Chapter 5 - THE FALSE PATERNITY REPORT
The laboratory named on the report existed.
That made the document more convincing than a crude fake.
But the case number did not.
The lab had no record of Maeve.
No record of me.
No chain-of-custody samples.
No twins.
The physician signature belonged to a former medical director.
He confirmed he had not signed it.
The template looked like an authentic lab form from several years earlier.
Where did Octavia get it?
The Ferretti family had used the same laboratory for unrelated genetic testing during an inheritance dispute more than a decade earlier.
Old reports existed in family-office archives.
Investigators found a blanked template on a computer formerly assigned to Octavia’s executive assistant.
Not proof Octavia herself typed the false result.
But the metadata showed the file was created under her office credentials.
Then my supposed acknowledgment letter to Maeve.
My signature looked good.
Too good.
It had been lifted from a legitimate board-consent document.
A forensic examiner found the exact source because one ink irregularity had become part of the scan.
My signature had been copied digitally.
Then printed.
No one physically forged my hand with a pen.
More precise.
The letter said I accepted a two-million-dollar family settlement and agreed not to claim the twins.
I had never seen it.
Then the letter supposedly from Maeve to me.
It said she accepted the settlement and wanted no contact.
Her signature had been copied from the real payment agreement.
Two false letters.
One false lab report.
A real agreement.
A real stream of partial payments.
A system built from enough genuine pieces to survive casual scrutiny.
That was why it lasted five years.
May you like
Not because Octavia had magical control.
Because none of us directly compared documents.
