Chapter 18: Both Frauds

Hattie's POV

The story broke at five o'clock on the night of the foundation gala.

The baby found it first, on his phone, in the kitchen.

He read the headline aloud in a voice I had never heard from him.

"ASHGROVE HEIRESSES BOTH FRAUDS, SOURCES SAY."

Eliana was standing at the counter in her slip and a cardigan, with her hair half pinned.

She didn't say anything.

I took the phone and read all of it standing up.

It said the first DNA report had been a forgery by a lab technician Eliana knew from graduate school.

It said Barrett had used his hospital to produce the third report, and that Barrett and I had faked it between us.

It said a scientist who falsified data and a mechanic who fixed trucks had defrauded a respected family.

It said they had taken forty percent of a shipping company.

At the bottom, in a gray box, was a scan of Torsten's second lab report.

The one nobody had approved.

"Sources," said the older twin, and his voice was flat. "There's only one source."

"It's all in his words," Eliana whispered. "Look. Defrauded a respected family. He says that. He says it at every dinner."

She put both hands over her face.

"I'm done," she said. "I can't go to the gala. They'll look at me like I did it."

"Elly," said the younger twin, and put an arm around her. "Nobody who knows you has ever looked at you like you did something."

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