The Maid's Secret Changed Everything
Chapter 2 - The Heir Who Shouldn't Exist
The next morning, Adrian canceled every meeting on his calendar.
Emma expected him to avoid her.
Instead, he asked her to accompany him to a private medical clinic across town.
"Not Dr. Keller?" she asked.
"No."
Dr. Martin Keller had treated the Bennett family for twenty-five years.
He had signed Adrian's infertility diagnosis.
That was exactly why Adrian no longer trusted him.
The new doctor repeated old tests.
Then ordered new ones.
By evening, the results came back.
Adrian was not infertile.
He never had been.
The specialist placed the report on the table.
"Your fertility markers are normal."
Adrian read the sentence twice.
"Could an accident cause temporary changes?"
"Possibly."
"Permanent infertility?"
"Not based on what I'm seeing."
Emma watched the color disappear from his face.
There was another test.
A prenatal paternity screening would need more time, but Adrian did not seem interested in accusing her.
He was thinking about something else.
"My father's trust."
Emma looked at him.
"What about it?"
Adrian explained.
His father, Charles Bennett, had built Bennett Holdings from nothing. His will divided voting control strangely.
Adrian controlled the company while alive.
If Adrian had a biological child, that child would eventually inherit his shares.
If he died without children, control passed to his aunt Margaret and her son, Victor.
Emma understood immediately.
"So someone benefited from you believing you couldn't have children."
Adrian nodded.
"And Margaret arranged every appointment after my accident."
Emma remembered the older woman well.
Margaret Bennett visited the mansion constantly.
She had never liked Emma.
She once told another servant that Adrian was "too generous with people who should remember their place."
Emma suddenly recalled something.
"The night your father died..."
Adrian looked at her.
"What?"
"I heard Margaret arguing with Dr. Keller."
"About what?"
"I couldn't hear everything."
Emma thought back.
She had been carrying linens through the hallway.
Margaret's voice came through the study door.
If Adrian ever finds out, Victor loses everything.
At the time, Emma assumed they were discussing company shares.
Now the sentence meant something different.
Adrian stood.
"We're going home."
"Why?"
"Because my father's study has been locked since his funeral."
Emma frowned.
"And?"
"My father didn't trust Margaret."
He looked directly at her.
"If he suspected what they were doing, he would have left proof."
