Suddenly, images flashed across the large
screen behind him: photos of David and Sarah
kissing, embracing.
The room gasped. “Turn it off! Turn off the
<
projector!” David yelled, panicked.
No one responded. I’d taken care of the AV
crew.
The photos were followed by the DNA results:
Ashley and Sarah, then Ashley and David.
The room buzzed. “They’re a family!
Professor Miller was being played!” “So the
assault… it was all a lie?”
As the murmurs grew louder, the video of
Sarah and Ashley’s scheme played, followed
by police records, then the audio of Sarah
demanding the inheritance.
The evidence was irrefutable. The room was
stunned.
David’s wife was livid. She’d believed he was
infertile. Now she knew he had a daughter, a
secret family.
“Miller! You did this! You’re trying to ruin
me!” David screamed, realizing he was
exposed. “You’re jealous! You don’t want me
to publish! This is all lies! He’s framing me!”
He lunged at me, but his wife intercepted
him, slapping him hard across the face.
Sarah rushed to David’s defense. “How dare
you hit him? It’s your fault you can’t keep a
man! I’m not the other woman! We were
together years ago! You’re the one who
interfered!”
“Say that again,” David’s wife growled, her
Г
Sarah, oblivious to the danger, smirked,
clinging to David. “We’re in love! You’re the
other woman!”
David, sensing his wife’s fury, shook his head.
“Stop it, Sarah!”
“Why should I? You said you don’t love her!
You love…”
Sarah’s words died in her throat. David’s wife
pulled out a knife, plunging it into Sarah’s
stomach.
Chaos erupted.
Sarah died at the scene. David survived, but
with severe internal injuries, his future filled
with catheters and pain.
Г
The university fired him, discrediting his
research.
I dropped the lawsuit against the clinic, and
they, in turn, dropped the suit against Sarah.
Debt forgiven in death.
Ashley watched her mother die, a flicker of
something that looked almost like satisfaction
in her eyes.
She came to me later, asking to come home. I
refused, formally terminating the adoption.
Spoiled by the life I’d given her, unable to
cope, Ashley turned to a life on the streets. I
heard later she became a mistress, caught
and brutally beaten by the scorned wife, left
crippled and confined to a wheelchair.
As for me, despite clearing my name, the
whispers remained. I resigned, sold
everything, took the inheritance, and boarded
a plane.
I’d spent my life working, never seeing the
world. Now, alone, with nothing but money
and time, I was free.
I hoped for a future filled with gentle breezes,
sunshine, and the vastness of the ocean.
