The DNA Accusation
Chapter 06 - The DNA Accusation
Claire read the filing three times.
She thought it had to be a mistake.
Owen and Luke were twins.
Adrian had been in the delivery room.
He had cut both umbilical cords.
He had carried two infant car seats out of the hospital while Claire's mother took photographs.
Now he was claiming that fertility records from nine years earlier raised questions about paternity.
It was cruel.
It was also strategically confusing.
Susan explained the possible motive.
"If he can create doubt about one child's legal status, he may be trying to complicate the trust."
Claire felt rage rise in her chest.
"He is using Owen's identity as leverage."
"Yes."
The boys did not know.
Claire intended to keep it that way.
Then Adrian called.
She answered only because the court required communication regarding the children.
"I want the test," he said.
"Why?"
"You know why."
"No, Adrian. I truly don't."
He was silent.
Then he said, "Ask the clinic."
The fertility clinic.
Claire had not thought about it in years.
After three miscarriages, she and Adrian had undergone IVF.
Two embryos had been transferred.
Two boys had been born.
Simple.
Or so Claire believed.
Susan subpoenaed the archived records.
Three days later, the clinic's attorney called.
There had been an irregularity.
Not with Claire's eggs.
Not with the embryos.
With one page of the consent documentation.
Adrian's signature appeared on a form Claire had never seen.
The form authorized the use of donor sperm if his stored sample failed genetic screening.
Claire stopped breathing.
"Did they use donor sperm?"
The clinic could not answer immediately.
Records had been transferred after a corporate merger.
A laboratory audit would be required.
For nine years, Claire had believed she knew how her sons came into the world.
Now Adrian had introduced a question that could wound one of them forever.
But as Susan studied the paperwork, she noticed something else.
Adrian had known about the donor authorization from the beginning.
May you like
Claire had not.
Which meant whatever the DNA test showed, the betrayal had started long before the courthouse.
