Andrew went completely still. He rembered what he had heard Adrian say, all those years ago.
Eleanor gasped in shock, her hand flying to cover her mouth.
"This is rubbish," Zara snapped, her eyes widening. "How could he possibly not be your son? These results are fake!"
"Are they?" the Chairman roared suddenly. The calm expression he had tried to keep all evening finally shattered. "Don’t you dare insult my intelligence, Zara!"
He stepped toward her, his face red with rage.
"I trusted you! I defended you against my own family! I gave you everything! But in the end, you chose Adrian, and run away to him. Then after all these years, you bring his son into my ho and lie to my face?"
"I never lied!" Zara shouted back, her face flushing with a mix of anger and confusion.
"Then explain the report!"
"I can’t explain sothing that makes no sense! And for the record, I left because I was protecting my son from soone who’d already tried to kill us."
The Chairman’s hands were shaking. He looked like he wanted to strangle her.
"No one tried to kill you. It’s all in your crazy head."
Eleanor finally stepped forward. "Everyone, please. Calm down."
They all turned to look at her.
"One test does not reveal the full truth," she said softly. "People can manipulate lab results. Even docunts can be forged. Now, before this family tears itself apart, we need to verify everything properly. I think we need to conduct another test."
Zara pointed at Eleanor with a nod. "You see? Even Eleanor knows this is ridiculous! How do you explain the first test then? The one that proved he was yours? Explain that!"
The Chairman didn’t look at Zara.
"We are not verifying anything," he said, turning to Andrew, who was standing like a statue.
"Do you rember our coffee yesterday, Andrew? You left your cup on my desk, right?"
He walked towards him.
"Well I used that cup for a fourth test," the Chairman continued. "The first three results should have been enough to make believe. But I personally took the cup in myself, for a fourth one."
Eleanor shook her head in disbelief. "Oh my God."
Zara looked genuinely confused. The world was spinning beneath her feet.
"This is not possible," she whispered. "This... this can’t be true."
"You want to know how the first test said he was mine?" the Chairman asked, his voice shaking with a cold, bitter laughter. "I wondered that too. So I had the lab look into the old files. It turns out, soone was very clever. They switched the results. The original one, said he wasn’t mine."
He walked to stand in front of Zara.
"Andrew is the living reminder of how you played for a fool for more than two decades. I mourned him when I thought I had lost you both. And when you returned, I was happiest. Why? Because my family was now complete."
Zara was still shaking her head back and forth, her mind racing.
"It’s a mistake. The lab made a mistake!"
The Chairman’s face turned red all over again. "I want you two to leave my house. Now."
In that instant, Andrew turned and walked out the front door.
Zara glared at him. "This is your plan to get rid of us, with fake docunts. I don’t believe any of this nonsense. I know who fathered my son, and it’s you."
The chairman signalled two n standing behind Edward."
"Pack everything belonging to this woman, and throw her out of my house."
They nodded and rushed upstairs.
"I had everything in your house replaced today. My boys will help you pack. I want you out of here, now!."
He then turned and left the room.
"How could you do this, Zara?" Eleanor said staring at her with disgust. "He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve any of what you’ve put him through. With my brother and with everything."
"I didn’t do anything wrong!" Zara cried out. "I’m not denying that I was with Adrian later on, but Eleanor, think about the dates! I didn’t even et Adrian until after Andrew was born. It’s impossible for him to be his son."
Eleanor’s brow furrowed. She paused for a mont. Zara had a point.
"Wait," Eleanor said, looking confused. "Are you saying Andrew belongs to soone else? Were you seeing another man back then?"
"No! Of course not! Then what does this an? If he isn’t the Chairman’s son, and he isn’t Adrian’s son... then whose son are you carrying around?"
Zara looked up, her eyes wide and filled with a new kind of horror. "I don’t know," she whispered. "I swear to God, Eleanor... I don’t know."
The doors opened again. A man stepped into the room, his presence imdiately commanding respect. It was Prince Sebastian. The crown prince of a distant land.
He was the Chairman’s oldest and closest friend, the only man who truly knew the secrets of the Grant family.
"I could hear everything from the hallway," he said to them. "If I may say sothing Zara. If what you just said to Eleanor is true, perhaps you should consider having a DNA test to confirm, if Andrew is your son. I an no disrespect."
He turned and went after his friend.
Zara looked at the empty doorway where Prince Sebastian had just stood. She turned and walked up the stairs.
.....
Back in Julian’s penthouse...
He sat in the dim light of the living room, the blue glow of his laptop screen reflecting in his eyes. Lyvana was asleep in the bedroom.
He clicked on the file Lily had just sent. It was a surveillance clip from the local police station, tistamped April 15th, the day everything began.
Julian leaned forward, his eyes narrowing as the grainy footage flickered to life.
The scene was mundane at first: a busy precinct lobby, officers walking by with coffee, and two young won sitting at a side desk cluttered with notebooks.
He recognized Lyvana and Emily.
Emily got up and walked towards the other end of the station.
Lyvana sat alone now, writing sothing in her book.
Then, the footage stuttered.
A wave of static covered the screen in thick, ssy lines. The clock in the corner went crazy, with the seconds jumping back and forth.
Julian frowned, reaching out to adjust the playback, but then the interference cleared as quickly as it had arrived.
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