The Report Marcus Never Expected
Chapter 02 - The Report Marcus Never Expected
The certified report contained three findings.
Emma was twelve weeks pregnant.
A noninvasive prenatal test showed a 99.9 percent probability that Marcus was the father.
And the sparkling water placed at Emma’s seat contained a prescription medication that could cause dizziness and nausea.
Leah turned her phone toward the guests. Her recording showed a server replacing Emma’s glass minutes before Marcus began his toast. Hotel security had already stopped the server, who admitted that Marcus’s assistant paid him to follow instructions.
Marcus slammed his glass onto the table. “She arranged this.”
Leah remained calm. “I oversee laboratory compliance at Hartwell Fertility Center. Your original fertility test was normal. The report you displayed was altered after someone entered our system with a stolen physician password.”
Evelyn stared at the forged document. “Why would Marcus pretend he could not have children?”
Emma answered. “Because my prenuptial agreement transfers my voting shares if he proves infidelity.”
For six months, Emma had blocked Marcus’s proposed sale of Vale Health Systems to Northbridge Capital. The deal would close rural clinics, sell patient data, and give Marcus an enormous bonus. Without Emma’s shares, the vote would pass.
“He told me the merger would save the company,” Evelyn said.
“He told everyone what they needed to hear,” Emma replied.
The envelope also contained clinic access logs and a payment linking the forged report to Vale Strategic Consulting, a company Marcus secretly controlled.
His confidence finally cracked.
“You have no right to discuss this in public,” he told Leah.
“You made the accusation in public,” Leah said. “I am correcting it with Emma’s written permission.”
Marcus raised both hands. “Fine. An investigator gave me the report. I believed it.”
Emma stared at him. “Then how did your assistant know which glass was mine?”
He did not answer.
Evelyn’s phone chimed. The foundation’s attorney had sent an emergency alert: someone was attempting to transfer Emma’s voting shares into a holding company using a digitally signed confession of infidelity.
The signature looked exactly like Emma’s.
She had never signed it.
Leah checked the timestamp.
The document had been created three hours before Marcus accused his wife.
“You planned the verdict before you staged the trial,” Evelyn said.
Then every ballroom screen flickered to life.
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A video appeared of Emma entering a hotel suite with an unknown man.
The date in the corner was the night the child had been conceived.
