Chapter 6 - The Verdict of Blood
Ethan did not move toward the paper. He couldn't. His legs felt like lead pillars anchored to the floor.
Hannah stepped forward, her hand reaching out across the small distance between them, gently touching Ethan's sleeve. "Mr. Whitmore. Look at it."
Ethan took the document from Dr. Harrison’s hands. His eyes scanned down the rows of alphanumeric markers, the complex strings of genetic loci, down to the bolded conclusion at the very bottom of the page:
PROBABILITY OF PATERNITY: 99.98%
GENETIC IDENTITY: DIRECT DESCENDANT / MONOZYGOTIC LINEAGE
The paper fluttered in Ethan's fingers.
She wasn't a stranger's baby. She wasn't a random orphan who happened to look like a memory. She was his flesh and blood. She was Lily’s second chance at life, carried through the dark by the grace of a courageous nurse and an impoverished mother who had scrubbed floors to feed her.
Ethan turned slowly toward Hannah. His eyes were red, brimming with four years of unshed tears.
"She’s mine," Ethan whispered, his voice cracking on the syllable. "She’s really mine."
Hannah looked down at Ellie, who had just opened her big, dark eyes, blinking at the bright fluorescent lights. A terrible, suffocating terror clamped around Hannah’s throat.
She's mine.
To Ethan, those words were salvation. To Hannah, they sounded like a death sentence.
"You’re going to take her," Hannah said, backing away toward the emergency exit stairs. Her voice rose into a frantic, protective scream. "You have billions of dollars. You have lawyers. You have judges in your pocket. You’re going to take my baby away!"
"Hannah, no!" Ethan moved forward, hands raised in complete surrender. "Listen to me—"
"Don't touch her!" Hannah cried, pulling the heavy metal door of the stairwell open with her shoulder. "I fed her! I held her through the fever! I stayed up all night when she couldn't breathe! You didn't even know she existed until an hour ago! You can't take her from me!"
"Hannah, stop!" Ethan lunged forward, catching the heavy fire door before it slammed shut.
Behind them, the elevator doors at the end of the hall chimed.
Stepping out into the hallway were four uniformed private security officers, followed closely by Eleanor Whitmore. Her fur coat was dusted with fresh snow, and her face was carved out of granite.
"Secure the corridor," Eleanor commanded her men coldly. "Richard, hand Dr. Harrison the court injunction immediately."
Dr. Harrison blinked. "An injunction? On what grounds?"
"Tampering with confidential family medical material," Eleanor said without breaking stride. She looked directly at Hannah, her eyes hard as flint. "And as for that woman—arrest her for kidnapping and corporate espionage. The child is Whitmore property. She belongs in our private custody."
"Over my dead body," Ethan roared, stepping between Eleanor’s security guards and the stairwell door where Hannah stood trembling.
"Ethan, be reasonable," Eleanor said, her voice dripping with venomous authority. "That child represents a felony violation of bioethics laws that could ruin our entire conglomerate. If the media discovers what happened at St. Jude, the SEC will dismantle Whitmore Confections within forty-eight hours. The child must be quietly placed in a private care facility in Switzerland under Claire's supervision."
Claire stood up from the floor, her eyes wide with sudden horror. "With me? You used me to hide your secrets once, Eleanor! You told me my baby was dead!"
"You were weak, Claire," Eleanor snapped. "You couldn't handle the reality of running an empire. Ethan couldn't handle it either. I did what had to be done to preserve our name!"
One of the private security guards stepped toward Hannah, his hand reaching for Ellie's car seat.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Hannah screamed, shielding Ellie with her entire body.
Ethan didn't hesitate. With a feral growl, he grabbed the security guard by the collar of his tactical vest and slammed him hard against the drywall. The man groaned as the plaster cracked behind his head.
"The next person who steps toward that baby," Ethan snarled, his eyes blazing with a fury none of them had ever seen, "leaves this hospital in a body bag. I don't care who pays your salary."
The other guards hesitated, looking at each other, then back at Eleanor.
"Ethan," Eleanor hissed, her voice trembling with rage. "You are throwing away your life for a janitor and an experiment!"
May you like
Ethan let go of the guard, turning slowly to face his mother.
"She isn't an experiment, Mother," Ethan said, each word hitting like a hammer. "She is my daughter. And Hannah is her mother. And before sunrise, you are going to answer for every single lie you told in that hospital four years ago."