Trapped In Lies Chapter 07
There was no return address.
Inside, I found a paternity test report.
The test had been conducted by Kingston Hospital, and it was dated five years earlier.
[Subjects: Dan Hill (alleged father), and the child of Hayley Olsen (the mother).]
[Conclusion: Paternity excluded.]
I was stunned.
The child that had forced Dan to make a choice five years ago was not his at all.
My hands began to shake as I flipped to the final page. The examiner’s signature read: [Robin Shipp.]
The name sounded familiar. He was a retired chief of genetics at Kingston Hospital.
Through old contacts, I managed to track down his address.
When he opened the door and saw me, his eyes darted away before I could even speak.
“Ms. Elba, I can’t help you.”
He tried to close the door, and I wedged my foot into the gap.
“Dr. Shipp, I only want the truth.”
He sighed and motioned me inside.
I sat on his couch, and he went to pour me a glass of water.
His hands would not stop shaking.
“Dr. Shipp, someone came to you to have a paternity test forged, didn’t they?”
He could not meet my eyes as he held out the glass.
“Yes.”
“The copy I have in my hands is the real one, isn’t it?”
He said nothing, and I set the glass down.
“Five years ago, someone brought you a fake report and paid you a large sum of money to certify it. Is that right?”
Dr. Shipp closed his eyes and nodded.
“Who was it?”
“Hayley’s mother.”
His voice was barely above a whisper.
“She told me that her daughter had been deceived. The child was not a Hill, and the Hill family was pressuring her to terminate the pregnancy. She said this was the only way to protect her grandchild.”
‘And you helped her?”
“I…” He covered his face with both hands.
“My wife was sick, and I needed the money.”
I took out my phone and started recording.
“Dr. Shipp, I need you to say that again.”
He looked up at me with teary eyes.
“Ms. Elba, I’m sorry.”
He took a deep breath before speaking. “I accepted three hundred thousand dollars to falsify that paternity test for Hayley’s mother. She told me it was only to convince the Hill family to accept the child. She said no one would get hurt.”
“No one would get hurt?”
I repeated the words. The irony was almost unbearable.
“I know what I did was wrong.” He looked at me earnestly.
“If you want to press charges, I won’t fight it.”
I stopped the recording.
“I’m not going to press charges,” I said.
“I only need you to do one thing for me.”
After that, I turned my attention to the transfer order from five years ago.
I tracked down the employee who had handled staffing assignments back then. She had since been promoted to a management position.
“Stella, what are you doing here?”
She looked uncomfortable.
“I want to see the transfer order from five years ago.”
“That’s…”
“Linda, please.”
She hesitated for a long while, but eventually, she led me to the archive room.
The folder was thin, and it only contained a few sheets of paper.
Dan had approved and signed the transfer request. In the remarks column, a note read: This employee is unsuited for headquarters work. Recommendation: indefinite field assignment.
Below it was Hayley’s signature.
The application date was one week before my departure.
I took photographs of every page and returned the folder to its place.
As I walked out of the company building, the sunlight was blinding.
I tracked down several people who had worked with me on the desert project.
One of them was a technician named Andrew Howard. He had since left the company and started a business of his
own.
He pulled up old emails on his computer and showed me.
Five years ago, every technical report I had sent to headquarters came back marked as [Review Failed), with demands for revision.
However, every time the revised report was approved, Hayley’s name would be on them instead of mine.
