Chapter 0461

Hannah

“He really said that about me? ‘A devil you don’t’?”

Noah nodded solemnly, stepping from the shower and wrapping a towel around his waist. Dark hair fell into his eyes, dripping water onto his cheekbones before he swept it back with one hand.

“He seems to be under the impression that you intend to destroy Nightcrest—or what used to be Nightcrest,” he said with a derisive snort.

I couldn’t help but shudder at the thought, though more from anger than fear. I knew Noah’s father had always thought relatively little of me, and he thought even less of me after our messy first marriage, but this was bizarre.

“I wish I were there to slap him,” I mused, turning to the mirror and rubbing face cream into my skin. “First, he tries to insinuate that Melody isn’t our daughter, and now this…”

“He’s just trying to get a rise out of both of us,” Noah said gently. “We don’t have to give it to him.”

I sighed and met his gaze in the mirror. “No. We don’t.” I paused, thinking for a moment, then added, “But maybe it wouldn’t hurt to do a paternity test. Just to shove it in his face.”

Noah’s dark eyebrows shot upwards. “Seriously?”

“You don’t think it would be satisfying to show him results that clearly prove Melody is your daughter?”

My mate was silent for a few moments as he considered this. It was petty, I knew, but it would be satisfying. And it would shut Marcus up once and for all.

Or at least until he came up with something else to complain about.

Finally, Noah’s mouth twitched into the barest hint of a smile.

“You know what?” he said, draping a wet arm around my shoulders. “Let’s do it. What the hell, right?”

The next morning, we found ourselves sitting in the doctor’s office, Melody perched on Noah’s knee. It was odd being back here, in the office of the same doctor who had once claimed I was too “frail” to have regular intercourse, let alone get pregnant. And now here I was, with my healthy baby girl, waiting for the results of a paternity test.

Doctor Patel, our old family doctor whom I hadn’t seen since before my rebirth, walked into the room with a clipboard. The aging doctor was all professional smiles and warmth, making his previous false claims about my body that much more astonishing.

“Alpha Noah. Alpha Hannah,” Doctor Patel said with a warm smile. “And this must be little Melody. I’m terribly sorry that I wasn’t able to meet her sooner.”

“I’m sure you’re surprised to meet her at all,” I said wryly before I could think twice. “Since, you know, I was apparently too frail to conceive.”

The doctor’s face paled somewhat. “I do apologize for that… misinformation, Alpha,” he managed, his voice strained. “Sometimes, even professionals such as myself make mistakes.”

I frowned, folding my arms across my chest. But a calming “Easy,” through my Mindlink with Noah, caused me to hold my tongue for now.

“Now then,” Doctor Patel said, studying his clipboard. “The results of your paternity test are in, and… You are the father, Alpha Noah.”

“Wow. What a shocker,” Noah quipped sarcastically as he bounced Melody on his leg. She giggled and grabbed at his shirt with her chubby little hands, stuffing one of his buttons into her mouth.

I rolled my eyes good-naturedly and rose. “Well, that settles that. We should get a copy to send to your father, Noah.”

Noah nodded, standing himself. But before we could go, Doctor Patel cleared his throat, causing us both to turn. “Alpha Hannah, it’s been so long since you’ve had your regular check-up,” he said. “I’d like to modify my records. Since, you know… I was mistaken before.”

I paused, exchanging somewhat wary glances with Noah. Doctor Patel had made a very poor distinction before in claiming that I was too frail to lead a normal life with my husband. But it didn’t seem as if he did so out of malice, and besides—I really hadn’t had a check-up in some time.

“Sure,” I said, nodding. “Just a quick one wouldn’t hurt.”

With a smile, Doctor Patel ushered Noah out of the room for privacy. I sat on the exam table as he listened to my heart, took my blood pressure, and drew a blood sample for testing.

“Hm,” he said as he studied my blood pressure results. “Your blood pressure is a little low…”

I frowned. “Really? I feel fine.”

“Low blood pressure can creep up on the best of us,” he said, turning the meter so I could read it myself. It did look pretty low. “Right now, it’s not low enough to warrant medication; but perhaps you should consider getting more B12 and iron in your diet, reducing stress, that sort of thing.”

Those were all things I already did; I ate healthy, exercised almost daily, and did my best to keep my stress levels down. But I had been a bit more on edge than usual lately, what with preparing to move back into my old home with Noah, handling the logistics of the pack merger, and my usual Alpha duties—all while being a parent, too.

“Alright. I’ll keep an eye on it,” I said. The doctor looked pleased and turned away to jot down some notes.

As I sat there, my eyes flicked to the vial of my blood sitting on the counter. After a moment of consideration, I finally blurted out what had been on my mind since I got here. “You always performed my blood tests yourself, right?”

The doctor nodded without looking up at me. “Of course. I like to be as hands-on as possible with my patients.”

“And when I was struggling to conceive all those years, you never caught traces of contraceptives in my blood?”

Doctor Patel’s hand stilled over his notepad, his fingers tightening infinitesimally around his pen. “No,” he said slowly as he turned to look at me. “I didn’t.”

“But someone was lacing my diet pills for years,” I pressed. “My cousin, Alvin. I’m sure you saw it on the news.”

He nodded stiffly. “I did. How awful. But I’m afraid I never saw anything.”

It seemed unlikely to me that a doctor wouldn’t recognize such things on blood tests, especially when the patient was having fertility issues. Something wasn’t adding up here.

But before I could say anything more about it, Doctor Patel ripped the paper off his notepad and handed it to me with a smile. “Here are some tips to help with your blood pressure. I’d like you to come back in a month to get it checked again.”

I hesitated, my mind still whirring, but took the paper and hopped down off the exam table anyway. If there was anything off about the whole situation, it didn’t matter now; Alvin was in prison, Melody was safe, and I was healthy aside from some slightly low blood pressure.

With that, I thanked the doctor and turned to leave.

It was then that I saw it: a rumpled old plane ticket peeking out from amongst a pile of papers on Doctor Patel’s desk. A ticket to the tropics, it seemed. With Marcus’s name on it as the purchaser.