Page 55 of The Billionaire's Secret Heir

“No idea.” Beckett had his eyes closed so he didn’t have to see the blood leaving his body. He tried to focus on the sound of Graham’s voice.

“Get this: He walked around going, ‘You shall not pass … gas.’”

It felt wrong to laugh, but Beckett was so overwhelmed, that it actually was an incredible release. Even the lab tech laughed and Graham was giggling.

“Your son is a trip,” the lab tech said. Beckett felt fingertips press on his arm. “We’re all done here. Please stay seated for a few minutes as you might be light-headed. Press your finger here.”

Beckett applied pressure to a tiny folded square of gauze over the spot where she had taken out the needle. He watched as she removed Graham’s and he did the same.

“Thank you. I want to make sure it gets to my daughter first if she needs it,” Beckett said. “Is there a way to check on that? I still haven’t seen her either and would feel a lot better if I could.”

The nurse who had met him in Madi’s room appeared in the doorway. “All done? Great. Why don’t you follow me?”

Beckett tried to hold back his impatience as she had him sit down in a smaller, more private waiting area. Graham flopped in a chair beside him, opening a package of cookies he must have picked up from one of the machines they passed.

“Mr. Van de Kamp, I have something sensitive that I needed to discuss with you.”

Beckett’s nerves went on high alert. “Is Becka okay?”

She smiled a thin, humorless smile. “You’ll have to ask her mother for updates on her from this point on. Which brings me to what we need to discuss. While you were having your blood drawn, we came across something that you needed to know about and I’m not sure how it will impact things going forward. It turns out that Becka has blood type O. Your blood type is AB.”

Beckett and Graham exchanged looks. “That really doesn’t mean anything to me. Can you elaborate? Does that mean that my blood can’t be used if she needs it?”

“Yes, but more than that. I’m sorry if this is a shock to you, but it means that Becka cannot possibly be your biological daughter.”

The words rattled around in his head, then sent that sensation down his body until Beckett’s legs trembled.

Graham gripped his arm. “How can this—but there was a paternity test, right?”

Beckett closed his eyes. “The lawyer had one, yes. I wondered how she had gotten a DNA sample from me to even test. George insisted I verify independently and I—” Beckett covered his face with his hands, laughing. “I’m so stupid. I didn’t do it. Because I needed it to be true for Dad’s ridiculous contract. And then, after meeting her and Madi, I didn’t think about it again. Not once. She was mine. She looks just like me. I felt a connection.”

If he thought it was painful to sit through Becka’s screams in the car and hearing them fade as the ambulance took her, that was nothing compared to feeling like a piece of him had been seared away.

He heard Graham’s voice. “This is definitive? Without taking a paternity test, you can say with certainty that it’s not possible for him to be the father?”

“That is correct.”

While Graham politely dismissed the nurse, Beckett kept his head in his hands, trying to wrap his mind around this. Becka wasn’t his child. That statement felt completely out of line with what he felt. His heart argued vehemently against his head. Beckett had never dreamed of children or of being a father. He thought he’d be the uncle that Graham’s kids loved, the one who got to go home alone at the end of the night. It wasn’t that he disliked children, but more that he didn’t feel that urge to be a father.

Until Becka. Something shifted the moment he saw her in Madi’s arms. He recognized her as his, which he knew now couldn’t have been true. Did he only feel connected because he thought he was? Or was it something more that pulled him toward Becka? Adoptive parents were not something less because they didn’t share biology.

Maybe his bond with her started because he thought he was her father, but now that Beckett knew that he was not her biological father, it did not change his feelings in any way.

“Beck?”

Beckett stood. “I need to talk to Madi.”

Graham followed him to the door. “Do you think that’s a good idea right now? I mean, didn’t she suffer a concussion? Maybe the time to confront her is later?”

Beckett paused at Graham’s words. He hadn’t been thinking about Madi and whether or not she knew. He would have bet that Calista did and that Bret did. But Madi? He couldn’t imagine it.

“I don’t want to confront her.” Beckett met Graham’s stare with a determined look. “I want to reassure her that I’m in this for keeps. It doesn’t matter to me whether or not I’m Becka’s biological father. I care about her too much to let test results change that.”

Graham smiled, and Beckett could have sworn that he saw tears before his brother turned away. “Wow. I love what fatherhood has done to you. That and falling in love. You’ve admitted that to yourself, right? That you’re in love?”

Beckett didn’t need to answer his brother out loud. The words simply didn’t need to be said.

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