Chapter 5 - The Test Laura Never Told Dominic AboutDominic waited until Archer was upstairs before asking Ava to continue.
“What test?”
Ava held the file carefully.
“Laura requested a private DNA paternity test when she was seven months pregnant.”
Dominic stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“I’m reading the request.”
“Did she think Toby wasn’t mine?”
The words hurt simply to say.
Ava looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Dominic stood and walked toward the window.
Laura had never suggested infidelity.
Their marriage had problems.
Work.
Stress.
Exhaustion.
But not that.
At least, he had believed not that.
“Where are the results?”
Ava turned pages.
“Not here.”
“Who ordered it?”
“A private genetic lab.”
“Can we get records?”
“With estate authority, possibly.”
Dominic’s mind raced.
Why would Laura test paternity before Toby was born?
Prenatal testing existed, but it was not something someone ordered casually.
Then he remembered.
Gretchen’s behavior during Laura’s pregnancy.
She had been unusually cold toward Dominic.
She hinted that Laura had “made choices.”
Dominic assumed she disliked him.
Maybe the tension had been about something else.
“Ava.”
“Yes?”
“Gretchen called Toby a bastard.”
Ava went still.
“Exact word?”
“Yes.”
“That may matter.”
“Or she’s just cruel.”
“Could be both.”
They contacted the laboratory.
The first employee refused to release anything.
A legal request followed.
Hours later, confirmation arrived.
Laura had ordered the test.
Dominic Harper was listed as alleged father.
Result:
Probability of paternity: 99.99%.
Dominic stared.
He was Toby’s biological father.
Relief came first.
Then anger.
Why had Laura needed proof?
A note attached to the lab order answered partially.
Testing requested due to anticipated family challenge to paternity and beneficiary status.
Dominic read it twice.
“Family challenge.”
Ava nodded.
“Someone was threatening to claim Toby wasn’t yours.”
“Gretchen.”
“Probably.”
“Why?”
“Money.”
The trust.
If Toby were not Dominic’s legal descendant? But Laura was his mother regardless. Toby would still inherit through Laura.
Unless another document defined descendant status in some strange way.
Ava went back through older trust versions.
Then found it.
Malcolm Sloan’s original family trust had been written decades earlier with archaic language.
Some legacy shares passed to “issue born of recognized marital union” unless specifically amended.
Laura had amended the language before Archer was born, modernizing it.
But one grandfathered block of family-company shares remained tied to the old definition until a descendant-specific confirmation was filed.
“How much?” Dominic asked.
Ava calculated.
“Current value? Around twelve million.”
Dominic sat.
Twelve million dollars associated with Toby’s status.
Gretchen knew.
Laura had acted.
The DNA test may have been created to shut down a challenge.
But why would Gretchen benefit?
Ava found that too.
If no qualifying second descendant existed, that specific share block reverted to the Sloan charitable holding company.
Chairperson:
Gretchen Sloan.
Dominic stared.
“There it is.”
Not direct personal inheritance.
But control.
Prestige.
Board authority.
Access.
Gretchen would control an entity worth millions.
“Toby’s birth moved that block out of her reach.”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked toward the staircase.
“‘He ruined everything.’”
Ava’s face hardened.
“What?”
“Archer said Gretchen tells Toby he ruined everything.”
Now it made sense.
Not emotionally.
Financially.
Toby’s existence changed the trust.
But Laura had removed Gretchen as trustee before Toby was born.
Meaning Laura suspected more than resentment.
“She found the withdrawals.”
Ava nodded.
“And maybe expected Gretchen to challenge Toby.”
Dominic thought about the missing blue envelope.
“What would Laura have put in it?”
“Proof.”
DNA report.
Trust amendment.
Withdrawal records.
Maybe a letter explaining everything.
Gretchen had stolen it.
But she had not found every copy.
Laura was too organized.
Dominic knew that much.
Then Archer appeared at the edge of the room.
“You said Mom tested Toby?”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Were you listening?”
“Yes.”
He could have scolded him.
Instead:
“Come sit.”
Archer did.
“What’s a paternity test?”
“It checks who someone’s biological father is.”
Archer’s face changed.
“Is Toby not your son?”
Dominic immediately said:
“He is.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Mom test?”
Dominic chose honesty.
“Because someone may have been planning to lie about it.”
Archer looked toward the hallway.
“Grandma.”
“Maybe.”
“No.”
Archer shook his head.
“She did.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“How do you know?”
“She told me Toby wasn’t really my brother.”
Dominic’s stomach turned.
“When?”
“A few months ago.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her she was stupid.”
Despite everything, Ava looked down to hide the smallest smile.
Dominic did not smile.
“What did she do?”
“Got mad.”
“Did she explain?”
“She said Mom made a mistake.”
Arthur—no, Dominic—felt anger rising again.
“What kind of mistake?”
“She said Toby shouldn’t have been born.”
The room became silent.
Dominic felt something inside him go cold.
Gretchen had been feeding that poison to an eight-year-old.
Trying to make Archer question his baby brother.
Trying to divide them.
“Did you believe her?”
Archer looked offended.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Toby looks like you.”
That almost broke Dominic.
The boy continued.
“And because Mom loved him.”
Simple.
Enough.
Then Archer said something else.
“She asked me if Mom ever gave me a paper with numbers.”
Dominic’s pulse jumped.
“What numbers?”
“I don’t know.”
“She said six numbers.”
Ava looked at Dominic.
“A code.”
“For what?”
No idea.
Then Archer remembered.
“She said Mom used to keep it in the piano.”
Dominic turned toward the music room.
Laura played piano every Sunday morning.
After she died, nobody touched it.
They opened the bench.
Nothing.
The sheet-music cabinet.
Nothing.
Then Dominic lifted the fallboard.
A small strip of paper had been taped beneath.
Six digits.
And one word.
HARBOR.
Ava stared.
“Storage facility?”
Dominic’s chest tightened.
May you like
Laura had left them another trail.
And Gretchen had been searching for the same code.
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