Chapter 3 - THE REPORT THAT NEVER EXISTED
Priya arrived at the hospital before sunrise.
She wore yesterday’s clothes beneath a wool coat and carried two phones.
“What did you sign?”
“Nothing.”
“Good.”
“What did you give them?”
“Nothing.”
“Better.”
Then she looked at the bruises on my arms.
Her expression hardened.
“You understand this is no longer a family financial dispute.”
“I know.”
“No.”
She leaned closer.
“The criminal case belongs to law enforcement.”
“The debt belongs to civil counsel.”
“The divorce belongs to family court.”
“Do not let anger mix them together.”
That was why I hired Priya.
She could make revenge sound embarrassing.
We reviewed the alleged paternity report.
I only had a screenshot Nathan texted during our argument.
Priya enlarged it.
“Laboratory name?”
“Midwest Genomic Services.”
She called.
The lab had no record under my name.
No record under Nathan’s.
No specimen identification matching the report.
The document was fake.
Not mistaken.
Fake.
Its logo had been copied from a legitimate testing company.
The report number did not follow the laboratory’s formatting.
Even before forensic analysis, it collapsed.
Nathan had never verified it.
That mattered to me more emotionally than legally.
He had seen a document accusing his pregnant wife of infidelity and never made one phone call.
Later, digital investigators found the PDF on Judith’s laptop.
Created using a template file downloaded four days earlier.
Metadata showed editing through software registered to:
Elise Caldwell.
Nathan’s sister.
That was the moment I nearly broke.
Elise.
The woman who stood beside me while I begged.
The woman who watched dirt climb around my body.
Priya noticed.
“Abby.”
“She made it.”
“Metadata suggests her device was involved.”
“She made it.”
“We don’t know whether she authored all of it.”
I hated those distinctions.
Needed them.
Elise eventually asked to speak with investigators without her family present.
What she said changed the case.
Judith created the plan.
Elise assembled the fake report.
Graham knew the report was false.
Nathan?
Elise said she did not know how much Nathan knew before the estate confrontation.
“He wanted proof Abby cheated.”
“Mom told him she had it.”
“Did you tell Nathan it was fake?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Elise cried.
“Because my mother said if Abby had the baby and the debt stayed in place, the family company could lose control of the east development.”
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That sentence led us to the next truth.
The money was bigger than I knew.
