Chapter 10 - The first time Sabella learned about Adrian
Sabella claimed she had always believed Adrian was biologically mine.
At first, evidence supported that she could have.
The conception window overlapped two men.
Me.
And a man named Matthew Keene.
A commercial photographer she had dated intermittently.
Sabella and Matthew separated.
Then she and I had one brief encounter months before we became a real couple.
She became pregnant.
She told Matthew he could not be the father because dates did not fit.
She told me the dates did.
Neither statement was certain.
That was not yet fraud.
People can be wrong.
Then investigators found an email from a private prenatal clinic.
Sabella had undergone a noninvasive prenatal paternity screening.
Not a forensic test.
A medical consumer service.
Result:
Draven Sinclair unlikely paternal match.
Matthew Keene strongly consistent.
The report included disclaimers recommending postnatal confirmation.
Date:
Seven months before Adrian’s birth.
Sabella had it.
She knew there was serious reason to doubt me.
She never told me.
Instead, after Adrian was born, she told me:
“The doctor confirmed the dates. He’s yours.”
That moved the issue from uncertainty toward deception.
Still, a consumer prenatal screening would not decide legal paternity by itself.
May you like
But it explained why the trust test terrified her.
────────────────────
