Chapter 7 - JULIAN’S CONFESSIONI went to the hospital without Theo.
Glass exploded.
Rebecca crawled behind the kitchen island with Theo.
I reached Julian.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
“Don’t move.”
He laughed through clenched teeth.
“Second time today someone tells me that.”
“You’re not funny.”
“You used to think I was.”
The reminder hurt.
Outside, Charles’s voice echoed.
“Nathaniel! Come outside.”
Nathaniel shouted, “You want me? Leave them alone.”
“That was always your weakness.”
Police sirens finally sounded in the distance.
Charles disappeared.
Daniel approached the window.
“He’s leaving.”
Nathaniel wanted to follow.
I stopped him.
“No.”
“He killed Marianne.”
“Eleanor confessed.”
“To involvement.”
“You chase Charles tonight, you become exactly what he expects.”
Nathaniel looked at me.
For once, he listened.
Police arrived.
Then federal agents.
Not because local officers had suddenly understood the situation.
Because Daniel had sent copies of my mother’s recovered documents to an FBI contact the moment we found them.
Eleanor was arrested.
Julian went to surgery.
Charles vanished.
Again.
By sunrise, Theo and I were under federal protection in a secure guest residence outside Washington.
Everything felt unreal.
There was a crib.
A rocking chair.
Diapers stacked beside a federal agent’s bulletproof vest.
Nathaniel sat across from me.
Neither of us knew how to behave.
He was my father.
But he had never packed my lunch.
Never attended my graduations.
Never scared away my first boyfriend.
Never walked me down an aisle.
“You don’t have to call me Dad,” he said.
“Good.”
He almost smiled.
I fed Theo.
Nathaniel watched.
“You look like Marianne.”
“People keep saying that.”
“She held you exactly like that.”
“You saw me as a baby?”
“Three times.”
“That’s all?”
“Three more than Charles knew about.”
I studied him.
“Did you ever have another family?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I already had one.”
The answer irritated me.
“You didn’t.”
His face fell.
“You had people you watched from a distance.”
“That’s fair.”
“Mom raised me.”
“Yes.”
“She worked two jobs.”
“I sent money.”
“She never told me.”
“I asked her not to.”
“Why?”
“So you wouldn’t ask questions.”
“Do you understand how infuriating that is?”
“Yes.”
“You made choices for everyone.”
“Yes.”
“Just like Charles.”
That landed.
Nathaniel looked away.
I immediately regretted it.
But not enough to apologize.
“You’re right.”
That surprised me.
“I spent eighteen years telling myself hiding was sacrifice. Some of it was. Some of it was fear.”
Theo finished eating.
I shifted him against my shoulder.
Nathaniel smiled when Theo burped.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re smiling.”
“You used to do that loudly enough to scare yourself.”
Against my will, I laughed.
It was small.
But it was the first bridge between us.
Later that morning, Dr. Reeves arrived under federal escort.
He brought the completed genetic results.
“Nathaniel is your biological father.”
I already knew emotionally.
Science made it official.
“And Theo?”
“Your biological son, obviously.”
“Very reassuring.”
Dr. Reeves smiled.
“But there is another result.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“The unusual marker that started this is inherited through Nathaniel’s line.”
“So Theo got it through me.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you say impossible?”
Dr. Reeves hesitated.
“Because the first laboratory report listed Julian as Theo’s genetic father.”
I froze.
“What?”
“That’s what the hospital system showed.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Yes.”
“I never did IVF.”
“I know.”
“Theo was conceived naturally.”
“I believe you.”
“So someone changed his results.”
“Exactly.”
I stared.
“To make Julian look like his biological father?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Nathaniel answered.
“The trust.”
Dr. Reeves nodded.
“If Julian were registered as both legal and genetic father, he would have an extraordinarily strong claim to act as Theo’s guardian regarding financial interests.”
“Even after divorce?”
“Potentially.”
I thought about the divorce paperwork.
“What did I sign?”
Federal attorney Melissa Grant had been sitting quietly nearby.
She opened a folder.
“We reviewed it.”
“And?”
“You signed a temporary consent appointing Julian as financial guardian for any jointly recognized child.”
I felt physically sick.
“He told me it was standard custody language.”
“It was buried in an addendum.”
“Can it stand?”
“Under normal circumstances, we’d challenge it.”
“And these aren’t normal circumstances.”
“No.”
Nathaniel stood.
“I’ll dissolve the trust.”
Melissa shook her head.
“You can’t.”
“They’re my shares.”
“Not anymore.”
He stared.
“The transfer became irrevocable sixteen years ago.”
“To protect Claire.”
“Yes.”
“So now it traps her.”
“Potentially.”
I looked at Theo.
Two days old.
Already the center of a billion-dollar war.
“I don’t want the money.”
Melissa’s expression softened.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It should.”
“The trust exists.”
“Then give it away.”
“Once Theo reaches the activation stage, you may have options.”
“When?”
“After formal paternal verification.”
I stared at her.
“Julian’s fake test?”
“No. The trustees require an independent test.”
“Good.”
Melissa didn’t look relieved.
“What?”
“There’s another complication.”
Of course there was.
“Julian filed a paternity petition at 6:04 this morning.”
Nathaniel swore.
I stared.
“He’s in surgery.”
“It was prepared earlier and electronically filed by his attorney.”
“He’s claiming Theo?”
“Yes.”
“After abandoning us?”
“Yes.”
Anger took over.
“Then I’ll fight him.”
Melissa nodded.
“You will.”
A federal agent entered.
“Ms. Bennett?”
“Yes?”
“Julian Vance is awake.”
I looked away.
“I don’t care.”
“He asked for you.”
“No.”
“He says he will withdraw the paternity claim on one condition.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
“What condition?”
The agent looked uncomfortable.
“He wants you to bring Theo to him.”
Nathaniel stood.
“Absolutely not.”
The agent raised a hand.
“He says he won’t touch the child.”
“Then why?”
“He says there is something hidden beneath the hospital bassinet mattress.”
Dr. Reeves frowned.
“That bassinet was already cleared.”
The agent continued.
“Julian claims he put it there before he was shot.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“A confession.”
Silence.
“He says it contains everything.”
I asked the question I hated most.
“Why should I trust him?”
The agent answered:
“He said you shouldn’t.”
Then he handed me a message Julian had dictated.
Claire,
I have no right to ask you for forgiveness.
I only need twenty minutes to stop my mother from winning even if she spends the rest of her life behind bars.
And after that, I will tell Theo the truth myself:
May you like
Blood might determine an inheritance.
But it never made me his father.
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