Chương 8
Elise sat across from him.
“Your mother called me,” she said.
His humming stopped.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she wants to apologize privately.”
“Did you answer?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Elise frowned.
“You don’t get to approve.”
“You’re right.”
“She also sent flowers to Mara’s address.”
Daniel looked embarrassed.
“White roses?”
“Yes.”
“She sends them when someone dies.”
“That was Mara’s interpretation.”
“It’s accurate.”
Elise watched him adjust the blanket over Noah’s feet.
“What happened when you confronted her?” she asked.
Daniel’s face became still.
“She denied creating the screenshot. She said someone must have been trying to warn me.”
“About an affair that didn’t happen.”
“She says the photographs of you and Owen made the warning plausible.”
“Did she have me followed?”
“Yes.”
Elise stared.
Daniel looked down.
“For how long?”
“Three months.”
“While I was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“A private investigator the family has used for corporate matters.”
The room seemed to lose sound.
Even Noah’s breathing disappeared for a second.
“What did the investigator report?”
“That you met Owen three times, visited the community center, went to medical appointments, bought lunch alone twice, and spent forty minutes in a bookstore.”
Elise stood.
Daniel rose too, still holding Noah.
“Sit down,” she said. “You’re holding him.”
He sat immediately.
“You knew this?” she asked.
“Not until yesterday.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You never wondered how your mother had photographs?”
“She said they came with the email.”
“And that made sense to you?”
“No.”
“But you accepted it.”
“Yes.”
Every answer was direct. Each one made her angrier.
She paced once across the room, then stopped because her incision still ached after too much movement.
“She watched me,” Elise said. “She had someone follow me while I was carrying her grandson.”
Daniel’s voice was low. “I know.”
“No, you found out yesterday. I lived it without knowing.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“You’re right.”
“Stop saying that.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know. Something that doesn’t make you sound trained.”
His expression hardened for the first time during the visit.
“I’m trying not to defend myself.”
“You should try harder.”
“I am sitting here telling you the ugliest things I can find.”
“Do you want praise?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
His grip shifted protectively around Noah.
“I want you to see that I’m not hiding them.”
“You hid inside your mother’s version of me for three days.”
“I know.”
Elise laughed without humor.
“There it is again.”
Daniel looked exhausted.
“I don’t have a better answer.”
“Then don’t answer.”
They sat in silence.
Lynn entered once, saw their faces, and quietly left.
Noah slept against Daniel’s chest.
After several minutes, Daniel said, “The investigator’s original reports are missing.”
Elise looked up.
“Missing from where?”
“The agency says all copies were delivered to my mother’s office and deleted under their retention policy.”
“How convenient.”
“The agency owner agreed to provide billing records.”
“What good are bills?”
“They show when the surveillance began.”
“When?”
“The week after you told my mother we weren’t naming Noah after my father.”
Elise stared.
During dinner that night, Vivian had smiled and said the name was their decision. She had served lemon tart. Later she sent Elise a list of fourteen Mercer family names under the subject line For Inspiration Only.
“You think this was about the name?” Elise asked.
“No. I think it was about control.”
“That’s a word people use when they don’t want to name the thing underneath.”
Daniel looked at his son.
“She believed you were taking me away from her.”
“I was your wife.”
“She didn’t see a difference.”
The second DNA test arrived two days later.
Priya had recommended repeating it through an independent accredited laboratory because the first test, though valid, had been arranged under pressure and Vivian had possessed the phone used for the call. Daniel paid for the second test but had no access to the process. A nurse collected samples from Daniel, Elise, and Noah in Priya’s office.
The result confirmed paternity again.
Probability: greater than 99.99 percent.
Elise printed the report at Mara’s apartment.
The printer jammed after the first page.
Mara pulled the paper out in pieces and said, “Even the machine thinks this family has enough documentation.”
Elise smiled despite herself.
Then she placed the report in a folder beside the false screenshot, the email chain, the investigator’s invoices, and the hospital’s preliminary security response.
St. Agnes had found no evidence that Elise’s patient account had been accessed by an unauthorized user. That meant the screenshot was likely fabricated from a template or copied from another patient’s portal.
The hospital’s logo version had been used until eighteen months earlier.
Priya asked whether anyone connected to the Mercer family had received treatment at St. Agnes during that period.
Daniel’s father had died there fourteen months before Elise met Daniel.
Vivian had access to his records as medical proxy.
The discovery did not prove she created the screenshot. It proved she could have possessed an authentic older portal page from which to build one.
Daniel went silent for nearly a day after Priya sent the information.
Then he asked Elise to meet him alone.
She refused.
He asked whether Mara could attend.
Elise agreed to a coffee shop near Priya’s office on Saturday morning.
Daniel arrived first. He sat at a corner table with three untouched cups because he had ordered for everyone and guessed wrong. Elise drank tea now because coffee made Noah restless. Mara took one sip of her coffee and said it tasted like boiled furniture.
Daniel pushed a flash drive across the table.
“What is that?” Elise asked.
“My mother’s office backup.”
Mara stopped making a face at her drink.
“How did you get it?” Elise asked.
“I own the company’s servers.”
“That is not the same as having legal access to her personal files.”
“They are corporate systems.”
May you like
Priya had warned Elise against accepting improperly obtained evidence.
“Did you speak to counsel?” she asked.
