Chapter 7 - The Blood Sample
Toby stepped forward from behind Sophia’s skirt.
He reached inside the deep interior pocket of the police jacket Frank had draped over him.
He pulled out a small, sealed glass tube containing dried brown powder and a faded plastic medical tag.
“Martha said the rich man’s lawyers would try to lie with paper,” Toby spoke, his voice clear, steady, and loud.
He set the glass vial directly on top of Julian’s legal documents.
Attached to the vial was an official, unbroken crimson wax seal from the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office of New York.
The label read: OCTOBER 14, 2018 — INFANT STERLING UMBILICAL SPECIMEN.
Julian’s hand jerked back from the table as if the glass were made of hot coals.
“Where did she get that?!” Julian hissed, his aristocratic composure finally crumbling.
“Martha was the head surgical scrub nurse during your delivery, Julian,” Frank said, stepping around the table.
“She knew your father’s habits.”
“She knew the old man would try to alter the state birth ledgers to protect the London trust.”
Frank tapped the crimson wax seal.
“Before your father could smuggle the baby out of the nursery, Martha drew an official umbilical blood sample, had it certified by the attending coroner, and registered it in the national genetic crime database under a blind homicide inquiry.”
Sophia looked down at the vial, feeling an electric shock of triumph course through her veins.
“Run the rapid forensic swab, Frank,” Sophia commanded.
Frank pulled a mobile rapid-DNA testing terminal from his utility belt.
He took a tiny scraping from the dried blood on the seal, then swabbed the inside of Toby’s cheek.
He inserted both cartridges into the portable machine.
The digital screen glowed amber, humming softly as thirty seconds of agonizing silence ticked by.
Julian’s corporate lawyers glanced at each other, slowly closing their briefcases.
The terminal gave three sharp, high-pitched chimes.
The screen flashed bright green:
DIRECT BIOLOGICAL MATCH: 99.99%.
MATERNAL DONOR: SOPHIA STERLING.
PATERNAL DONOR: EXCLUDED.
The entire room went completely, terrifyingly silent.
Julian froze in his chair, his jaw hanging open in pure, petrified shock.
“Paternal donor… excluded?” Julian stammered, staring at the green text.
“What does that mean?”
Sophia slowly turned her head toward her husband, a cold, devastating smile spreading across her lips.
“It means you were so busy calculating your inheritance trust, Julian…” Sophia whispered.
May you like
“You never realized Toby wasn't yours.”
Whose son was Toby, and why did that reveal destroy Julian’s entire empire?
