Chapter 2
North Shore Genetic Services confirmed the report was genuine.
That created a bigger problem.
The laboratory had received two samples.
A maternal blood sample.
And a cheek swab submitted under Adrian Holt’s name.
The lab’s director spoke through counsel.
“The maternal sample came from stored material transferred by an affiliated prenatal-screening service.”
Mara stared across the conference table.
“I had chromosome screening at twelve weeks.”
“Yes.”
“Not paternity testing.”
“No.”
The director looked uncomfortable.
“Your stored sample was later released for additional testing under a signed authorization.”
Mara’s independent attorney, Rebecca Sloan, slid the form toward her.
The signature looked like Mara’s.
It was not.
“I didn’t sign this.”
Rebecca nodded.
“We expected that answer.”
The form had been submitted electronically from an account created in Mara’s name.
Recovery email:
A generic encrypted address.
Payment:
A prepaid corporate card.
Claire asked, “Who submitted Adrian’s sample?”
The lab director checked the record.
“Mr. Holt personally.”
The room went silent.
Massimo looked toward Mara.
She looked stunned.
“So Adrian knew about the test.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
The sample had been submitted when Mara was only thirteen weeks pregnant.
Five months ago.
Massimo frowned.
“When did Sienna enter the picture?”
Mara looked down.
“I found out about them six weeks ago.”
“Do you know how long the affair lasted?”
“No.”
Investigators later obtained hotel and messaging records through proper legal process.
The earliest confirmed romantic contact between Adrian and Sienna began when Mara was approximately four months pregnant.
The paternity test had been ordered well before that.
That was clue number one.
Adrian’s eventual explanation did not fit the timing.
Through his attorney, he claimed he ordered the test because he had “private doubts regarding conception.”
Claire read the statement aloud.
Massimo leaned back.
“What doubts?”
“They decline to specify.”
“Convenient.”
Rebecca looked toward Mara.
“Were you and Adrian having problems when you became pregnant?”
“Not like this.”
Mara thought.
“We were stressed.”
“About what?”
She hesitated.
“Getting pregnant at all.”
Massimo’s attention sharpened.
That was the first time fertility treatment entered the conversation.
Mara and Adrian had tried to conceive for almost two years.
There were specialist visits.
Medications.
Tests.
A procedure at Lakeview Reproductive Medicine.
Massimo knew they had needed medical help.
He had deliberately not asked for intimate details.
“It was their marriage,” he told Claire later.
“That was healthy.”
Claire almost sounded approving.
“What treatment?”
“I don’t know.”
“And Mara?”
“She’ll tell us what she wants known.”
Good.
Massimo meant it.
He would not turn his daughter’s reproductive history into family property merely because the mystery now involved it.
Mara authorized Rebecca to obtain her full fertility records.
Not for Massimo.
For herself.
Adrian’s attorney simultaneously demanded the genetic report be treated as private marital information and threatened action if Massimo discussed it with family members.
Claire read the letter.
“He is remarkably concerned about privacy for a man who abandoned his pregnant wife beside a mountain road.”
Massimo looked at the attached demand.
One sentence caught his attention.
The unauthorized dissemination of genetic information could materially prejudice Mr. Holt’s business and familial interests.
Massimo tapped it.
“Business.”
Claire nodded.
“Apparently paternity has become corporate.”
Adrian owned Holt Development, a construction and hospitality company that had received legitimate financing through Valenti-affiliated lenders.
He also held an advisory position in one Valenti logistics subsidiary.
Nothing about his role legally depended on fathering Massimo’s grandchild.
But family perception mattered.
If Adrian were exposed as an adulterous husband abandoning a pregnant wife, his relationship with the Valentis could collapse.
If he could instead portray Mara as having deceived him about paternity, the story changed.
At least socially.
Perhaps financially too.
Claire closed the file.
“Do not assume that is the motive.”
Massimo looked at her.
“I wasn’t.”
“You absolutely were.”
He ignored her.
One fact remained unavoidable.
May you like
Adrian had tested the baby’s paternity months before his marriage publicly fell apart.
And when the result excluded him, he told Mara nothing.
