Snatched a Billionaire to Be My Husband – Episode 44
The paternity report used Byron’s legal name, Cora’s hospital identification, and the correct gestational dates. Its conclusion was unambiguous. Yet neither Cora nor Byron had authorized prenatal paternity testing, and the laboratory listed on the page had closed two years earlier.
Cora watched Byron read it once. His face revealed shock but not doubt in her. “Someone wants this to hurt before we examine it,” he said. She had expected anger on her behalf; his calm certainty reached deeper. Easton had once treated suspicion as permission to abandon her. Byron treated it as a reason to protect the facts.
They sent the report to independent forensic analysts and focused on finding Lydia. Police discovered footprints leading from the wreck to a maintenance road, then tire marks from a second vehicle. The blood matched Lydia, but the amount suggested an injury rather than death.
News of the paternity report appeared online before dawn. Anonymous accounts claimed Cora fabricated her pregnancy to secure the Hansen fortune and then used the Vale inheritance to conceal the fraud. The same intimate accusation once made by the corrupt chairman returned with new documents attached.
Hansen Holdings’ board requested a private explanation. Byron refused to discuss Cora’s medical information and reminded directors that his marriage was not a corporate asset. The boundary cost the company several points in early trading, but he did not ask Cora to make a public statement to stabilize it.
Cora chose to speak anyway, on her own terms. At Nocturne’s scheduled benefit, she told reporters that stolen medical information had been falsified and that law enforcement was investigating Lydia’s disappearance. She would release verified facts when doing so no longer endangered anyone.
A reporter shouted that Byron deserved proof. Cora answered, “My husband deserves the truth, and so do I. Neither of us owes strangers access to my pregnancy.” Byron stood several feet away, allowing her words to remain hers.
The forensic team found that the report’s template came from an old Vale laboratory archive. Its metadata had been rebuilt forty-eight hours earlier on Mercer’s government laptop. The samples listed on the form had never entered any accredited testing system.
The public lie was exposed, but the substituted genetic screening remained real. Dr. Kim compared Cora’s blood type with the recorded sample and confirmed they could not match. Someone had replaced her specimen before testing, then used the false result to construct a hereditary risk.
Dr. Kim repeated the legitimate examinations rather than relying on any copied chart. The ultrasound showed normal development, and no current evidence suggested a cardiac problem. Relief arrived cautiously; after so many altered records, even reassuring data needed a chain of custody before Cora could trust it.
She asked the technician to explain each label and seal as the samples were collected. Byron listened beside her without answering on her behalf. By the time the final tube entered a locked carrier, the procedure felt less like medicine performed upon her and more like knowledge she had actively reclaimed.
Carter traced the replacement sample to a refrigerated shipment from Vale Women’s Health. It belonged to a patient identified only as M-27, treated under a sealed research program. The marker associated with Roland’s family suggested the donor was another Vale descendant.
Adrian and Celeste denied knowing of any relative in the program. Roland’s medical files revealed no acknowledged children beyond them and Cora. Miriam, from federal custody, requested legal immunity before answering questions about M-27.
Cora refused to negotiate directly. Prosecutors offered Miriam limited protection for truthful information, not immunity from earlier crimes. She then admitted that Evelyn had not been the only pregnant woman hidden from the Vale family twenty-seven years ago.
Marcus maintained a private maternity program for women connected to Vale men. Children who might complicate inheritance were given new identities, while biological samples were stored in case the family later needed compatible donors. Miriam helped one infant disappear but never learned where the child went.
The infant was born within days of Cora. The file designation was M-27. If alive, that person could be Cora’s half sibling and another claimant to the guardian trust. Mercer might be using the sample to manufacture a rival heir.
Samuel Reed regained consciousness long enough to sign the contingency authorization. The assets could now support Vale payrolls under independent supervision, removing the financial pressure to recognize any heir immediately. Someone responded by filing an emergency lawsuit to stop the transfer.
The plaintiff called herself Mara Cross. Her filing included a DNA analysis identifying Roland as her father and Miriam as her legal guardian. She claimed Cora’s evidence was fraudulent and demanded control of the contingency account as the rightful protected descendant.
Miriam reacted with genuine horror when shown the name. She had never adopted a child and said Cross was being used deliberately to implicate her. The only Mara she knew was her younger sister, who died before Cora was born.
Then Cora received a photograph from Lydia’s phone. It showed Lydia alive beside a young woman whose features echoed Cora’s own. The message beneath it read: Withdraw your claim before the hearing, or your sister and the doctor disappear forever.