Chapter 3 - Blood and Betrayal

“Azoospermia,” Adrian said into the heavy silence. “A complete absence of sperm, likely congenital. It is biologically impossible for you to father a child, Ethan.”

Ethan dropped the paper. It fluttered down, landing in the spilled milk. He slowly turned his head to look at the boy—the boy with sandy blonde hair and a familiar, strong jawline.

“Whose is he?” Ethan’s voice was barely a whisper. When Madison didn't answer, he grabbed her forearm, his fingers digging into her expensive coat. “Whose son is that, Madison?!”

“Don’t hurt me!” she cried out, shrinking away. The baby began to wail, a sharp, piercing sound that echoed down the maternity ward. Nurses down the hall finally turned their heads, their professional distance breaking.

“You told me he was a miracle,” Ethan choked out, his face reddening. “You looked me in the eye and said we beat the odds. Who did you sleep with?”

Madison backed against the wall, trapped between Ethan’s fury and my cold stare. She looked at me, desperate for the same empathy I used to offer her when we were friends. I gave her nothing.

“He wanted a family, Claire,” Madison sobbed, trying to weaponize my own grief. “You know how he gets. He was going to cut me off if I didn't give him an heir to secure his grandfather's trust fund. I had to do it. I had to keep it in the family.”

Ethan froze. The anger in his posture snapped into something far more fragile. “What do you mean, in the family?”

Madison closed her eyes, tears ruining her perfect makeup. “It’s Lucas. I went to Lucas.”

Ethan stumbled backward as if he had been physically struck. Lucas was his younger brother. The brother who had always envied Ethan’s success, who was constantly drowning in gambling debts, and who had stood as Ethan's best man at our wedding.

“You paid my brother to sleep with you?” Ethan asked, his voice cracking with nausea.

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“I didn't sleep with him!” Madison yelled defensively. “We did it at a private clinic in the city. It was a donor procedure. But he didn't do it for free.”

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