THE TRUTH BEGINS TO CRACK OPEN

Dr. Harris cleared his throat.

“There is… one more thing.”

Lily braced herself.

“We ran a secondary panel. The child’s genetic profile matches someone already in our system.”

Alexander’s entire body went rigid.

Lily’s voice cracked.

“Who?”

Dr. Harris read from the chart.

“The biological father is… Daniel Cole.”

Lily gasped.

Daniel Cole — the clinic’s lead embryologist.
A man arrested last year for falsifying records.

A man who vanished before his trial.

Lily felt sick.

Dr. Harris continued:

“And the biological mother is… Lily Brooks.”

Everything inside her collapsed.

She whispered, barely audible:

“I… WHAT?”

Alexander grabbed her shoulders.

“Lily — listen — they must have—”

She jerked away.

“No! No, this can’t be real!”

But it was.

The test results didn’t lie.

The baby she was carrying was hers.

Her egg.
Her genetics.
Her DNA.

And the father was a criminal who had disappeared.

The Reeds’ embryo was never used.

Alexander paced the room, shaking his head.

“This is going to destroy everything. The contract— the legal rights— the custody— Victoria will—”

Lily felt like she was going to faint.

“Alexander,” she whispered, “I’m carrying my own child?”

He turned to her slowly.

And that’s when she saw it—

real fear in his eyes.

He whispered:

“Lily… there’s something else I haven’t told you.”

Her heart dropped.

“What?”

He swallowed hard.

“Victoria doesn’t know you’re pregnant.”

Lily froze.

“What do you mean?”

“She— she didn’t want the surrogate to carry full-term. She wanted selective termination if the embryo wasn’t perfect.”
His voice cracked.
“I fought her. I hid your pregnancy from her.”

Lily’s blood turned cold.

“You HID it?!”

Alexander stepped closer.

“I couldn’t let her kill this baby. Even before I knew the truth.”

Lily backed away.

“So what happens now?”

Alexander looked at her with an expression she had never seen before.

Soft.
Broken.
Terrified.

“Now,” he said quietly, “Victoria is on her way. She knows something is wrong.”

Lily’s stomach twisted.

“She thinks the baby is hers,” Alexander whispered.
“But when she finds out it’s not — when she finds out it’s yours — she will stop at NOTHING to take it.”

The hallway outside erupted in footsteps.

Dr. Harris ran to the door.

Alexander grabbed Lily’s hand.

His voice dropped to an urgent warning:

“Whatever happens next, Lily… protect that baby.
Because it’s yours.
And Victoria will destroy anyone who stands in her way.”

The door burst open.

Victoria Reed stormed in.

And the nightmare truly began