Chương 12
Owen returned to the prenatal lab note.
“If Richard already possessed some older genetic profile for Natalie, the pregnancy could have triggered a comparison.”
Bell frowned.
“How?”
“Not automatically.”
“Then don’t make it sound automatic.”
“I’m not.”
Owen adjusted his glasses.
“But if someone intentionally obtained fetal screening data and compared it against stored samples or family data, they might notice an unexpected inheritance pattern.”
Blake looked at the tablet.
“And Priya noticed.”
“Possibly.”
“Then she warned Natalie.”
“Possibly.”
Bell said, “We need the clinic audit logs.”
“I can help interpret them.”
“Good.”
My mother asked, “What exactly are we looking for?”
Bell answered.
“Someone accessing Natalie’s records who had no legitimate reason.”
Blake suddenly stood.
“My father’s foundation donated to that clinic.”
Everyone looked at him.
“How much?” Bell asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you know anything tonight?”
Blake ignored the irritation.
“He sits on the hospital network’s advisory board.”
Owen went still.
“Which network?”
Blake named it.
Owen’s face changed.
“My hospital is part of that network.”
Bell looked from one man to the other.
“So Richard had institutional relationships with both locations.”
“Yes,” Owen said.
Blake looked sick.
Bell asked, “Access?”
“Not clinical access.”
“Influence?”
Owen hesitated.
“Potentially.”
My mother gave a bitter laugh.
“There’s that word.”
Owen did not argue.
My phone rang again.
This time the caller ID displayed a name.
RICHARD STANFORD.
No one breathed for a second.
Blake reached toward the phone.
Bell stopped him.
“Speaker.”
He answered.
“Mr. Stanford.”
Richard’s voice came through, calm and controlled.
“Detective Bell.”
Blake looked at the phone.
“Dad.”
A pause.
Not surprise.
Calculation.
“Blake.”
Bell said, “Where are you?”
“At home.”
“We need to speak with you.”
“I assumed you would.”
I felt my fingers tighten around the blanket.
Richard sounded exactly as he always did.
A man discussing inconvenience after dinner.
Bell said, “Do you know Graham Mercer’s location?”
“No.”
“Have you spoken to him recently?”
“Not since Monday.”
Blake stared at Bell.
Bell asked, “About what?”
“A security matter.”
“What matter?”
“Corporate.”
“Specific.”
Richard paused.
“I asked him to verify whether someone had accessed confidential medical information.”
Every person in the room went still.
Bell’s voice changed.
“Whose medical information?”
Richard answered without hesitation.
“Natalie’s.”
Blake stood.
“You knew.”
Richard ignored him.
Bell said, “Why were you investigating her medical records?”
“Because someone sent me a copy of her prenatal genetic screening.”
My heart pounded.
“When?”
“Monday morning.”
“From whom?”
“Anonymous email.”
“Do you still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she was pregnant before then?”
“No.”
Blake moved closer to the phone.
“What did you see in the screening?”
Richard was silent.
“Dad.”
Another pause.
Then Richard said, “Something that should have been impossible.”
I felt cold spread through my arms.
Bell asked, “What?”
Richard’s voice finally lost some of its polish.
“The twins carried a marker from my family line.”
Owen said, “We know.”
Richard went silent.
Bell continued.
“We also know the marker wasn’t associated with Blake.”
A longer silence.
I watched Blake’s face.
Richard said his son’s name quietly.
“Blake.”
“Don’t.”
“Listen to me.”
“No.”
“Blake.”
“I said don’t.”
His voice cracked.
Richard inhaled.
“The genetic marker comes from your mother’s side.”
Blake frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
Bell said, “Mr. Stanford, stop talking around it.”
Richard did not answer him.
He spoke only to Blake.
“Your mother was already pregnant when I married her.”
Blake stared at the phone.
My mother closed her eyes.
Richard continued.
“I knew you weren’t mine biologically.”
Blake’s face seemed to empty.
“Who was my father?”
Richard said nothing.
Blake whispered, “Who?”
“Graham Vale.”
The room stopped.
No one moved.
Richard continued before Blake could respond.
“Graham and Evelyn had been together before I met her.”
Blake’s mouth opened.
“She left him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“That is complicated.”
“Everything is complicated when you’re lying.”
Richard’s composure finally cracked.
“Because Graham was dangerous.”
Bell leaned toward the phone.
“And yet you employed him.”
“I could control him.”
My mother whispered, “There it is.”
Blake looked physically ill.
“Did Chloe know?”
Richard hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
Blake’s voice rose.
“Did Chloe know Graham was my father?”
“No.”
“Does she know now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Graham know?”
“Yes.”
Blake stumbled backward into the chair.
I watched him try to fit that truth around eleven years of memory.
The man who raised Chloe.
The man who struck Blake at nineteen.
The man who took Chloe away.
His biological father.
Bell asked, “Why would Natalie’s twins reveal this?”
Richard exhaled.
“Because Blake inherited a recessive marker from Graham that was never included in the Stanford family records.”
Owen frowned.
“That still doesn’t explain why you panicked.”
Richard was silent.
Bell said, “What else was in the screening?”
Nothing.
Blake looked at the phone.
“Dad.”
Richard finally spoke.
“There was a second marker.”
My pulse accelerated.
Owen stepped closer.
“What marker?”
Richard’s voice dropped.
“One that matched Chloe.”
The room went dead quiet.
Blake’s face went blank.
I stared at the phone.
Bell said, “Explain.”
Richard did not.
Then I saw Blake understand before the rest of us.
His body folded forward.
“No.”
Richard said, “Blake—”
“No.”
“Listen.”
Blake covered his mouth.
“No.”
I looked at Owen.
He looked just as confused as I felt.
Bell said, “Mr. Stanford, if you know something relevant to an active kidnapping and attempted homicide investigation, you need to say it now.”
Richard’s answer came quietly.
“Chloe Mercer is Graham’s biological daughter.”
Blake made a sound I had never heard from another human being.
It was too quiet to be a cry and too broken to be speech.
Richard said his name again through the phone.
Blake stood so suddenly the chair tipped backward.
“You knew.”
Richard did not answer.
“You knew the whole time.”
“I knew before you were born.”
“And you let me date her.”
“No.”
Blake stared at the phone.
Richard’s voice hardened.
“I did not know Graham had fathered Chloe until much later.”
May you like
“When?”
“After you were already serious.”
