Page 6 of Fortune's Baby Claim

“My son?” Ryder shook his head and placed a protective hand on the baby, making Esme’s heart flutter. “No. He’s fine right where he is.”

Chase wasn’t fine. He’d started to fuss a bit. She undid the harness and picked him up from the carrier, cradling the boy in her arms.

“About three months?” Ryder asked, his tone gentler than when he’d spoken to the attorney.

“Yes.”

“Mine, too.”

Should she tell him they’d been in the hospital on the same fateful night? Esme wondered where his baby’s mother was, hoping the woman had managed to overcome her insistence that she wasn’t meant to be a mom.

Before she could say anything, Greg Oachs cleared his throat. “These two babies were born on the same night.”

“You both remember?” Mary asked hopefully.

Greg sent the administrator a quelling glance, and Esme nearly scoffed. Of course, she remembered the night her son was born.

“Why are we here?” Ryder demanded, clearly not in the mood to walk down memory lane with a trio of strangers. “Is someone threatening to sue the hospital over the conditions we dealt with the night of the storm?”

“We did our best,” the hospital administrator insisted.

“No one is filing suit.” Greg straightened and tugged at his tie, leaving it crooked against his white oxford-cloth shirt. “There was a misunderstanding back in October.” His throat bobbed as he swallowed and looked at a place past Esme’s shoulder. “We have reason to believe your babies were accidentally switched shortly after they were born.”

Esme had been expecting the words, but they still hit with the force of a mallet cracking the side of her skull. She drew Chase closer to her chest, sending a silent prayer that this was a nightmare she’d soon wake from.

Ryder stood in stunned silence for several seconds, then dropped into a chair like his legs wouldn’t hold him.

She understood the feeling. Her entire body had gone numb, except her heart, which burned as if the words were a hot poker stabbing into it.

“What makes you think that?” Ryder demanded finally.

“Chase and I had testing done,” she told him before the attorney or administrator could spin the story. “My ex-husband was in an accident and died suddenly. I wanted to know more about his side of the family.” In truth, she hadn’t considered learning more about Seth’s family history until Freya gifted her the two test kits.

Ryder inclined his head. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“My son’s loss,” she clarified, unsure why she needed to make that distinction. “His results came back with no one from either side of the family listed, as if we don’t share DNA.”

“Could it have been a mistake at the testing facility?”

The attorney cleared his throat again. “I think—”

“I didn’t ask what you thought,” Ryder snapped. “We’ll get to you in a minute.”

Greg Oachs crossed his arms over his chest with an audible harrumph but said nothing more.

“I apologize.” Ryder returned his gaze to Esme. “I also didn’t catch your name.”

“Esme Fortune,” she told him. “I spoke with someone at 411 Me last night. They assured me Chase’s results are valid.”

“We’d like you and your son to take a DNA test,” Mary said to Ryder, then transferred her gaze to Esme. “You and your baby as well.”

“I’ve already done that,” she answered.

“For our purposes,” the woman explained. “We’d like to have both of your test results on file here at the hospital.”

“Okay,” Esme murmured.

“You don’t have to agree to anything,” Ryder said, his deep gaze intense on hers.

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