Chapter 17 - The Second Key
Detective Vega took Lily’s statement seriously.
“What kind of key?” she asked the next morning.
Lily shrugged.
“Silver.”
“Did Vanessa say what it opened?”
Lily nodded.
“Daddy’s desk.”
Daniel stared.
His home office desk had one locked drawer.
He had not opened it in months.
Claire used to keep household records there.
After she died, Daniel boxed most of her things and rarely touched the drawer.
Police escorted him back to the house.
The drawer showed scratches around the lock.
Someone had opened it.
Inside, beneath old tax folders, was a small fireproof pouch.
Daniel had never seen it.
The zipper was open.
Empty.
But a label remained inside.
LILY - ORIGINAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE / CLAIRE LETTER / DNA DOCUMENT.
Daniel’s heart stopped at the last words.
“DNA document?”
Rachel stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel had no answer.
Vega photographed the pouch.
They searched the rest of the drawer and found a torn corner of an envelope.
A laboratory name was printed on it.
BrightGene Diagnostics.
Vega contacted the company.
After legal verification, they confirmed a private DNA test had been ordered by Claire four years earlier.
Daniel went cold.
Four years earlier.
Before Lily was born.
The report still existed in archived records.
Vega asked Daniel whether he wanted to know the result immediately or through an attorney.
“Now.”
The representative read it.
The tested man was excluded as the biological father of the fetus.
Daniel did not understand.
“I was Lily’s father.”
Rachel grabbed his arm.
“Daniel, maybe the tested man wasn’t you.”
He stared at the phone.
“Whose name was on the sample?”
The representative checked.
“Michael Carter.”
Silence.
Rachel’s face changed.
“What?”
Daniel felt sick.
Why had Claire tested Michael Carter against her unborn child?
Vega asked the lab whether any notes remained.
There was one.
CLIENT REQUESTED TEST DUE TO CLAIM OF PATERNITY AND THREATENED LEGAL ACTION.
Daniel sat down hard.
Michael had claimed Lily was his child.
Rachel whispered, “That’s why Claire was afraid.”
Pieces began shifting into a different shape.
Vanessa and Michael’s obsession with Lily’s trust had not started after Claire’s death.
It had started before Lily was born.
Vega interviewed Michael again.
This time, confronted with the DNA record, he changed his story.
He admitted that years earlier he had threatened Claire with a fake paternity claim after she accused him of fraud.
He believed Daniel would leave her if he created enough doubt.
Claire secretly ordered the test using a discarded cup Michael had used at a mediation meeting.
The result proved Michael’s claim impossible.
“Why keep the report?” Daniel asked.
Vega answered quietly.
“Because Claire knew he might try again.”
Michael also admitted that Vanessa had taken the original report from Daniel’s desk weeks earlier.
“Where is it now?”
Michael looked at his lawyer.
Then at Vega.
“She mailed it.”
“To who?”
Michael hesitated.
“To Daniel’s employer.”
Daniel stared.
“Why?”
“To support the story that you were unstable, paranoid, and hiding a paternity dispute.”
Rachel swore.
Vega’s phone rang.
She answered, listened, and looked at Daniel.
“Your company’s general counsel just contacted police.”
Daniel stood.
“What did they get?”
“A packet accusing you of fraud, mental instability, and misuse of Lily’s trust.”
“From Vanessa?”
“No.”
Vega’s expression tightened.
“It was signed by someone else.”
“Who?”
May you like
“Your business partner, Eric Lawson.”
