Chapter 15 - The Doctor
Dr. Samuel Kent had disappeared eighteen years ago.
That was what Victor told us.
“He lost his license after an investigation into fertility fraud.”
“Why wasn’t he prosecuted?” I asked.
“Evidence vanished.”
Everyone looked at Cassandra.
She shook her head.
“My father.”
Victor nodded.
We found Kent before sunrise.
Not through the police.
Through Charles’s payment records.
A monthly transfer had been going to a private assisted-living facility in Vermont.
Kent was seventy-nine.
Thin.
Shaking.
And terrified when he saw Victor.
“I told you I was done.”
Victor stood at the foot of his bed.
“You told me you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t.”
“Stop lying.”
Kent looked at Adrian.
Then at me.
Then at my stomach.
His face crumpled.
“Oh, God.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“What did you do?”
Kent’s hands shook harder.
“Your mother couldn’t conceive.”
“I know.”
“No. You know the story they told afterward.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Kent continued.
“Charles paid the clinic to use a donor he selected.”
“Who?”
Kent looked at Victor.
Victor went still.
Kent whispered, “You.”
The room froze.
Adrian looked at his father.
Victor did not breathe.
Kent nodded toward him.
Adrian stared at Victor.
“So you are my biological father.”
Victor sat down.
“Yes.”
Adrian laughed once.
A broken sound.
“All these years.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Until when?”
Victor said nothing.
Adrian stepped closer.
“Until when?”
That was worse.
“You knew.”
“And you never told me.”
Adrian spun around.
Victor flinched.
I almost hated him for saying it.
He looked at me.
“Why did he choose it?”
Kent swallowed.
The entire conspiracy began before Adrian was born.
A human key.
Adrian.
Then when Adrian married me and we conceived a son, Charles saw the second generation of that key.
I sat down hard.
“Charles never cared who Adrian loved.”
“Yes.”
Kent’s face changed.
Michael, standing near the door, spoke quietly.
He held up the archive.
Victor stared at him.
“What?”
Michael looked at me.
He swallowed.
Adrian looked at me.
Michael nodded.
He looked at Victor.
Victor whispered, “That trust is worth nine billion dollars.”
A nurse rushed in.
His eyes were terrified.
“What?”
He gasped.
“Charles becomes temporary guardian by default.”
My stomach tightened.
May you like
Harder than before.
Then my water broke.
