They Thought I Was Just Her Husband

CHAPTER 7

Jason Cavill stared at the expedited paternity test reports sitting on his desk, utterly stunned.

The documents, bearing the official stamps of three separate accredited laboratories, all pointed to the exact same damning conclusion: Theo Hanks and Hope Hanks shared no biological relationship whatsoever.

Theo had been right all along.

Could Tracey really have cheated on him? Jason thought, a cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.

This was no small matter. If a scandal like this broke into the press, it wouldn’t just tear a family apart—it would incinerate a multi-million-dollar career built on a spotless public image. Jason didn't dare make any decisions on his own or let the documents sit for another minute. He grabbed the folder, drove straight to Tracey’s private residence, and followed her into the study, closing the heavy double doors behind them.

Without a word of small talk, he laid the reports on her mahogany desk.

Tracey picked them up, her eyes scanning down to the final verdict at the bottom of the page. Shocked to her core, the color drained entirely from her face. She looked up at Jason in complete disbelief, her lips parted but silent.

"This is an expedited test," Jason explained quickly, trying to temper the blow. "Its accuracy isn't considered quite as strong as the standard three-day or seven-day test, and legally, a seven-day result would carry far more weight in court."

He paused, choosing his next words with extreme caution as he met her wild, frazzled gaze. "But Tracey... you should prepare yourself mentally. Normally, an expedited test and a seven-day test aren't going to produce completely opposite results. The markers don't lie."

Tracey sat back in her chair, looking completely dazed, as if the room were spinning around her. "How is that possible?" she whispered, her voice cracking. "Hope is obviously my husband's and my daughter. How could she suddenly..."

"There's another possibility," Jason interrupted gently.

Tracey snapped her head up, clinging to his words like a lifeline. "What?"

"She could have been switched with another baby at birth in the hospital," Jason said smoothly, laying out the logical alternative. "It happens. To prove that, we'll need a DNA sample from you to compare directly with Hope's."

"Fine," Tracey said instantly, pulling open a desk drawer to retrieve a cotton swab kit. "Get it done as soon as possible. Run it immediately."

Underneath her sharp, commanding tone, Tracey was genuinely starting to panic.

The situation was crushing down on her, especially as her mind raced back to the past few weeks—to the private dining room, to the hotel room, to every time Theo had bitterly presented her with those lab reports. She had brushed him off as crazy, delusional, and paranoid. But now, seeing the exact same numbers under her own manager's lock and key, she realized Theo hadn't made any of it up.

Tracey wiped her cheek with a swab and handed the sample back to Jason. But as he turned to leave the study, she suddenly called out to him, her voice tight.

"Jason..."

Jason stopped at the door and turned around. "Yes?"

Tracey hesitated, her hands trembling slightly as she gripped the edge of her desk. The cold, impenetrable superstar mask she wore for the world slipped away, revealing an uneasy, desperate woman underneath.

"I...I didn't betray Theo," she said, her voice dropping into a soft, almost pleading murmur. "I never did." She swallowed hard, her throat dry. "But if the test comes back with the worst possible result... what am I supposed to do?"

Her posture broke, her shoulders slumping. "I don't want a divorce, Jason. I...I don't want to lose Theo."

Jason looked at her for a long moment. Having managed her for eleven years, he had rarely seen her look so fragile. He took a step back into the room, offering a calm, reassuring smile.

"Actually, even if the worst-case scenario happens, Theo should still be able to understand your situation," Jason said smoothly. "You've been married for sixteen years. That kind of history doesn't just vanish overnight."

Tracey's brows remained tightly furrowed, the anxiety still heavy in her chest.

"Besides," Jason continued, his tone shifting into the calculating cadence of an agent evaluating a client's leverage, "Theo can't really live without you."

Tracey looked up at him sharply.

"On the way here, I took a look into how he's been doing professionally," Jason spoke calmly, laying out the facts. "His career at the hospital hasn't developed very well over the years. He's just an ordinary attending physician, and he's already forty years old. If he leaves you, what does he really have?"

Jason walked back to the desk, leaning in slightly. "Just look at the past few days. Ever since he left your house, he's had nowhere to go but cheap hotel rooms. He has no real assets, no grand network, no real power on his own. Right now, he's probably just acting out because his pride was hurt. Once he calms down, and actually thinks things through, he'll naturally come back and reconcile with you."

Tracey listened, letting his words sink in. The knot of dread in her stomach began to loosen, her expression easing slightly as her natural sense of superiority asserted itself once more.

"That makes sense," she murmured, convincing herself. "Yes...he's just acting out."

Reassured, Tracey sent Jason off to handle the maternity testing personally.

***

Another day passed in a blur of endless anxiety and hidden tension.

Tracey spent the entire morning in a grueling corporate board meeting, barely listening to the financial presentations. The moment she stepped out of the boardroom, her phone buzzed in her palm with a brief text from Jason.

She didn't even make it back to her car before typing a reply, ordering him to come straight to her private office on the top floor of her production company.

Ten minutes later, Jason entered the office. His face was pale, his expression grave and impassive. He didn't say a word as he walked up to her glass desk, placed a fresh, sealed folder onto the surface, and stepped back cautiously.

"Hope is definitely your biological daughter," Jason said softly, his voice heavy. "There's no mistake about that. The match is ninety-nine point nine percent."

Tracey let out a massive, audible sigh of relief, a triumphant smile starting to form on her lips. "I knew it! I knew she was mine—"

"But Theo's result isn't wrong either," Jason interrupted, his voice dropping into a hushed whisper.

Tracey's smile froze instantly, the color draining from her face for the second time in two days. "How...how could that be?"

The words hung in the air like poison.

If Hope was definitively, genetically her daughter... but Theo was definitively, genetically not the father...

Tracey snatched up the report with shaking hands, her eyes frantically reading the conclusions over and over again. The numbers didn't change. The scientific reality remained the same The more she stared at the black-and-white print, the less any of it made sense. Her mind spun into a chaotic storm of confusion, grief, and terror.

At that moment, Jason looked deeply troubled. He shifted his weight, adjusting his glasses with a nervous, unsteady hand, staring at the polished floorboards.

He hesitated for a agonizingly long while, weighing the consequences of what he was about to say to her. Finally, he looked up at Tracey, his eyes filled with a dark, uncomfortable certainty.

"Tracey..." Jason began, his voice barely audible in the quiet office. "Do you remember... right before you married Theo..."

Jason paused, taking a slow breath as the terrible truth settled into the room.

"You did cheat on him once."