Chapter 7 - Ninety-Nine Point Nine NineMarcus spent the rest of the day at the bank.
The transfer had not cleared.
Walker Restoration required two approvals for outgoing transfers above fifty thousand dollars, a policy Leonard Walker had established after an employee-fraud scare years earlier.
Denise had apparently forgotten.
Or hoped Marcus would approve automatically.
He did not.
Nia learned the details through text messages.
She did not answer most of them.
By evening, Marcus had temporarily restricted Denise’s online banking authority pending review.
He called Nia at seven.
She stared at his name until the ringing stopped.
Then a second call came.
Tasha leaned over the couch.
“You’re allowed to answer.”
“I know.”
“You’re also allowed not to.”
“I know.”
The third call did not come.
Instead Marcus texted.
The lab emailed. Results are ready. I haven’t opened them.
Nia’s body went cold.
She had known what the result would say.
There had never been doubt in her mind.
Still, the message made her hands tremble.
Tasha sat beside her.
“You want me here?”
“Yes.”
Nia called Marcus.
He answered immediately.
“I’m outside.”
“What?”
“Your building.”
Nia closed her eyes.
“You could’ve said that.”
“I didn’t want to force my way in.”
Tasha went downstairs.
Two minutes later she returned with Marcus.
He looked like he had not slept.
Nia sat near Noah’s bassinet.
Marcus held his phone.
“The email says the report is encrypted.”
“Open it.”
“I thought we should—”
“Open it.”
He entered the password.
A PDF appeared.
Marcus read.
His shoulders dropped.
Nia watched relief move through him.
Then shame replaced it.
“What does it say?” Tasha asked, though everyone knew.
Marcus’s voice broke slightly.
“Probability of paternity greater than 99.99 percent.”
Silence.
Noah made a soft sound in his sleep.
Marcus stared at him.
“My son.”
Nia’s expression hardened.
“He was your son yesterday.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“You’re right.”
“And the day before.”
“I know.”
“And in the hospital.”
“I know.”
Tasha quietly stood and walked into the kitchen.
Marcus took one step toward Nia.
She raised her hand.
He stopped.
“I’m not leaving you,” he said.
Nia almost laughed.
“You don’t get to announce that like it’s the important decision.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“What did you think would happen if the test came back negative?”
Marcus said nothing.
“You thought about it.”
“Yes.”
“Did you think about leaving?”
His silence answered.
Nia nodded slowly.
“Did you think about taking money?”
His face changed.
“What?”
“Did your mother tell you to protect the accounts?”
Marcus looked away.
Nia’s stomach twisted.
“She did.”
“She said if I had doubts, I needed to make sure company money and inherited assets were protected until I knew the truth.”
“Did you?”
“I froze one transfer.”
“What transfer?”
“The monthly household transfer to our joint account.”
Nia stared at him.
“For how long?”
“One day.”
“When?”
“The morning Noah was born.”
Her lips parted.
“I reversed it after you left the hospital.”
Nia stood too quickly and winced.
Marcus reached forward.
She stepped back.
“You froze household money while I was in labor?”
“It was automatic. I called the bank before—”
“Before what?”
“Nia.”
“Before I delivered a child you thought belonged to another man?”
“I panicked.”
“You financially prepared to abandon me before you even asked me.”
“I did not abandon you.”
“You made a plan.”
Marcus’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt worse.
Nia pressed a hand against her chest.
He continued.
“Mom said if the baby wasn’t mine and you were involved with somebody else, I needed to make sure you couldn’t move money before we figured out what happened.”
Tasha reappeared in the doorway.
Her face had gone still.
“Denise told you that?”
Marcus nodded.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Nia sat slowly.
Three weeks.
She had been thirty-seven weeks pregnant.
Marcus had slept beside her every night.
Rubbed lotion on her swollen feet.
Helped choose Noah’s middle name.
And quietly built a financial escape route.
Nia stared at him.
“Did you tell your mother how much was in our accounts?”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“Did you show her statements?”
“One.”
“Why?”
“She asked what exposure I had.”
“Exposure.”
Nia repeated the word.
“Your wife and unborn child became exposure.”
“That was her word.”
“You accepted it.”
Marcus had no defense.
Nia wiped one tear away angrily.
“The DNA result didn’t clear anything.”
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
She pointed at his phone.
“That paper answered your question.”
Marcus nodded.
“What answers mine?”
“What’s your question?”
Nia looked at him for a long time.
“When you were afraid, why was the first person you protected yourself from me?”
Marcus’s face crumpled.
Before he could answer, Tasha’s phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen.
“Adrian.”
Nia frowned.
“At this hour?”
Tasha answered.
“Hello?”
She listened.
Her eyes sharpened.
“How much?”
Marcus and Nia both looked at her.
Tasha grabbed a pen.
“Send it.”
She ended the call.
“What?” Nia asked.
Tasha looked directly at Marcus.
“Adrian pulled public records and vendor-registration data for D&W.”
Marcus waited.
“The company isn’t owned by Denise.”
Nia frowned.
“Then who?”
Tasha slid the paper across the table.
Marcus read the name.
His confusion lasted only a second.
Then recognition hit.
“Raymond Price?”
Nia looked at him.
“Who is that?”
Marcus sat down hard.
“My mother’s brother.”
Nia’s face went cold.
Tasha continued.
“And according to Adrian, D&W received one hundred sixty-four thousand three hundred dollars from Walker Restoration over twenty-two months.”
Marcus stared at the figure.
Almost twice what Nia had discovered.
But Tasha was not finished.
“Forty-eight thousand of it was transferred again.”
“To where?” Nia asked.
Tasha looked at Marcus.
“A mortgage account.”
Marcus swallowed.
“Whose mortgage?”
Tasha turned the paper around.
Denise Walker’s home address sat beneath the account record.
May you like
![92 The Girl They Called Broke Was a Billionaire’s Daughter—But Her Father’s Arrival Exposed a Secret Powerful People Had Buried for Years]](https://cdn.treeiq.biz/site_590/2026/11/clone-0-0915d882-53d7-4d17-b43a-a010ca1a1068.webp)
Marcus stared at it.
The DNA test was no longer the biggest betrayal in the room.
Related Stories
