Chapter 4 - Victoria Wanted Noah’s DNA For Something
Daniel’s fear changed direction.
Why would David want Noah’s DNA?
Investigators searched Victoria’s messages after obtaining legal authorization.
She and David had communicated for nearly two years.
At first, the messages looked personal.
Then financial.
They discussed the Cole Family Trust.
Noah was the youngest beneficiary.
Daniel controlled no direct access to Noah’s principal, but as his father he held a voting proxy over trust-owned shares until Noah turned eighteen.
Those shares mattered.
Cole Medical Systems was preparing a major acquisition.
A family trust vote could determine whether it passed.
Victoria had pushed Daniel to support the deal.
He refused because the valuation looked inflated.
Her messages with David showed a different plan.
If Noah could be proven not to be Daniel’s biological son, the trust documents contained an old clause that might suspend Noah’s beneficiary status until a court resolved paternity.
During that dispute, the voting proxy could shift to another Cole descendant.
If David proved Henry Cole was his father, he could petition to become that descendant.
Daniel stared at the screen.
Victoria had married him.
Then secretly helped another man prepare to challenge his son’s place in the family.
But one fact made no sense.
Noah was Daniel’s biological child.
Daniel had never doubted it.
Noah’s mother, Sarah, had died when Noah was two.
Victoria entered their lives a year later.
So why did Victoria think a DNA test could remove Noah?
Claire knew part of the answer.
She had seen Victoria collect hair from Noah’s brush.
Claire threw it away.
Victoria caught her.
That was the first time Victoria scratched her.
The marks Daniel saw in the foyer were not the first injuries.
Claire had photographed earlier bruises on her own arm.
She had been documenting them because she feared Victoria was building a case against her.
Daniel asked why Claire never told him.
Her answer hurt.
“I tried.”
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She had sent him three messages.
Daniel never received them.
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