Billionaire Defiant Wife

Chapter 277: You're Not The Father

Evan drops his phone and jumps to his feet. His face is ice cold and stony, but his eyes are filled with doubt. He rushes up to the doctor and glares down at her.

"Tell me," he demands.

The doctor trembles and stammers, "The-the results sh-show"

"What do they show?" Evan shouts, grabbing the doctor by the collar of her lab coat.

The doctor squares her shoulders look Evan in the eye, and says, "The tests show that you're not the father of either child."

Evan lets go of the doctor's coat, and her legs buckle beneath her. She sinks to the floor, panting for breath. Avery looks at Evanhis face is terrible. For a moment, she's afraid he's going to kick the poor doctor. But then he laughs, loud and humorlessly.

Do the tests say that my baby isn't his? She thinks. That's impossible! I didn't get a chance to switch the name tags. And if Leonie or Florence were behind this, they would have rigged it, so it looks like Evan is the father of Leonie's baby. None of this makes any sense.

Out of the corner of her eye, she looks at Leonie. Leonie's face is ashen, and she looks like she might faint. She jumps to her feet and rocks back and forth unsteadily. Florence tries to push her back into the armchair, but Leonie jerks her hand away from the older woman.

"No, that's impossible!" Leonie whispers. She looks at the doctor and raises her voice, "You must have done it wrongEvan is my baby's father. I know it." 

The doctor scrambles to her feet and gives Evan a copy of the test results. Evan glances at the paper, crumples it into a ball and tosses it toward Avery. Leonie raises a manicured hand and catches it. She unfolds the paper and scans the results, her face getting paler by the second.

"It's all your fault!" Leonie shouts, pointing a long finger at Avery. "You must have done something to tamper with the results. I thought it was weird that you wanted to be in the same room as me, and now I understand why. What did you do?"

Evan waves his hand for silence, and Leonie shuts her mouth, silently fuming. Avery turns nervously, worried about what he might do. He's stopped laughing, but his face is even more terrifying than before.

"Give me the key," Evan says.

Robert passes Evan a key, and Evan throws it at Avery. It lands with a clink at her feet. Avery bends over to pick it upit's small and silver with a black top, like a car key. She wonders why Evan is giving it to her. 

"Congratulations," Evan says. "You must be very pleased with yourself. You've succeeded at last."

Avery closes her hand around the key, and the rough metal edges dig into the fleshy part of her palm. She wants to ask Evan what the key means, but then it hits her. This must be his way of telling me to leave, she thinks. The test result says that the baby isn't his, and he swore to abandon me if I lied to him.

She sighs and asks, "Are you sure you don't want to force me to take another test?"

"Show her," Evan says.

Robert rushes over and holds up the screen of his tablet. He double taps the screen, and a video begins to play: a camera in the examination room shows Avery grabbing the test tube and trying to peel the label off. On the screen, Avery's face is tense with concentration. Suddenly a white blur appears, blocking Avery and the test tubes from sight. The doctor has moved her armblocking the camera's view of Avery.

"Do you deny tampering with the results?" Evan asks. "You know whatsave your excuses. The video makes everything clear. You must really hate me, Avery. I know you want to leave me, but I never imagined you'd risk your baby's future just to get away from me. If you're so desperate to leavefine, just go."

Avery grips the key tighter, wondering if it's cutting the skin on her palm. This is what I wanted, she thinks. I can go live with Andrew, and save both Charles and Evan now. This is the best-case scenario. But why doesn't it feel that way?

She looks up at Evan, but she can't handle the expression on his face. Guiltily, she looks down at her shoes. I've seen him fall on shards of glass and get bitten by a deadly snake, but I've never seen him look so tortured before. Her stomach twists, and she wonders if she's going to be sick.

She hears footsteps approaching, and then a familiar, warm body pressed against hers. Evan backs her into a wall, and she shivers. She closes her eyes and breathes in his distinct smell, trying to imprint it in her memory permanently. Cool air rushes past her face, and then there's a cracking sound next to her left ear.

She opens her eyes in shock and sees Evan pulling his fist away from the wall. The skin on the knuckles is split and bloody, and flakes of white plaster cling to the wounds. He doesn't seem to notice the injury. 

"Go," he hisses. "I don't want to see you."

She nods and starts to walk toward the door. She can hear Leonie and Florence whispering, but she doesn't care what they're saying. She can't stop thinking about Evan's terrible expression. As she crosses the threshold, a voice stops her.

"Can you fly a helicopter?" Evan asks. "The key I gave you is for my helicopternot a car."

Avery bites her lip. She can't fly a helicopter, but she doesn't want to admit that to Evan. She glances over her shoulder and locks eyes with him.

"Yes, I can," she says.

Evan laughs and says, "Are you really willing to risk death just to leave me? I saw you try to fly the helicopter at Misty Mansionyou're terrible at it." 

"I'll be fine," Avery says.

"Avery Peters, you're the coldest woman I've ever met," Evan says, his voice low and thick with emotion. "You once told me you loved me, but now I know you're not capable of love. I'd understand if you were willing to kill yourself to run away from mebut your baby? What kind of woman doesn't love her own child?"

Avery feels the familiar stinging in her eyes, and she quickly blinks the tears away. She can't cry nowit could ruin everything. She takes a deep breath and shrugs her shoulders with feigned casualness.

"As I said, I'll be fine," she says. 

"Fuck off," Evan says.

Avery nods and walks toward the elevator. As soon as she's out of earshot, she breaks into a sprint, desperate to get away before she changes her mind. She jams her finger into the elevator buttons and runs wildly onto the roof.

A tall figure waits next to the black helicopter, and her heart skips a beat. I can't believe he actually chased after me, she thinks. Maybe there's still some way to salvage this. But then the man turns around, and her heart sinkshe's just a bodyguard.

"Hello, Miss Peters," the man says. "I'm your pilot."

Avery nods and lets the man help her climb into the helicopter. She sits down, buckles her seatbelt, and gives in to the tears. The pilot flicks some switches, and the blades begin to spin. A dull roar fills her ears as the helicopter lifts off from the rooftop.

She leans over and looks out the window, watching the hospital get smaller and smaller. Hot tears fall down her cheeks and blur her view of the building below. For a moment, she wonders if Evan is watching her leave, but then she shakes her head.

I can't think like that anymore, she thinks. He's done with mewe're really and truly done this time. There's no going back now.