I did not show the message immediately.
I looked at Harold first.
He was standing beside the sideboard, pouring water with a hand that shook slightly.
There are moments when accusation arrives before evidence.
This was not one of them.
I already had too much evidence.
“Harold.”
He looked up.
“Was your DNA used in a paternity test for Elise’s baby?”
The glass slipped from his fingers.
It hit the floor and shattered.
Nobody moved.
That was answer enough.
Ingrid whispered, “What?”
Harold stared at me.
“How do you know that?”
Felix stood.
“What?”
I showed the message.
He read it.
Then looked at his father.
“What does that mean?”
Harold’s face had gone gray.
“It means nothing.”
“Your DNA.”
“It was used as a control.”
Caroline frowned.
“For what control?”
“A familial comparison.”
“Why?”
Harold looked at Martin’s empty chair as though wishing the man were still there to speak for him.
Sabine said, “Dad.”
He closed his eyes.
“I agreed to provide a sample.”
Felix stepped closer.
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
“Why?”
“Martin said the first test had processing issues.”
“Elise was told it failed.”
“I know.”
“So you gave them your DNA.”
“Yes.”
“Why not mine?”
Harold looked at him.
“Yours was already on file.”
Felix stopped.
“From what?”
Harold hesitated.
“Employee medical screenings.”
“I never authorized paternity use.”
“No.”
“Then why use yours?”
Harold looked away.
Caroline answered before he did.
“To create a kinship probability.”
I turned.
“Explain.”
“If a fetal sample is compared against a close paternal relative, a lab can sometimes estimate whether the fetus belongs to that family line.”
“Even if the exact father is uncertain?”
“Yes.”
Elise stood.
“Uncertain?”
Caroline looked at her carefully.
“If Felix was excluded but Harold showed familial compatibility, someone could manipulate the presentation to suggest the fetus belonged to the Blake paternal line.”
The room went silent.
Ingrid stared at Harold.
“You.”
He looked at her.
“No.”
She took one step backward.
“Oh my God.”
Harold understood.
“No. Ingrid.”
“Is it yours?”
“No.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No!”
Elise looked horrified.
“I have never slept with Harold.”
Felix’s face was rigid.
“Then why does Dad’s DNA help?”
Caroline answered slowly.
“Because the biological father may be related to Harold.”
Felix looked at Sabine.
She went pale.
Then everyone understood.
Another Blake man.
But who?
Harold only had one son.
As far as I knew.
I said, “You have another son.”
Ingrid closed her eyes.
Harold said nothing.
That silence was devastating.
Felix whispered, “What?”
Harold sat down.
His shoulders seemed to collapse inward.
“It was before I married your mother.”
Ingrid turned toward him.
“You told me that ended.”
“It did.”
“What ended?”
Felix demanded.
Harold looked at his son.
“Her name was Lydia Mercer.”
The surname stopped me.
“Mercer.”
Caroline’s eyes sharpened.
“As in Mercer Biomedical?”
Harold nodded.
The pieces began rearranging themselves.
Northbridge transferred records to Mercer.
Mercer handled Blake company medical screening.
A woman named Lydia Mercer.
“Who was she?” I asked.
“My father’s attorney’s daughter.”
Margaret’s husband.
The original trust creator.
The family circle was even smaller than I thought.
Harold continued.
“Lydia and I were involved when we were young.”
“How young?” Ingrid asked.
“Twenty-three.”
“And?”
“She became pregnant.”
Felix stared.
“What happened?”
“She left.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Harold looked down.
“My father paid her.”
Of course.
Everyone in this family solved problems with money.
“To disappear?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Did she have the baby?”
Harold’s voice dropped.
“Yes.”
Felix stood perfectly still.
“A son?”
“Yes.”
Ingrid sat.
Sabine’s face had gone white.
Felix whispered, “I have a brother.”
“Half brother.”
“Where is he?”
Harold did not answer.
Sabine said, “Dad.”
“I don’t know.”
Caroline laughed sharply.
“You expect anyone here to believe that?”
“I knew where he was years ago.”
“What was his name?”
Harold hesitated.
“Daniel.”
“Daniel what?”
“Mercer.”
The room went silent again.
Mercer.
Caroline’s expression changed.
“I know that name.”
“From where?”
“He owns Mercer Biomedical.”
Harold closed his eyes.
There it was.
Not random.
Not coincidence.
Daniel Mercer.
Harold’s secret son.
Felix’s half brother.
Owner of the laboratory that received Elise’s paternity records.
Elise looked sick.
“I met Daniel.”
Felix turned.
“When?”
“Last year.”
“How?”
“At a Blake charity event.”
Harold stared at her.
“Which event?”
“The hospital fundraiser.”
I saw Felix calculating dates.
“Before we started sleeping together?”
Elise’s face changed.
“Felix.”
His voice hardened.
“Before?”
“Yes.”
“How well did you know him?”
“Not well.”
“Elise.”
She looked down.
“We had drinks twice.”
The room seemed to contract.
Felix stared at her.
“Did you sleep with him?”
She said nothing.
That was answer enough.
His face changed in a way I recognized too well.
The instant betrayal becomes physical.
“I asked you who else could be the father,” I said quietly.
Elise looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“I didn’t think—”
“You said no one.”
“I believed the dates didn’t overlap.”
Felix laughed once.
It was a terrible sound.
“What dates?”
She turned to him.
“Daniel was months before.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Elise.”
“Four. Maybe five.”
“And how far along are you?”
“Twenty-one weeks.”
He closed his eyes.
Five months.
The timing overlapped perfectly.
“You knew,” he whispered.
“I thought it was impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because my doctor gave me dates.”
“Your doctor connected to which clinic?”
She stopped.
Northbridge.
Of course.
Caroline said, “If the first test excluded Felix, Martin needed another way to keep the trust plan intact.”
I looked at Harold.
“Using your DNA.”
“Yes.”
“If Daniel is your son, then his child would share enough of your DNA to appear inside the Blake line.”
“Yes.”
Felix looked at his father.
“So you knew.”
“No.”
“You gave them your sample.”
“I knew they needed familial confirmation.”
“That means you knew there was a possibility the baby wasn’t mine.”
“Yes.”
The word destroyed something.
Felix stepped backward.
“You let me believe she was mine.”
Harold stood.
“I was trying to save the company.”
Felix laughed.
“Of course.”
“Daniel would never qualify under the trust.”
“Why?”
“Because he is not legally acknowledged as my son.”
I said, “But genetically, the baby is still part of the Blake family.”
“Yes.”
“And Martin thought he could pass her through Felix instead.”
Harold looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Elise gripped the edge of the table.
“I need the original result.”
Caroline nodded.
“We’ll get it.”
“No. Tonight.”
“Mercer’s closed.”
“Then call Daniel.”
Harold said sharply, “No.”
Everyone turned.
Elise stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel cannot be brought into this.”
Felix moved toward his father.
“He’s already in it.”
“You don’t understand him.”
“What does that mean?”
Harold looked at Margaret’s codicil.
“It means Daniel has spent his entire life hating this family.”
Sabine said quietly, “That sounds reasonable.”
Harold ignored her.
“He believes everything should have been his.”
“The trust?”
“Yes.”
“Was he excluded because Grandfather wouldn’t acknowledge him?”
“Yes.”
“So he has motive.”
Caroline said, “To falsify the paternity results?”
Harold shook his head.
“No.”
“To destroy Felix’s claim?”
“Possibly.”
Elise looked from one face to another.
“You’re talking about my daughter like she’s an asset again.”
That stopped us.
She pressed both hands over her stomach.
“I don’t care who gets the trust.”
Her voice shook.
“I don’t care who hates whom.”
She looked at Felix.
“I thought she was yours.”
He said nothing.
“I did.”
His expression was wounded but controlled.
“Then we find out.”
She nodded.
I watched them.
For all the deception between them, this moment was painfully real.
A child existed inside the wreckage.
Whatever the answer, she would still be born into adults who had lied for money.
I turned to Harold.
“How long has Martin known about Daniel?”
“Always.”
“And Margaret?”
“Yes.”
“Did she know Daniel might be the father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did she need the trust destroyed before the baby was born?”
Harold looked at me.
“What?”
I showed him the earlier anonymous message.
His expression changed.
“Who is sending these?”
“That seems less important than whether they’re true.”
He read the line again.
Then looked at Elise.
“Margaret would know what happens if Daniel’s child is formally recognized.”
“What happens?”
Harold hesitated.
Sabine said, “Dad.”
He looked toward her.
“The trust reopens succession.”
My pulse quickened.
“What does that mean?”
“If a previously unrecognized biological descendant of the founder’s line is established, the trust can be challenged.”
“By Daniel?”
“Yes.”
Felix frowned.
“Grandfather wrote him out.”
“He wrote out unnamed illegitimate descendants unless later acknowledged by blood evidence.”
Caroline stared.
“You’re telling me DNA can trigger a new claim.”
Harold nodded.
“If Daniel proves he is my son, he can challenge the entire distribution structure.”
“How much could he claim?”
“Potentially half the estate.”
Sabine whispered, “That’s why Martin hid the result.”
Exactly.
If the baby belonged to Daniel, confirming her paternity could indirectly confirm Daniel’s connection to Harold.
One test could unravel decades of inheritance planning.
I said, “Martin wasn’t protecting Felix.”
Harold looked down.
“He was protecting the existing trust.”
“And his control over it.”
“Yes.”
Felix rubbed his face.
“So my supposed daughter became evidence against the whole arrangement.”
“Yes.”
Elise whispered, “She’s not supposed evidence.”
No one answered.
She was right.
Again.
But that was how Martin saw her.
A genetic problem.
A legal trigger.
A threat.
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
I almost didn’t look.
Then I did.
CALL DANIEL MERCER.
A number appeared.
Harold saw it.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Nora, you do not know what you’re doing.”
“That has been your family’s favorite line.”
“He is dangerous.”
“Violent?”
Harold hesitated.
“No.”
“Then dangerous to what?”
He looked at the codicil.
“The story we’ve all been living.”
I dialed.
Everyone listened.
One ring.
Two.
Three.
Then a man answered.
“Nora Blake.”
He knew my name.
I put the call on speaker.
“Daniel Mercer?”
“Yes.”
Felix stared at the phone.
Daniel’s voice was calm.
“Hello, little brother.”
Felix went still.
Harold closed his eyes.
Elise covered her mouth.
Daniel continued.
“I’ve been wondering how long it would take them to tell you I exist.”
Felix said, “Are you the father of Elise’s baby?”
No greeting.
No hesitation.
Daniel was silent for several seconds.
Then he said, “Ask Elise what happened the night of October seventeenth.”
She went pale.
Felix looked at her.
“What happened?”
Elise shook her head.
“I don’t remember.”
Daniel laughed softly.
“That is exactly the problem.”
The line went dead.
Click here to continue reading: PART 15: Elise Couldn’t Remember the Night Daniel Named, and the Missing Hours Connected Her Pregnancy to the Same Clinic That Had Profiled Me
At His Family’s Dinner Table, My Husband Said One German Sentence He Never Expected Me to Understand
Part 14 of 35
