Chapter 9 - The Baby Was Never His
Courtney read the report again.
Then she looked at Jared.
“This says you’re excluded as the biological father.”
Jared did not answer.
Her voice rose.
“You told me the test confirmed it.”
“The report is complicated.”
“It says zero percent.”
Shelby watched Jared calculate his next lie.
Courtney’s pregnancy had been presented as the reason for everything.
But Jared already knew the child was not his.
Why would he continue the affair?
Why would he promise to make the baby an heir?
Shelby looked at the remaining pages.
“Who is the father?”
Courtney clutched the report.
“I don’t know.”
Erin gave her a disbelieving look.
Courtney’s eyes filled with humiliation.
“I underwent fertility treatment.”
The room went quiet.
“Jared arranged it,” she continued. “He said his sperm count was low.”
Shelby felt another piece fall into place.
The baby had been conceived through a clinic.
That meant records could be altered.
Donor material could be selected.
A child’s identity could be manipulated before birth.
Dr. Mercer bent down and picked up another document.
His face turned gray.
“This is a genetic profile.”
Shelby held out her hand.
“Give it to me.”
Jared moved toward him.
Mercer handed the page to Erin instead.
The profile listed the biological father as an anonymous donor.
But beneath the donor code was an internal reference number.
Shelby recognized it.
It matched the patient ID from her late brother Daniel’s fertility-storage account.
Daniel had died in a boating accident nine years earlier.
Before chemotherapy treatment in his twenties, he had stored genetic material at a private clinic.
Shelby’s father had maintained the storage fees until his death.
Jared had handled the family’s administrative payments afterward.
Shelby’s mouth went dry.
Courtney’s unborn child was biologically connected to Shelby’s family.
Not through Jared.
Through Shelby’s dead brother.
That was how Jared planned to satisfy the trust’s biological-heir clause.
He had used Daniel’s preserved genetic material without authorization.
Courtney stared at the paper.
“No.”
Shelby’s voice became almost inaudible.
“You’re carrying my brother’s child.”
Courtney backed into the wall.
“No. Jared said the donor was anonymous.”
“He lied.”
Jared grabbed for the document.
Erin pulled it away.
The door burst open.
Two hospital security officers entered, followed by the night administrator.
Jared immediately restored his calm expression.
“My wife is experiencing postoperative confusion. These people are upsetting her.”
Shelby held up the phone.
“I have his confession.”
The administrator looked at Dr. Mercer.
“Is Mrs. Hale capable of making decisions?”
Mercer straightened.
“Yes.”
The single word destroyed Jared’s final medical defense.
Courtney began shaking.
“What happens to my baby?”
Shelby looked at her.
Despite everything, the child was innocent.
But before Shelby could answer, Melissa picked up one final page from the floor.
It was a scheduled transfer order.
Shelby was supposed to be moved at 2:00 a.m.
The destination was not a psychiatric hospital.
May you like
It was a private airfield.
👉 Jared had never planned to confine Shelby in Chicago—he intended to remove her from the country before anyone discovered the surgery.
