Chapter 4
Daniel demanded another blood test.
So did I.
The result was the same.
AB positive.
Detective Morales stood near the door while Daniel stared at Noah like the world had shifted beneath him.
“I don’t understand.”
Neither did I.
“I never cheated on you.”
“I know.”
His answer came immediately.
That almost broke me.
After everything happening around us, he still believed me.
The nurse quietly explained that something in the medical information needed verification.
Detective Morales asked for our prenatal records.
When the hospital pulled them up, another problem appeared.
My original pregnancy blood work listed me as A positive.
I stared at the screen.
“That isn’t my blood type.”
Daniel looked at me.
“You’ve always been O positive.”
“Yes.”
The nurse checked my wristband.
Then she checked my current laboratory results.
O positive.
Detective Morales’s expression hardened.
“Someone altered your prenatal chart.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why?”
Nobody answered.
Then I remembered something.
At fourteen weeks pregnant, Linda had insisted I switch obstetricians.
She claimed her friend knew “the best maternal specialist in the state.”
Dr. Jonathan Price.
I had seen him throughout most of my pregnancy.
“Call Dr. Price.”
The detective typed the name.
Her face changed.
“Dr. Price worked with Marcus Hale twelve years ago.”
Daniel gripped the table.
“What?”
“At St. Vincent Women’s Center.”
The same clinic where Hale had been accused of illegal adoptions.
Daniel swore under his breath.
I looked at Noah.
“If Daniel isn’t his biological father, then how did I become pregnant?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
We both knew the answer might destroy us.
Eight months earlier, I had undergone a minor outpatient procedure.
Dr. Price said he needed to remove a uterine polyp.
I had been sedated.
Linda had driven me home.
Three weeks later, I discovered I was pregnant.
Daniel and I celebrated.
We never questioned the timing.
Now I felt physically sick.
Detective Morales listened carefully.
“Do you still have records from that procedure?”
The hospital retrieved them.
My consent form looked normal.
Then the detective noticed an additional code.
“Gamete transfer.”
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel sat down slowly.
The detective didn’t answer immediately.
The nurse did.
“It can refer to introducing reproductive cells into the body.”
My vision blurred.
“No.”
Daniel grabbed my hand.
I pulled away—not because I blamed him, but because I couldn’t breathe.
“I was impregnated without consent?”
Detective Morales said carefully, “We don’t know yet.”
My phone rang.
Rebecca.
I answered.
She was crying.
“Sophie, I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Mom made me promise.”
“Promise what?”
Rebecca took a shaking breath.
“Daniel was never supposed to know he couldn’t have biological children.”
Daniel turned white.
“What?”
Rebecca continued.
“Mom found out when he was seventeen.”
I stared at my husband.
Then at Noah.
If Daniel had been infertile all along, Emily’s conception made no sense either.
My daughter was listening.
Her small face had gone completely pale.
“Mom?”
I looked at her.
May you like
She whispered the question none of us wanted to ask.
“Is Daddy really my daddy?”
