Chapter 53 Drafted ab

Chapter 53 Drafted ab
Chapter 127: Shattered Certainty

ABEL DONOVAN

Sarah frowned, genuine confusion clouding her professional expression. She set down the sample bag and leaned forward slightly.

"Oh," she said slowly. "Mrs. Annabelle didn't tell you?"

My heart rate immediately kicked up, alarm bells ringing in my head. "What?" I demanded. "She didn't tell me what? What are you talking about?"

"Actually, before you two divorced..." Sarah cleared her throat, clearly uncomfortable but committed to continuing. "She came here to test herself for pregnancy. It was... I remember it clearly because of how happy she was."

I frowned, not understanding where she was going with this, what she was trying to tell me. "And...?" I prompted, my voice coming out sharper than I'd intended.

"It was positive," Sarah said simply, the words dropping like bombs into the space between us. "She was pregnant. And she was so excited that day—genuinely thrilled. I've seen a lot of pregnancy test results, delivered a lot of news, but I've rarely seen someone that purely happy about it. She said she couldn't wait to tell you. I could see the excitement all over her face. She was practically glowing."

I froze completely, feeling like the floor had dropped out from under me, like reality itself was crashing down around my ears.

My mouth moved, but for a moment, no sound came out. Then: "But... Anna never told me she was pregnant."

The words sounded weak, confused, like they were coming from someone else.

"I think that day was your anniversary or something," Sarah continued, her voice gentle now, like she was breaking bad news to a patient. "She mentioned planning something special, wanting to surprise you with the news. She was so excited about how she was going to tell you, about what your reaction would be."

Sarah paused, her expression becoming more troubled.

"But then what I heard next was that you'd divorced her," she finished quietly. "That the marriage had ended. I was shocked—we all were. It seemed so sudden, so unexpected given how happy she'd seemed just days before."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I snapped, anger flaring hot and sudden in my chest. "Why didn't you say something? Mention it? If you knew she was pregnant, if you knew there might be a child—"

Sarah removed her glasses and set them down on the desk carefully, her movements deliberate and controlled. When she looked up at me, her expression was compassionate but firm.

"I never knew you didn't know about the pregnancy," she said calmly. "I assumed she'd told you. And with the circumstances of your divorce, I didn't want to bring up what seemed like old wounds, painful memories."

She took a breath, then continued.

"I met her stepsister, Flora, shortly after the divorce," Sarah explained. "Flora came here for something—I can't remember what exactly. But she mentioned the situation, said that Anna had cheated extensively, that you'd left her because of her infidelity. Given that context, I assumed... well, I assumed either the baby wasn't yours, or you knew about the pregnancy and had rejected it along with rejecting Anna."

Sarah's expression became more apologetic.

"I didn't want to interfere in what seemed like a very painful, very private situation," she said. "So I didn't bother mentioning the pregnancy at all. I thought it would only cause more pain, more complications."

She gestured toward the sample bag on her desk.

"But seeing that child beside Anna at the unveiling party—the photos are everywhere online—I'm very sure now that she's your child, Mr. Donovan," Sarah said with quiet certainty. "The resemblance is unmistakable once you know to look for it. The timeline fits perfectly. Everything points to the same conclusion."

She stood up, moving around her desk to face me more directly.

"I'm so sorry I never mentioned it before," she said, her voice carrying genuine regret. "I thought you knew and had made your choice. I never imagined Anna would keep something like this from you. It seemed... out of character for the woman I knew."

Sarah returned to a more professional tone.

"But we can't just rely on assumptions or physical resemblance," she continued. "We'll have to do proper testing to be absolutely sure. You'll need to go to the lab room where they'll collect the necessary samples from you—blood, saliva, whatever's needed for comparison. Then I'll send both samples to our genetics lab for analysis. I'll call you personally as soon as the results come back. It usually takes about three to five days for a full DNA analysis."

Whatever else she said after that flew past me completely. The words became background noise, meaningless sounds that couldn't penetrate the chaos in my mind.

Anna knew. She knew she was pregnant with my child. She came to this hospital, got the positive test result, was excited about telling me—and then she just... left. Ran away. Took my child with her.

The child is mine. Hermione is mine. The certainty settled over me like a weight.

But why? Why didn't Anna tell me she was pregnant with my child? Why did she leave without a word, without giving me the chance to know I was going to be a father?

What had happened between that moment of joy at the hospital and the moment she'd walked out of my life forever?

I stood up mechanically, barely aware of saying goodbye to Sarah, barely registering her concerned expression as I left her office.

I stepped out of the hospital into the afternoon sunlight, feeling like I was moving through water, like the world had become strange and unfamiliar.

Everything I thought I knew about Anna, about our divorce, about what had happened—it was all wavering now, shifting, revealing cracks and inconsistencies I'd never noticed before.

As I entered my car and started driving back home, my hands gripping the steering wheel too tightly, one thought kept nagging at me with increasing insistence.

Was it possible that Flora knew about the pregnancy all this time?

Sarah had mentioned meeting Flora at the hospital. Flora had been the one to tell Sarah about Anna's supposed infidelity, had provided the narrative that had made Sarah stay silent about the pregnancy.

But what if Flora had known? What if she'd known Anna was pregnant and had deliberately kept that information from me?

What if everything—the divorce, the accusations of cheating, the narrative I'd been fed about Anna's betrayal—what if all of it had been built on lies that Flora had carefully constructed?

The possibility made my blood run cold.

I needed to talk to Flora. Needed to look her in the eye and ask her directly what she knew and when she knew it.

But even as I thought it, doubt crept in. Would she tell me the truth? Had she ever told me the truth about anything regarding Anna?

I pulled into my driveway and sat there for a long moment, engine still running, staring at nothing.

Everything I thought I knew was unraveling.

And I had no idea what would be left when all the lies were finally stripped away.