MY BILLIONAIRE EX THREW $30 AT ME WHEN I WAS PREGNANT AND SAID: "TAKE IT AND DISAPPEAR!" 10 YEARS LATER, I SAW HIM ON TV TELLING MILLIONS: "MY GREATEST REGRET IS THAT I NEVER HAD CHILDREN." I LOOKED AT THE 10-YEAR-OLD TWINS SLEEPING BESIDE ME—BOTH CARRYING HIS UNMISTAKABLE FACE—AND LAUGHED. THEN I TEXTED MY LAWYER: "GET THE INVITATIONS READY. WE'RE ATTENDING HIS COMPANY GALA."

"Ethan, stop!" a weak, raspy voice called out from the library doorway.

We turned around. Standing near the entrance, leaning heavily on a wooden cane, was an old man dressed in a white linen suit. His eyes were sunken, his face pale—Dr. Aris Thorne, the former head of the Vance private medical team who had vanished eight years ago.

"Dr. Thorne?" Ethan lowered his gun slightly, his brow furrowing in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"Julian dragged me here tonight to fabricate the secondary DNA report," Dr. Thorne gasped out, holding up a yellowed, wax-sealed medical envelope. "He threatened to turn my family over to international authorities if I didn't forge the donor records!"

"Fabricate?" I repeated, stepping forward, keeping Noah behind my back. "What do you mean 'fabricate'?"

Dr. Thorne walked slowly across the room, handing the sealed envelope directly to me.

"Ten years ago, when Ethan’s father ordered me to swap the embryo lines to disinherit your child..." Dr. Thorne explained, his voice filled with deep regret, "I couldn't do it. I couldn't ruin an innocent mother's life. I pretended to execute the swap, but I used Ethan’s direct biological line."

My hands shook violently as I tore open the wax seal, pulling out the faded, original 10-year-old hospital delivery log.

At the bottom of the document, printed in official state lab ink, were the master genetic markers:

Child: Noah Vance-Moretti