said,
“Which can be compared to M-17.”
Mara’s eyebrows rose.
“You planned this.”
Luka shrugged.
“I improvise aggressively.”
For the first time, Mara almost smiled.
Then her phone rang.
Her expression changed while she listened.
“When?”
She looked at me.
“Ethan filed for emergency custody forty minutes ago.”
My blood turned cold.
“On what grounds?”
“He claims you are suffering from postpartum psychosis.”
“He says Luka kidnapped you from the hospital.”
I stood so quickly my chair moved backward.
“He abandoned me.”
“I know.”
“He brought Vanessa into my room.”
“I know.”
“He deleted Emma’s records.”
Mara lifted a hand.
“And we are going to prove all of it.”
Another message appeared on her phone.
She read it.
Then her face hardened.
“What?”
I asked.
“The judge granted Ethan a temporary hearing.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Luka walked toward the window.
Mara continued.
“And Ethan submitted a witness statement.”
“From who?”
She turned the phone toward me.
The name at the bottom of the statement made my stomach drop.
Grace Holloway.
May you like
The nurse who had helped me escape had just testified that I was unstable.
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