Chapter 3 - The Hidden Affair
The fluorescent lights of the maternity ward hummed with a low, electric buzz, a sound that always managed to make the blood run cold. Reid Halbrook stood in the center of the corridor, the tablet in his hand trembling slightly, though he tried to mask it with a sneer. The screen displayed the paternity results in stark, unforgiving black and white: Not a match.
Reid’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He didn’t look at it. He just looked at Camille, whose face had drained of all color, leaving her looking like a wax figure in a department store window. "It’s a clerical error," Camille whispered, her voice cracking. "The lab must have mixed up the samples. It’s impossible otherwise. I only slept with you, Reid."
Reid scoffed, a harsh, jagged sound. "Don't lie to me, Camille. Not when you’re holding my son."
He dialed a number with a finger that was steady only out of sheer rage. He put the phone on speaker and held it up for everyone to hear. "Marcus. Get your ass down to the maternity ward. Now."
Within three minutes, the double doors burst open. Marcus Halbrook stumbled into the room, looking disheveled, his tie loosened, his shirt wrinkled. He looked like a man running from a crime scene. He locked eyes with Reid, and for a split second, Reid saw genuine terror in his brother’s gaze.
"It’s not what you think," Marcus said, his voice tight. He took a step forward, but Reid blocked his path. "I never slept with Camille. I would never do that to you. We’re brothers."
Reid shoved Marcus back against the wall, the impact jarring the boy’s head against the plaster. "A paternity test doesn't lie, Marcus. Unless you want to tell me your DNA is lying, too."
Marcus’s eyes darted nervously to the floor, then back to Reid. "I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't been with her. I swear."
Before Reid could deliver another blow, the soft click of polished dress shoes approached them. A tall figure in a security uniform stepped out from behind a pillar, holding a small, black flash drive.
"Sir," the guard said, his voice flat. "We found this in the parking garage. It was left on a bench near your brother’s car."
Reid froze. He stared at the drive, then at Marcus. The air in the room seemed to thicken, heavy with the smell of impending doom. "What is that?"
"I... I don't know," Marcus stammered, his face paling further.
Lily, who had been standing silently to the side, suddenly moved. She stepped into the circle of light, her movements precise and deliberate. She reached into her purse and pulled out a thick, manila folder. She placed it on the reception desk next to the shattered baby bottle, the plastic crunching under the weight of the evidence.
"You don't need to watch that," Lily said, her voice calm, eerily so. "I’ve already seen it."
She opened the folder and slid a single sheet of paper across the surface. It was a private investigator’s report, dated three months prior.
"Camille," Lily said, looking at the woman who had been her best friend. "I’ve been monitoring your movements since the divorce. I hired a firm to check on you because I was worried about the baby. I didn't expect to find you meeting with my husband’s brother in a parked car in the rain."
Camille’s legs gave out, and she sank into the chair, clutching the baby to her chest as if it were a shield. "It was a mistake," she sobbed. "Just one time. We were both lonely, Reid. I thought... I thought maybe if we did this, if I gave you a child that looked like you, you’d come back to me."
Reid snatched the PI report from the desk, his eyes scanning the dates. Three months before the conception. It was all there. The timestamps, the license plate. It was undeniable.
Reid looked from the paper to his brother, his face twisting into a mask of utter disgust. "You sick bastard," Reid hissed. "You used her to get to me?"
Marcus slumped against the wall, defeated. "I didn't plan for it to go this far. I just... I wanted a piece of the family business. I thought if Camille was pregnant, you’d have to keep me on."
"And the baby?" Reid demanded, his voice rising. "You think that makes it yours?"
Camille looked up, her eyes wide and wet, a desperate, terrifying light burning in them. She shook her head frantically. "No! It’s yours! It has to be!"
She held the infant up, the baby gurgling in her arms, oblivious to the war waging around it. "The test is wrong. It has to be! I haven't slept with Marcus since that one time! I went back to you immediately. The baby is yours, Reid! It has to be!"
Reid stared at the child, then at the glowing screen of the tablet, then at the broken glass on the floor. The silence of the hospital corridor stretched thin, tearing at the edges. The evidence was overwhelming, the lies were tangled, and the truth was slipping away from him, slipping through his fingers like sand.
May you like
"You're lying," Reid whispered, his voice devoid of all power.
"I'm not!" Camille screamed, rising to her feet, her voice rising to a hysterical pitch. "I love that baby! He's Reid's son! He has to be!"
