Chapter 3 - THE PATERNITY TRAP
By the time Elena reached the street, the police had already blocked off half the intersection.
Damian had tried to stop her.
She had ignored him.
For six weeks, Elena had imagined dozens of reasons Eric had vanished.
Cowardice.
Another woman.
Fear of fatherhood.
An accident.
She had never imagined finding him three blocks from a secret apartment connected to one of Chicago’s most powerful families.
An ambulance idled beside the curb.
Elena pushed toward it.
“Eric!”
Damian caught her arm.
“Wait.”
“That’s him.”
A man sat on the back of the ambulance beneath a thermal blanket.
His hair was longer than Elena remembered.
A bruise darkened his jaw.
He had lost weight.
But it was Eric.
Alive.
His eyes found hers.
“Elena.”
She crossed the distance between them and slapped him.
The sound cracked through the cold night.
Eric did not defend himself.
“You’re alive.”
“I know.”
“You’re alive!”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I called you forty-six times.”
“I know.”
“You knew I was pregnant.”
“I know.”
“You let me believe you abandoned us.”
Eric looked toward Damian.
Fear passed across his face.
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
Damian stepped closer.
“Then start talking.”
Eric looked at the police nearby.
“Not here.”
Damian’s expression became unreadable.
“You disappeared with evidence from my company.”
“Evidence against your uncle.”
“You recorded yourself saying I couldn’t know where the original ledger was.”
“Because I didn’t know which Cross I could trust.”
Elena stared at both men.
“I am standing right here.”
Eric turned to her.
“I’m sorry.”
“That word is becoming very popular.”
He flinched.
Good.
She wanted him to.
Back inside the condominium, Eric finally explained.
He had discovered a network of shell companies connected to Victor Cross.
Construction money was being redirected through fake consulting contracts.
Inspectors were being bribed.
Properties were being purchased through intermediaries.
Several businesses connected to old organized-crime figures were receiving millions in supposedly legitimate development fees.
Eric had copied the records.
Then Victor had found out.
“I thought I could go to federal investigators,” Eric said.
“Why didn’t you?” Elena asked.
“Because Victor showed me photographs of you leaving your apartment.”
Elena went cold.
“He knew?”
“He knew everything. Your work schedule. Your sister’s address. The clinic where you had your first pregnancy appointment.”
Damian’s face hardened.
Eric looked at him.
“He said if I gave him the evidence, Elena would never know any of this existed.”
“And the two hundred fifty thousand dollars?” Damian asked.
Eric laughed bitterly.
“Money Victor transferred into an account under my name so if the investigation ever surfaced, I’d look like the person taking bribes.”
Damian nodded slowly.
“That sounds like him.”
“So you ran,” Elena said.
“I hid.”
“Without telling me.”
“I thought silence protected you.”
“It didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
Elena wanted to hate him.
Part of her did.
Another part saw the exhaustion in his face and remembered the man who had once brought soup to her apartment at two in the morning because she was sick after a double shift.
Fear could turn good people into cowards.
That did not erase what they did.
But it explained some of it.
The next morning, Elena had an obstetric appointment.
Damian wanted it canceled.
Elena refused.
“I am not letting your family scare me out of prenatal care.”
“Then Dominic goes with you.”
“So does Marisol.”
“Fine.”
“And you stay out of the examination room.”
Damian almost looked offended.
“I wasn’t planning to attend.”
“Good.”
At the hospital, everything initially seemed normal.
Her doctor checked the baby.
Heartbeat strong.
Measurements appropriate.
Elena finally relaxed.
Then a phlebotomist entered carrying four tubes.
“Just routine bloodwork.”
Marisol frowned.
“She had first-trimester labs last week.”
The woman glanced at the chart.
“There’s an additional genetic panel.”
Elena held out her arm.
Marisol grabbed the chart first.
“Which panel?”
The phlebotomist hesitated.
“Cell-free DNA.”
“That requires one tube, not four.”
The room became silent.
Marisol looked at the labels.
One contained a code.
PAT-CX-001.
Marisol’s face changed.
“What is PAT?”
The woman snatched for the tubes.
Dominic blocked the door.
Elena sat upright.
“What are you testing?”
“No one is testing anything.”
The phlebotomist’s composure cracked.
She shoved past Dominic, but hospital security intercepted her in the corridor.
Within twenty minutes, they discovered she was not scheduled to be on Elena’s floor.
Within forty, they learned she worked occasional shifts for Northstar Medical Consulting.
The same company listed in Eric’s files.
Damian arrived furious.
He held up one of the evidence bags containing the unused tubes.
“They tried to steal your blood.”
“For what?”
“Paternity.”
Elena stared at him.
“You told your family the baby wasn’t yours.”
“I did.”
“Then why are they trying to prove otherwise?”
“Maybe they aren’t trying to prove it.”
Eric, standing in the corner, suddenly spoke.
“They’re trying to create it.”
Everyone looked at him.
Eric continued.
“Northstar controls several private laboratories. Victor used one to falsify drug screens during a labor dispute two years ago.”
Elena’s stomach turned.
“You think he could fake a DNA test?”
“I think he could fake anything printed on paper.”
Damian looked toward the window.
“And once the public believes the child is mine, a fraudulent paternity report makes it official enough to create leverage.”
“What leverage?”
Damian did not answer immediately.
Eric did.
“The Cross family trust.”
Elena looked between them.
Damian finally explained.
His grandfather had created a controlling trust decades earlier.
Victor temporarily controlled several voting interests, but Damian remained the principal heir.
A recognized child of Damian’s would gain future rights to enormous assets.
More importantly, the mother of that child could become a pressure point.
“So Victor wants my baby because of money?”
“Not your baby,” Damian said quietly.
“He wants control over me.”
That afternoon, Victor Cross walked into Elena’s hospital room without knocking.
He looked nothing like a monster.
Silver hair.
Expensive navy coat.
Perfect manners.
He even brought flowers.
“Miss Carter.”
Damian stood.
“Get out.”
Victor ignored him.
“I apologize for the chaos surrounding you.”
“You sent someone to take my blood,” Elena said.
Victor smiled sadly.
“An accusation without evidence.”
“We have the tubes.”
“You have tubes.”
Damian stepped between them.
“Leave.”
Victor placed the flowers on a table.
Then removed a folded paper from his coat.
“I thought Miss Carter might want this.”
Elena unfolded it.
Her hands began shaking.
It was a signed statement from Eric.
I, Eric Sloan, deny biological paternity of Elena Carter’s unborn child.
Beneath it was Eric’s signature.
Elena looked at him.
“Did you sign this?”
Eric went pale.
“No.”
Victor smiled.
“Of course he did.”
“That’s not my signature.”
“It was witnessed.”
“By whom?”
Victor’s smile widened.
“A man who is no longer available to ask.”
Damian moved toward his uncle.
Victor did not retreat.
“You are losing control, Damian.”
“No. I’m finally understanding what control looks like.”
Victor leaned close enough that only they could hear.
“You have seventy-two hours to return what Eric stole.”
“And if I don’t?”
Victor glanced at Elena’s stomach.
Then smiled.
Damian’s expression became lethal.
Victor left.
That evening, Elena received a voicemail from an unknown number.
She almost deleted it.
Then she heard a familiar voice.
Eric’s.
But Eric was standing ten feet away.
The recording had been made earlier.
“Elena, if you’re hearing this, something went wrong.”
Everyone froze.
Eric stared at the phone.
“I didn’t send that.”
His recorded voice continued.
“Victor will tell you the ledger is about money.”
Static crackled.
“It isn’t.”
Elena raised the volume.
“The money is only the surface. There’s another file. A list of names.”
Damian went still.
“What names?” Elena whispered.
The recording continued.
“Judges. Officers. Contractors. Doctors. People Victor owns.”
Another burst of static.
Then Eric’s voice dropped.
“And one person inside Damian’s security team.”
Dominic slowly looked around the room.
Every guard did the same.
The message continued.
“That person knows every safe location Damian uses.”
A sound came from the condominium hallway.
A soft electronic beep.
The secure elevator had just been activated.
Damian reached inside his coat.
May you like
Dominic drew his weapon.
Then every light in the apartment went out.
