Chapter 4 - The DNA Report
Ethan’s first instinct was anger.
His second was caution.
“Show me.”
Patricia opened her phone.
The report bore a legitimate laboratory’s logo.
Sample names:
Ethan Cole.
Infant Carter.
Probability of paternity:
0.00%.
Ethan stared.
“I never provided a sample.”
“I know.”
“Then whose DNA did they use?”
Patricia looked away.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
For the first time, mother and son stood on same side of a question.
Not trust.
Not forgiveness.
Evidence.
Ethan called attorney Maya Richardson, who had represented him personally outside family office for years.
“Do not call anyone from Cole counsel,” he said.
Good.
Separate representation.
Maya arrived within forty minutes.
She reviewed filing.
“This is aggressive.”
Richard Grant’s petition asked court to prevent any amendment to Cole Legacy Trust based on Emma’s birth until paternity authenticated.
Legally, asking verification was not inherently wrong.
But presenting an unverified report as proof was.
Maya called the laboratory through official channels.
Their compliance officer checked case number.
Real.
But sample collector?
A private clinic used six weeks earlier.
Ethan had attended that clinic for annual executive physical.
His blood sample existed.
Could someone have obtained legally? There were strict privacy rules.
The infant sample was collected from a child identified as Emma Carter two days earlier.
But Emma had not been born.
Therefore impossible.
Somebody submitted another child’s sample under her name.
The report proved nothing about Naomi’s baby.
It proved someone planned ahead.
Maya preserved records.
Then Ethan asked Patricia:
“Did Richard do this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
He studied her.
A day earlier he would have accepted.
Not now.
“Then we verify independently.”
Naomi agreed to a legal paternity test through hospital chain of custody.
No urgency for emotional certainty, but legal clarity mattered.
Results would take time.
Meanwhile Ethan signed hospital paperwork acknowledging he believed himself father but subject to formal legal process? We can keep simple: he followed counsel and hospital advice, no fictional legal specifics.
Then he asked Naomi:
“Do you have any doubt?”
“No.”
Her answer immediate.
He believed her emotionally.
Evidence would settle legally.
Then Maya discovered the fake report’s ordering attorney:
Grant & Vale Family Office.
Not Richard personally.
Senior counsel David Mercer signed.
Maya knew him.
“He used to work for your mother.”
Patricia’s face changed.
“Ten years.”
“Why did he leave?”
Patricia said:
“He stole client files.”
Ethan stared.
“And Richard hired him?”
“Yes.”
Old grudges.
Then Naomi whispered:
“There’s something else.”
The person who delivered trust amendment envelope also left a note:
ASK ETHAN’S MOTHER WHAT HAPPENED TO MARCUS COLE.
Ethan stopped.
Marcus.
His older brother.
Dead nineteen years.
At least that was what Ethan had been told.
Marcus died in a boating accident at twenty-two.
No body recovered immediately; later official death declared.
Ethan had been seventeen.
Why would Naomi’s pregnancy connect?
Patricia went completely pale.
Ethan saw.
“Mom.”
“No.”
“What happened to Marcus?”
“This has nothing to do with today.”
“You said same about Naomi.”
Patricia looked toward Emma’s room.
Then whispered:
“Marcus had a child.”
Ethan stared.
“What?”
“A son.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who was mother?”
“A woman your father refused to recognize.”
Ethan felt cold.
History.
Again.
Patricia continued:
“Your father believed acknowledging Marcus’s son would fracture trust.”
So he pressured mother to disappear.
Ethan stared at Patricia.
“You watched this happen before.”
“Yes.”
“And then did it to Naomi.”
Patricia began crying.
“I thought I was preventing what happened to Marcus.”
“What happened to Marcus?”
She looked at him.
“He found out we had hidden his son from him.”
“And?”
“He left family.”
“The boating accident?”
“Was later.”
Not direct connection necessarily.
Marcus cut contact.
Months later died during accident.
Patricia had never forgiven herself.
Yet instead of learning not to control—
she learned secrets must be managed better.
Tragic pattern.
Then Maya’s phone buzzed.
The independent lab had expedited identification check before full paternity result.
The infant sample in fake report matched a child already in another Cole-related trust case.
A nineteen-year-old man.
Name:
Noah Cole.
Ethan stared.
Marcus’s missing son was not missing anymore.
And someone had used Noah’s DNA to fake a report denying Emma belonged to Ethan.
Why?
Because Noah and Ethan were close relatives.
A careless scheme could be exposed through kinship analysis.
Or maybe that was intentional.
Maybe somebody wanted Ethan to find Noah.
The fake report might not only be sabotage.
May you like
It might be a signal.
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