Chapter 2 - The Missing Credentials
Tyler forced a laugh.
“You’re not a doctor.”
“No,” General Hale replied. “But I know what an authenticated laboratory report looks like.”
He laid the pages flat on the island.
There was no laboratory director’s signature.
No certification number.
No chain-of-custody record.
The collection date appeared only as handwritten ink.
Carol folded her arms.
“Those are technicalities. The result says Tyler isn’t the father.”
“The result was printed on a template,” Hale said. “It doesn’t identify who collected the samples or how they were verified.”
Harper stared at the document.
Tyler had shown it to his entire family before she arrived home from a twelve-day training assignment.
He had allowed them to sit in judgment while he prepared to throw her and Ava outside.
“Where did you get it?” Harper asked.
Tyler’s jaw tightened.
“A private lab.”
“Which one?”
“It’s confidential.”
General Hale’s gaze sharpened.
“A laboratory conducting legal paternity testing is not confidential from the person whose child was supposedly tested.”
Harper looked down at Ava.
A tiny red mark was visible inside the baby’s cheek.
Her blood went cold.
“You took a sample from her?”
Tyler said nothing.
Harper’s eyes lifted slowly.
“You touched my daughter while I was gone.”
Carol stepped forward.
“We had every right.”
Harper tightened her hold on Ava.
“No. You didn’t.”
General Hale turned the final page over.
A faint impression had been left in the paper from something written on the sheet above it.
Three words were barely visible.
May you like
MAKE HER LEAVE.
👉 The report was not merely false—it had been prepared as part of a plan to force Harper out of her own home.
