Chapter 11 - A FATHER FOR SEVEN WEEKS
Alexander approached the baby like he was afraid Noah might disappear.
Elena lifted him carefully.
“He likes being held upright.”
Alexander nodded.
His hands trembled.
“I don’t know how.”
“You’ll learn.”
She placed Noah against his chest.
The baby shifted.
Then settled.
Alexander looked down.
Noah opened his eyes.
Alexander’s face crumpled.
For three years, he had believed Elena was dead.
For eight months, he had believed Vanessa carried his child.
For seven weeks, his actual son had existed somewhere in the world without him knowing.
“I’m sorry.”
Elena looked at him.
“For what?”
“I wasn’t there.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have found you.”
“You thought I was dead.”
“I should have questioned it.”
Elena touched his arm.
“Alexander.”
He looked at her.
“This was done to both of us.”
For the first time, they stopped seeing each other as people who had failed.
They saw the machinery that had separated them.
Charles.
Pierce.
Cynthia.
Fake documents.
False medical records.
Manipulated evidence.
One lie layered over another until neither could see the truth.
But there was still one piece missing.
Why had Charles gone so far?
The answer arrived the next morning.
Robert Hale found an old document inside Charles’s private files.
A DNA report.
Alexander read it.
May you like
Then looked at his father through the interrogation-room glass.
The report showed Charles Whitmore was not Alexander’s biological father.
