The Fake Heart Made of Gold (The love that lied)

Chapter 6

The man in the charcoal suit sat down across from Jason on the courthouse bench and set his briefcase on the floor beside him. Up close, he looked more like a Hollywood manager than a lawyer. Perfect teeth, perfect tan, the kind of face that was built for schmoozing clients at industry parties.

"I thought Lauren would send a lawyer." Jason looked him up and down. "You don't look like one."

"I'm not." The man crossed one leg over the other and leaned back like he owned the building. "My name is Steve Lyman. I'm Lauren's agent and her most trusted advisor. I've been managing her career for the last seven years."

Jason let out a short breath through his nose.

She didn't even bother coming herself. She sent her agent to handle me like I'm a business problem that needs solving.

"Lauren asked me to speak with you directly because she believes this situation has gotten out of hand." Steve's voice was smooth and measured, the voice of a man who negotiated million dollar contracts for breakfast. "She's not interested in a public fight, and neither should you be."

"I'm not interested in a fight at all. I'm interested in a divorce."

"Dr. Hart, before anyone makes any permanent decisions, Lauren would like to arrange an independent paternity test." Steve reached into his briefcase and pulled out a small sealed kit. "She's asking you to provide a DNA sample so she can have the testing done through her own medical team. A neutral, third party lab that both sides can trust."

Jason stared at the kit sitting on the bench between them.

"I already ran three tests."

"Through labs you chose on your own." Steve's tone stayed friendly, but there was a careful edge underneath it. "Lauren has every right to verify the results independently. Surely as a doctor, you can appreciate the value of a second opinion."

He's good. He knows exactly how to phrase things so I look unreasonable if I refuse.

Jason picked up the kit and turned it over in his hands.

"Fine. I'll give the sample. But it won't change anything. I already know what the result is going to be."

"We'll see." Steve smiled the way agents smile when they think they are winning. Then he tilted his head slightly, and his voice shifted into something more casual, more conversational, like two old friends catching up over coffee. "Can I ask you something, Dr. Hart?"

"Go ahead."

"What made you decide to test Nina's paternity in the first place?" Steve's eyes were fixed on Jason's face with the intensity of a man who needed the answer more than he was letting on. "You and Lauren have been married for sixteen years. You raised that girl since the day she was born. So what changed? Why now?"

Jason was quiet for a moment.

He had been asking himself that same question for days.

"About six months ago, a man came into my department at the hospital." Jason's voice was steady, but his eyes had gone distant. "He was fifty three years old. His adult son needed a kidney transplant, and he wanted to be the donor. Standard procedure, we ran the compatibility tests."

He paused.

"The tests came back showing no biological relationship between them. The man had raised that boy for twenty seven years thinking he was his son. And he found out the truth in a hospital hallway because his wife needed a kidney."

Steve listened without interrupting, his expression carefully neutral.

"I watched that man fall apart right in front of me. He just stood there in the corridor holding the test results, and his whole body started shaking like someone had pulled the bones out of him." Jason's throat tightened at the memory. "I couldn't stop thinking about it. For weeks, it sat in the back of my head like a splinter I couldn't reach."

"That's a sad story." Steve nodded slowly. "But other people's tragedies don't necessarily reflect your own situation. Just because it happened to a stranger doesn't mean it happened to you."

"That's what I told myself." Jason looked down at his hands. "Until Nina said something."

Steve's posture shifted almost imperceptibly. His shoulders pulled back just a fraction of an inch.

"What did she say?"

"We were arguing about something stupid. I don't even remember what it was about. Homework, maybe. Or her phone." Jason's jaw worked for a second before the words came out. "She looked me right in the face and said, 'You're not even my real dad.'"

The silence that followed was so heavy it seemed to press down on both of them.

"Kids say things like that all the time when they're angry." Steve recovered quickly, his professional smile sliding back into place. "Every teenager in America has screamed 'you're not my real parent' at some point. It doesn't mean anything."

"That's what I thought too. She laughed it off five minutes later and went back to her room like nothing happened." Jason's eyes lifted to meet Steve's. "But it stayed with me. It sat right next to that image of the man in the hospital corridor, and together, those two things wouldn't let me sleep."

"So you ran the test."

"So I ran the test. And then I ran it again. And then I ran it a third time because I didn't want to believe it."

Steve uncrossed his legs and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped together.

"Dr. Hart, I've known Lauren for seven years. I have seen that woman work eighteen hour days, fly across the country on two hours of sleep, and fight for every single thing she has." His voice carried a weight that sounded almost personal. "She is not the kind of woman who would do what you're accusing her of."

"Then why won't she explain herself?" Jason's voice hardened. "Every time I bring it up, she screams at me, tells me I've lost my mind, and walks out of the room. An innocent woman doesn't act like that."

"An innocent woman who's been accused of cheating by her own husband absolutely acts like that." Steve held Jason's gaze without flinching. "She's hurt. She's angry. She feels betrayed by the person she trusted most."

She feels betrayed?

Jason almost choked on the irony.

"There has to be a misunderstanding here." Steve's voice softened, and for just a moment, something that looked almost like genuine concern flickered across his face. "Lauren loves you. She loves Nina. Whatever those test results say, there is an explanation that doesn't involve the nightmare scenario you've built in your head."

Jason studied the man sitting across from him. Steve's words were polished and confident, but something underneath them didn't quite fit. It was the way his eyes moved when he talked about Lauren. The way his voice changed when he mentioned Nina's name. The way he kept steering the conversation away from the central question and toward emotional appeals instead.

He's not just defending her. He's protecting her. There's a difference.

And the way he reacted when I mentioned what Nina said...

He already knew. He already knew before I told him.

The realization settled into Jason's gut like a cold stone.

He looked Steve dead in the eyes.

"Let me ask you something, Steve."

Steve's expression stayed perfectly composed, but his fingers stopped moving.

"Do you know who Nina's biological father might be?"