Chapter 10 - The Wrong Father
The second sample had come from an old hospital blood card labeled with Dante’s name.
Calder wanted a fresh sample before anyone drew conclusions. Isabella agreed. Dante agreed, too, the moment he heard Leo was alive.
“I want to see him,” he said.
“After the test,” Isabella replied.
“Isabella, I thought he was dead.”
“So did I.”
That was the only comfort she could give him.
By the next afternoon, the new result was clear: Dante was Leo’s father. The old blood card had been switched.
“Why make it look as though he wasn’t?” Mara asked.
“Because Celia needed Dante to doubt the boy if we found him,” Isabella said.
Calder thought there was another reason. “The original card might have been used to falsify other records. We’re tracing it.”
Isabella had imagined her son’s survival as one enormous question. Each answer had revealed another person who had been willing to use him.
Annie brought Leo to a supervised visit in a quiet family room. There were crayons on the table and a toy truck on the rug.
Isabella arrived early. When Leo came in, he stood close to Annie’s leg.
“Hi,” Isabella said.
“Hi.”
“I’m Isabella.”
“I know.” He looked at her stomach. “Is there a baby in there?”
“There is.”
“Is it loud?”
“Sometimes.”
Leo considered that, then pushed the toy truck toward her. She rolled it back. They did that for ten minutes before he asked if she knew how to draw a boat.
She drew a lopsided one. Leo laughed and corrected the sail.
When the visit ended, he waved. Isabella waited until the door closed before she let herself cry.
Dante met Leo separately. He emerged with red eyes and a crayon drawing in his hand. For once, he had nothing to say about how the situation should be handled.
Calder called them both into her office later that day.
She had found payments from Celia’s companies to Harbor Family Services. The first had been made two days before Leo’s birth. Another had been made on the day the hospital listed him as dead.
“She planned the transfer before Isabella delivered,” Calder said.
Dante stared at the payments. “Why?”
“Money,” Elias said. “The foundation transfer and the hospital papers use the same outside attorney. Celia paid him through the first shell company.”
Calder slid over a page from the attorney’s files. It contained notes from a meeting held six weeks before Leo’s birth.
Isabella read the first line.
Client fears Isabella’s control of foundation assets will pass to child if marriage ends.
She looked at Dante.
“Were you planning to leave me?”
“No.”
“You were having me followed then. I found the invoices.”
Dante shook his head. “Celia said someone was stealing from the foundation. She wanted to check whether you were involved.”
“And you agreed.”
“Yes.”
Isabella returned to the page.
The final line was written in Celia’s hand.
If boy remains, Isabella never signs.
“What was I supposed to sign?” Isabella asked.
May you like
Elias reached for the next sheet. He read it, and his face hardened.
“A new trust,” he said. “It would have given Celia control of the foundation if your child died.”
