Chapter 8 - PRISCILLA’S OBSESSIONPriscilla Fairmont was born Priscilla Vale, not into old money.
Her father owned three hardware stores outside Pittsburgh.
Her mother taught piano.
She met Charles Fairmont at Penn.
Charles’s father, Edmund Fairmont, despised the match.
Not because Priscilla poor exactly.
Because she was not “Fairmont kind.”
Priscilla never forgot.
Edmund spoke openly about lineage.
“Families survive through blood and discipline.”
He required prenuptial agreements.
Trust provisions.
Male descendants.
When Charles and Priscilla struggled to conceive, Edmund hinted Charles should annul and remarry.
Charles refused.
Priscilla heard every insult.
Then fertility treatment worked.
Wesley born.
Edmund softened instantly.
Grandson.
He commissioned silver rattle.
Opened trust.
Told society papers “Fairmont line continues.”
Priscilla learned a terrible lesson:
Blood determined acceptance.
Even though Wesley’s blood was not actually Fairmont.
The irony buried her.
When she began suspecting Kline as biological father, fear became obsession.
If Edmund learned, Wesley’s legitimacy—socially, not legally necessarily—might be attacked.
Inheritance battles.
Humiliation.
So Priscilla guarded.
After Edmund died, she could have relaxed.
She didn’t.
Trauma had become identity.
Wesley learned through family therapist.
He asked mother:
“Why didn’t you tell grandfather after he died?”
“There was always someone else.”
“Trustees.”
“Board.”
“Cousins.”
“Or you.”
“Yes.”
Priscilla admitted.
She also confessed she had genetic genealogist quietly compare Wesley to Fairmont cousins years earlier.
No match paternal.
Confirmed.
She felt “the house became borrowed.”
Nadia listened.
“Foxmere was legally yours through Charles.”
“I know.”
“But inside, I heard Edmund.”
Nadia:
“And when June was conceived, you heard him again.”
Priscilla nodded.
“If Nadia used anonymous donor, June had no genetic link to Wesley.”
“I thought… people would say she wasn’t his.”
Wesley:
“Who?”
Priscilla looked.
“No one knew donor.”
“Exactly.”
She had invented future judgment.
Then controlled others to prevent.
Nadia said:
“You were not preserving June’s belonging.”
“You were soothing your own wound.”
Priscilla started crying quietly.
“Yes.”
This was first time Nadia saw her cry without turning it into accusation.
Still no forgiveness.
The obsession explained dinner insult.
When Nadia began asking clinic questions, Priscilla panicked:
If Kline link exposed, Wesley’s own paternity exposed.
She reverted to familiar weapon—question Nadia’s sexual fidelity.
Make wife source of genetic irregularity.
Patriarchal logic repurposed.
She said:
“I knew it was vile as I said.”
“Then why?”
“I wanted you to stop.”
Nadia:
“That is worse than losing temper.”
“Yes.”
Again, ownership.
Priscilla’s lawyers negotiated cooperation with investigation.
She provided emails with Kline.
One decisive email, six years earlier:
PRISCILLA:
If Wesley cannot contribute viable sample, I want donor genetically proximal. You know why.
KLINE:
Only direct paternal-line sample available is mine.
PRISCILLA:
Then use it if medically possible.
KLINE:
They selected donor. Nadia will not sign change.
PRISCILLA:
She does not need details if outcome healthy. Wesley need not know either.
Nadia had to stop reading.
There.
Explicit intent to exclude.
KLINE:
Consent requirements are not optional.
Then later:
I can handle internal protocol. This conversation never existed.
Priscilla:
Understood.
That was close to conspiracy.
Why did Kline initially object then proceed?
Money?
Leverage?
Pattern.
Ego.
His broader fertility fraud suggested he had long believed his judgment superior.
Priscilla gave opportunity and payment.
Both culpable.
Wesley stared.
“You paid him to biologically father my daughter.”
Priscilla whispered:
“I paid for consultation.”
“Stop.”
She corrected:
“I paid knowing what I wanted him to do.”
Good.
“Did you know he’d used himself on other patients?”
“No.”
“Would that have stopped?”
She paused.
“Yes.”
Nadia watched.
Maybe.
“Why?”
“Because I thought this was specific genetic continuity.”
“Not his… compulsion.”
She struggled word.
Kline’s pattern may involve narcissistic fertility fraud, not breeding conspiracy.
This matters.
Priscilla thought she was commissioning one controlled violation.
Kline had broader history.
No villain alliance beyond specific act.
Nadia said:
“You thought violating one patient was acceptable if reason was family.”
Priscilla nodded.
“Yes.”
That statement later became central.
She was not innocent because Kline worse.
The family began dismantling language.
Bloodline.
Legacy.
Fairmont blood.
At foundation board meeting, Priscilla almost introduced June as “next Fairmont generation,” then stopped.
Not because June not Fairmont.
Because name need not be genetic.
She later said to Nadia:
“I don’t know what legacy means anymore.”
Nadia:
“Good.”
Priscilla looked offended.
Then laughed unexpectedly.
Maybe first time.
“Good?”
“If definition harmed people, not knowing is start.”
Priscilla accepted.
The obsession would not vanish after one revelation.
She had lived forty years under it.
But now she could see it.
May you like
That did not repair stolen consent.
Only change next choice.
Related Stories
