Chapter 93 Breaking Points
EMMA'S POV
I found Lisa in a stairwell completely broken and shaking. I sat beside her on the cold concrete steps and did not speak because there were no words that could fix this. I just held her while Lisa sobbed with her entire body trembling against mine.
"A sibling. I could have had a little brother or sister. They took that from me too." Lisa's hands moved protectively over her belly in a gesture that was becoming automatic. "And now I'm pregnant and I don't even know who the father is and everyone around me is dying or lying or leaving."
"I know who the father is," I blurted out before I could stop myself.
"What?" Lisa looked up at me with red swollen eyes that were filled with desperate hope and fear mixed together.
I took a deep breath and tried to steady my racing heart. "I lied earlier when I said I didn't know. I do know. Because I was there that night, the night you were drugged after defeating Sophia's challenge. I helped the pack doctor prepare your medications. And Lisa, there's something you need to know about that night."
Lisa grabbed my arm hard enough to leave marks. "Tell me. Everything."
My voice shook as I spoke. "The doctor gave you a double dose of pain medication like he said he would. But what he didn't tell anyone, what I only discovered later when I went back through medical records, is that particular medication has a rare side effect. It can cause vivid hallucinations that are indistinguishable from reality."
Lisa's face went completely white. "No. I remember Ryan. I remember him being there with me."
"Do you? Clearly? Or do you remember fragments that might have been dreams mixed with reality?" I pulled out the medical records I had been carrying in my bag for days now. "I've been investigating this privately. That night, Ryan left you at midnight exactly like he said he did. The security footage confirms it without question. But there's a gap of two hours where the cameras in your hallway were mysteriously offline."
Lisa was shaking harder now and her breathing became shallow and quick. I could see panic rising in her eyes as she tried to piece together memories that suddenly felt unreliable. The medication had been strong enough to knock out a full grown wolf and Lisa had taken a double dose after fighting Sophia. Her body had been broken and bruised and the pain must have been unbearable.
"What are you saying?" Lisa's voice came out as barely a whisper.
"I'm saying someone else was in your room during those two hours. Someone who knew the cameras were offline beforehand. Someone who had access to your quarters and motivations to take advantage of the situation." I trailed off because I could not bring myself to finish the sentence out loud.
"To what? To sleep with me while I was drugged? Who would do something like that?" Lisa stopped speaking suddenly. I watched her face change as she remembered something important. A detail she had pushed away or ignored until now. "There was a scent that night. Not quite Ryan's scent but similar. Related somehow."
"Nathan," Lisa breathed out his name like a prayer or a curse.
I nodded miserably and felt tears burning behind my own eyes. "I found his access log in the security system. He entered your quarters at one forty seven in the morning. Left at three twenty three. Lisa, I think Nathan, the night before he died, might have been the one who was with you."
She could not finish my sentence but we both knew what I was implying. Lisa's world fractured again and I watched the pieces fall around her like broken glass that cut deep.
"Nathan? Sweet patient Nathan who loved me hopelessly? Who said he would wait forever for me? Who died protecting me from rogues?" Lisa's voice was raw with betrayal and confusion and grief all mixed together. "He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't violate me without my consent. Nathan wasn't like that."
"Unless he thought you were consenting. Unless the drugs made you think he was Ryan and he thought you knew it was actually him the whole time." I was crying now too and the tears ran hot down my face. "I think Nathan believed that night was his one chance with you. His only opportunity before you chose Ryan or Adrian forever. Before everything went wrong and he lost you completely. Maybe he convinced himself it was okay because you seemed willing."
Lisa stood abruptly and swayed on her feet like she might fall. I reached out to steady her but she pulled away from my touch. "I need a paternity test. Now. Today. I can't live with this uncertainty anymore. I need to know whose baby I'm carrying inside me."
I helped steady her even though she had pulled away initially. My hands gripped her shoulders gently. "They can do it. Non invasive prenatal paternity test. They just need blood samples from you and the potential fathers. But Lisa, if it's Nathan's baby, he's dead. He can't be a father to this child. If it's Ryan's baby, he's human now and can't protect you like he used to be able to. Either way, this situation is incredibly complicated and messy."
"Everything about my life is complicated," Lisa said bitterly and the defeat in her voice broke my heart into pieces. "When did anything ever work out simply for me? What did I do to deserve all of this?"
We headed toward the hospital lab together with slow careful steps. The fluorescent lights overhead buzzed softly and the sound seemed too loud in the quiet hallway. The smell of antiseptic was sharp in my nose and made my stomach turn. My own pregnancy made me sensitive to every smell and the hospital odors were overwhelming and nauseating. But as we walked down the hallway toward the lab, Marcus Krane appeared suddenly around a corner and blocked our path with his large frame filling the entire space.
He looked determined and nervous at the same time. His eyes found mine first and held my gaze for a long moment before shifting to Lisa. "Lisa. I need five minutes of your time. About Emma. About my child that she's carrying. About making this right between us."