Chapter 10 - THE MAN WHO WANTED TO REWRITE PATERNITY
The message made no sense.
Damien read it twice.
“Different father?”
Elena stared at the sonogram.
The handwriting looked deliberate.
Almost clinical.
Not Stefan’s style, if the emails Ronan had shown her were representative.
Gabrielle whispered:
“Trust law.”
Everyone turned.
She looked at Ronan.
“If Damien is not legally recognized as the father at birth, what happens?”
Ronan opened the trust amendment again.
“Biological Vasic descendant.”
“Legal recognition required?”
“Yes.”
“Paternity dispute?”
“Could freeze voting rights.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
Elena understood.
Someone did not need Stefan to become trustee.
They only needed the shares trapped.
Frozen shares weakened Damien’s control of the company.
“Who benefits from a control freeze?” she asked.
Damien answered.
“The board.”
“Specifically?”
“Henry.”
Gabrielle sat down hard.
“My father.”
If the baby’s forty-one percent could not vote, Henry Ashton remained the most powerful non-family chair.
He could push a sale.
A merger.
Asset breakup.
Gabrielle’s voice shook.
“He’s been trying to sell the port division for years.”
Damien nodded.
“My father always blocked him.”
Elena looked at the message again.
Different father.
“How would Henry create a paternity dispute?”
Silence.
Then Damien’s face changed.
“The affair.”
Everyone looked at him.
“No,” Elena said.
“Not mine.”
He swallowed.
“Yours.”
Elena stared.
“I haven’t had one.”
“I know.”
“Then?”
“Fabricated evidence.”
Ronan immediately started searching.
Medical portal access.
Prenatal records.
Genetic tests.
Three hours later they found it.
A paternity screening had been ordered through Elena’s obstetric account six weeks earlier.
She never requested it.
The result showed Damien was not the father.
Elena laughed.
Actually laughed.
“What?”
Damien looked almost offended despite the crisis.
“That’s fake.”
“Yes.”
“Obviously.”
“Why obviously?”
She stared at him.
He froze.
Then understood he had walked into something dangerous.
“Elena.”
“Go ahead.”
His face softened.
“I know she’s mine.”
“How?”
“Because you would never—”
She raised an eyebrow.
Wrong answer.
He tried again.
“Because I trust you.”
Better.
Barely.
The fraudulent DNA report listed another alleged father.
A name none of them recognized.
Nicholas Rainer.
Ronan searched.
Thirty-eight.
Commercial real estate developer.
New York.
One photograph.
Elena stared.
“I know him.”
Damien’s expression darkened instantly.
“From where?”
“College.”
“Were you involved?”
“No.”
Damien nodded too quickly.
Elena almost rolled her eyes.
Gabrielle noticed and looked away to hide a smile.
Nicholas Rainer had been Elena’s graduate-school classmate.
They had worked together on a harbor redevelopment project.
He asked her out once.
She declined.
That was it.
“Why him?” Ronan asked.
Elena thought.
“Because there are photographs of us.”
Public events.
School archives.
Enough to manufacture a story.
And then she remembered.
Nicholas’s company had recently bid on waterfront property owned by Ashton Infrastructure.
“Henry knows him.”
Ronan nodded.
“Very well.”
Damien called Nicholas.
No answer.
Federal investigators found him six hours later at a private clinic in Connecticut.
Not injured.
Not missing.
Being paid.
He confessed quickly.
Henry Ashton had offered him five million dollars to cooperate with a future paternity claim after Elena gave birth.
Nicholas was supposed to say they reconnected privately.
Fake texts had already been created.
Hotel records.
Photographs manipulated with metadata.
Elena felt nauseated.
Everything could be manufactured.
Affairs.
Fathers.
Financial crimes.
Maybe even love.
Nicholas told investigators one more thing.
“Henry said Damien would be out before the baby arrived.”
“How?” Elena asked.
Nicholas shook his head.
“He said Vasic would destroy himself once the affair became public.”
Damien went pale.
Gabrielle looked away.
Henry had used the affair.
Maybe encouraged it.
Maybe designed the conditions around it.
But Damien had still walked through the door.
That part remained his.
Then Ronan received an urgent call.
He listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He looked at Damien.
“Board emergency session.”
“Why?”
“Henry called it.”
“On what grounds?”
Ronan handed him the notice.
Allegations of fiduciary misconduct.
Unauthorized Northstar transfers.
Reputational instability.
And one additional allegation:
THE CEO HAS ENGAGED IN AN UNDISCLOSED RELATIONSHIP WITH A CONSULTANT WHO RECEIVED COMPANY FUNDS.
Damien stared at Gabrielle.
May you like
Henry had built the knife.
Damien had handed him the handle.
