Before Lucy arrived at Tom's office, Eric was given strict instructions by Tom to hold his calls and not to let anyone in apart from Lucy and Harry until he was instructed otherwise.
Lucy now stood behind Tom, with her hands on his shoulder as she leaned forward, both holding their breaths to see what the result was after he had downloaded it.
They both felt like students awaiting an admission result into a school of their choice or someone being handed the prognosis of a terminal disease.
"It won't click on itself. Go on and click on it, let's see," Lucy urged Tom, and he shut his eyes as he tapped on the document.
When Lucy gasped softly, he opened his eyes and felt like his heart was going to explode when he saw the test result.
Dawn was not his daughter.
Even though they had both been hoping for it, they still were stunned by the result, and neither of them said a word.
Lucy remained silent until she felt Tom's shoulder trembling under her hand, and to her surprise she realized he was crying silently.
Forgetting everything else on her mind, she swiveled his seat around so that he would face her and she pulled him close and embraced as she fought back her own tears.
Tom didn't make a sound but his body shook as he wept, and he didn't mind that Lucy was there to see him like that.
All he could think about was the fact that he was relieved. He was so relieved the kid was not his that he was almost ashamed of himself for that.
Lucy didn't say a word to him as he wept. As relieved and thankful as she was that the kid was not his, all she could think of was the fact that he must be sad and disappointed.
Despite his doubts about being ready for fatherhood, he must have been hoping that the kid would be his, Lucy thought with a sniffle as tears fell from her eyes, and she patted his back and his hair to calm him.
Neither of them had any idea how long the remained there that way until the office door opened and Harry walked in.
One look at the couple and their position, Harry's steps faltered. He could guess the reason for Tom's emotional state, and without thinking twice he walked out of the office, choosing to leave them alone. He could always talk to Tom later.
Once he shut the door behind him, Tom pulled away from Lucy and rose. He didn't say a word to her as he headed for the bathroom and once he was inside he left the water running at the wash basin as he washed his face.
After drying his face he walked out to face Lucy who was standing in the bedroom.
From the look on her face, Tom could tell that she had no idea what to say to him but wanted to just be by him and comfort him, so he held out his hand to her and she embraced him.
"I'm sorry," Lucy said finally in a choked voice and he pulled away to look at her.
"What for?" He asked, and she shook her head.
"I know you must be really disappointed that she isn't yours…" Lucy said but Tom cut her off with a shake of his head.
"I'm not. I'm relieved. I feel too relieved and ashamed to be disappointed," Tom said as he gazed at her.
"Ashamed? Of what? Why?" Lucy asked in confusion.
"The magnitude of my relief makes me wonder if I would have been disappointed had she turned out to be mine. Wouldn't that have made me a bad father?" He asked and Lucy shook her head.
"I don't think so. Sonia crying when her pregnancy test came back positive didn't mean she didn't love her baby," Lucy countered as Tom took her hand and led her back into the office.
They were both silent for some time until Lucy looked at Tom, "What next?" She asked, and he shrugged.
"I will have to give Kimberly a call and ask her to go find the father of her daughter elsewhere. I can't believe she was so confident to pin it on me," Tom said, annoyed now as he thought about it.
"We had all been some what confident too, hadn't we? I mean, the resemblance between the kid and you was really strong, and knowing you have been with her the past…"
"I didn't do so without protection," Tom said with a scowl.
"Well, now you're sounding so sure. You didn't sound so sure some time ago," Lucy reminded him.
"All of this doesn't make sense. What did she stand to gain by doing this when she knew the result would come back negative?" Tom asked with a frown.
"Maybe she didn't know it would come back negative," Lucy countered but Tom shook his head.
"No. I think there is more to it. Harry looked into it. He would definitely have found something if she was hiding something. If I'm not the father then she was with someone else, and she has denied being with anyone else," Tom said as he picked up his phone and dialed Harry's line.
"Are you done weeping like a sissy?" Harry asked dryly the moment he received the call.
"Can you come over to my office now?" Tom asked, and Harry sighed.
"I was waiting for your call anyway. I have something to tell you," Harry said as he hung up the call, picked up an envelope and headed for Tom's office.
Once he got into the office, he raised a brow, "I thought you'd both be sharing a glass of wine in jubilation right now?" Harry asked and Tom narrowed his eyes.
"Jubilation over what?" Tom asked since he was yet to tell Harry about the result.
"Were you not just bawling your eyes out because the result came back negative? You have me to thank for that by the way," Harry said as he sat down.
"Why is he thanking you for it? Did you tamper with the result?" Lucy asked with a frown.
"No. I prevented it from being tampered with. I was coming to tell you about it earlier but seeing how you were bawling…"
"Can you stop saying that?!" Tom hissed at Harry, making him laugh.
"Was Kimberly going to tamper with the result?" Lucy asked in confusion.
"No. Not Kimberly. The mastermind behind the whole prank," Harry said, making Tom glare at him.
Tom could tell Harry was slowly dragging out the details to get on his nerves, "Spill it, will you?"
"Alright. Where do I start from?" Harry asked thoughtfully as he placed both legs on Tom's desk and crossed them at the ankle.
Lucy's lips twitched when she saw the murderous glint in Tom's eyes as he eyed Harry. Harry was pushing his luck by testing their patience right now.
"Do you want the details or do you want to know who was behind it? Choose wisely," Harry said, and seeing that Harry was in a mood to annoy him, Tom sighed.
He wasn't going to give Harry the satisfaction of seeing him lose his temper, "Everything. I want the details."
"Good. Now to the details. I received a distress call yesterday from the director at the lab…"
"Yesterday? Why didn't you tell me about it last night?" Tom cut in.
"Because I don't think that was the right place for such a conversation. Now back to what I was saying. The director was at some sort of crossroad and didn't know what to do. He didn't want to lie to you or go against the ethics of his profession, and he didn't want to offend the mastermind either. So, he wanted my help," Harry explained, and watched as Tom exchanged a look with Lucy.
"I suppose even if I ask you're not going to tell me who the mastermind is yet?" Tom asked, and Harry shook his head.
"It's not fun if I tell you. So back to my story. Upon hearing from the lab director that the DNA result was negative, I took another look at the file I received on Kimberly to see if I had missed something in the kid's record. All signs had been pointing to you as the father before now, so seeing that the result said otherwise, I decided that I had to have missed something. So, I called the nurse who took care of my dad, and asked her to help me with the calculation of the kid's conception. Judging from her birthday to the day we opened the hotel where you met her. The kid was born exactly forty-six weeks after you were with her mother," Harry said, and Lucy shook her head.
"Forty-six weeks? How is that possible? Besides, she stated in the instagram picture she posted of Dawn as a new born that she had her at exactly thirty-nine weeks," Lucy said with a frown as she fished out her phone from her handbag to search for the picture.
She remembered the exact length of pregnancy because she remembered wondering why it was thirty-nine weeks instead of thirty-six weeks which stood for nine months, since people always said nine months was the duration for pregnancy.
"Yes. You are right. It's in the record," Harry said so she wouldn't bother with her phone.
"That means she must know that there is no way the kid is mine," Tom said thoughtfully.
"Yeah. Unless she believes your sperm took a really long time to fertilize her eggs. No offense, Lulu," Harry said, and Tom sighed.
"So if she knows for a fact that the kid isn't Tom's and she wasn't mistaken, how could she have come up with this ruse then?" Lucy asked thoughtfully.
"Are you sure she is not the mastermind trying to tamper with the result?" Tom asked and Harry nodded.
"She is not the one. But that doesn't mean she is not involved," Harry said and Tom scowled.
"So who was the bastard or bitch behind this that tried to tamper with the result?" Tom asked impatiently.
Harry chuckled, "Your grandfather is the bastard," Harry said, and watched as Lucy's lips fell open and Tom blinked in surprise.
"My grandfather? My grandfather wanted the result tampered with? Why? This doesn't make any sense. There is no connection here. How does he even know Kimberly and Dawn?" Tom asked in disbelief, unable to believe that his grandfather would do something as juvenile and irresponsible as this.
"Well, I was curious too, so I looked into it. I've been busy since last night and all morning. I've barely had enough sleep on your account. I think I need a raise," Harry said with a sigh while Tom waited patiently for Harry to say what it was about.
"The relationship between your grandfather and her father seems to go back a long way to before your grandfather became president. I also found out your grandfather was with her family on the morning of your encounter with Kimberly. So, I'm guessing that was when he came up with the plan," Harry said, and Tom frowned while Lucy merely took in all the information.
"He was there before Tom's trip? Is it possible that he knew Tom had a meeting with Kimberly's uncle?" Lucy asked thoughtfully.
"That's very possible. The hotel was having issues so it would only be natural for Tom to want to meet with the person in charge of hotel management and hospitality regulations," Harry said with a nod.
"If you think about it, it sort of makes sense. I don't think if Tom were really the father of the girl Kimberly would have waited weeks to reach out to him after identifying him. It was probably convenient for them that you showed up when you did," Lucy said thoughtfully.
"This doesn't make any sense. What is the purpose of all this? Are you sure it was my grandfather?" Tom asked unable to make sense of it.
"I wouldn't be reporting it to you if I wasn't sure," Harry said, and Tom rose from his seat and went to look out of his office window.
"So, what do we do now? Pretend we don't know anything and play along to see how far this goes? Or do you want to confront them?" Lucy asked not sure what was next.
"We have had more than enough drama already. I don't need more. I'm going to give my grandfather a call and give him a piece of my mind before calling Kimberly. I'm not going to stand for this nonsense!" Tom said, beginning to feel really annoyed by it all.
He couldn't believe he had been so worked up and unable to sleep or think straight for the last couple of days over such a stupid prank.
Even Lucy had cried because of it.
His grandfather should have known better than to do something as stupid as this. There was no way he was going to let it slide!
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