Chapter 243 Rattled himself out

Chapter 243: Chapter 243 Rattled himself out

_Rowena’s POV_

When I left Brielle, I returned home. I sat in my office at the Ashthorne estate, staring at the screen of my laptop.

Something just wasn’t adding up. In engineering, when you get an impossible result on a test, you don’t blame the machine right away, you look at the person holding the controls.

Alaric had looked me dead in the eyes and sworn on his life that he had never remembered touching Brielle, and he could have touched her but not remember. Again, I trusted him completely that he never did anything with that woman.

Brielle was desperate enough to try a fake pregnancy stunt, but she wasn’t smart enough to bypass a high security medical lab all by herself. She needed someone on the inside. Someone with high clearance, expert medical knowledge, and direct access to the blood samples.

Which led me straight to one person.

Kyle.

It felt a little crazy to suspect him at first. Kyle was now the head physician. He had saved my life, fixed up my leg, blocked the Logan family lawyers from messing with Brielle’s files, and always acted super professional and helpful. On paper, he was a saint. But my brain just kept circling back to him.

"I need everything you have on him, Kasper," I said into my phone the moment Kasper accepted my call, leaning back in my chair. "Medical background, bank accounts, personal messages... everything."

I already typed my suspicion to him.

"On it, Ro," Kasper’s flat voice came through the speaker. "Give me twenty minutes."

Twenty minutes later, a huge file popped up in my inbox. I went through every single page line by line.

Kasper’s background sweep on Kyle was completely clean. He graduated top of his class, worked in major emergency rooms, and had a flawless record at our hospital. His bank accounts showed normal doctor paychecks, no weird foreign money transfers, and zero ties to the Logan family, no associations with rogues or shady pack businesses.

He was spotless.

I leaned back, resting my chin on my hand as I stared at the screen. Clean data was nice, but sometimes a person who looked too perfect was the biggest red flag of all.

I picked up my phone and called Kyle’s personal cell. He picked up on the second ring.

"Rowena," Kyle’s voice came through the speaker. "Is everything okay? Are you feeling sick?"

"I’m fine, Kyle," I said, keeping my voice casual and relaxed. "I was actually wondering if you were free tonight. I’m grabbing a drink at a lounge downtown and wanted to know if you wanted to come along."

There was a quick pause on the line. "A drink? I appreciate the invite, Rowena, but I don’t really drink much. I have early rounds at the hospital tomorrow."

"It’s just one drink to chill out after all that craziness with Brielle yesterday," I said, putting on a friendly tone. "Plus, you helped me lock down those files. Think of it as a thank-you."

"Well... if it’s just one, I guess I can come," Kyle said with a small laugh. "Send me the address."

When the time came, before leaving the estate, I grabbed Ezekiel. I didn’t tell him why I was actually meeting Kyle. Ezekiel was smart when it came to reading people, but he was also dramatic. If I told him I thought Kyle was a dirty mole, he’d probably pull a move on the guy before our drinks even hit the table.

"Why are we grabbing drinks with the handsome doctor?" Ezekiel asked as he got into the passenger seat, fixing his jacket in the mirror. "Are we celebrating Alaric’s misery, or are you just trying to make him jealous?"

"It’s just a thank-you drink, Ezekiel," I said, pulling out of the driveway. "Keep your drama under control tonight."

"Fine, fine," Ezekiel chuckled, rolling his eyes. "But if he starts talking about medical terms, I’m ordering the most expensive stuff on the menu."

We got to a nice lounge downtown twenty minutes later. Kyle was already sitting at a booth near the back, looking normal in a navy sweater.

"Rowena," Kyle said, standing up politely as we walked over. He looked a little surprised to see Ezekiel trailing behind me, but he quickly put on a warm smile. "Prince Ezekiel. Good to see you."

"Doc," Ezekiel grinned, sliding into the booth first and grabbing the menu. "Rowena said you were paying, so I hope your wallet is ready."

Kyle chuckled, sitting back down. "Order whatever you want."

For the first hour, the conversation was normal. Ezekiel drank three overpriced cocktails while complaining about the elders, and Kyle just took slow sips from a single glass of wine.

Kyle was totally calm the whole time. He answered all of Ezekiel’s chaotic questions with easy charm, sounding completely harmless.

"I still can’t believe Brielle pulled this off," Ezekiel sighed, leaning his head on his hand. "The whole pack is losing its mind. The elders are already talking about a wedding next month, and Alaric looks like he’s about to lose it."

"It’s a tough situation," Kyle said gently, setting his glass down. "The elders care a lot about the royal bloodline. Once the automated test flagged the Alpha DNA match, their hands were tied."

I leaned back against the booth, keeping my posture relaxed as I looked across at him. "It’s just crazy to me. Alaric swears he never remembered touching her, but that blood test came back positive so fast. It’s like her sample was flagged before it even went through the machine."

Kyle smiled sympathetically, shaking his head. "I know it’s hard to accept, Rowena. But when a woman comes in with the Alpha’s blood markers already showing up in her early hormone panel, the results are pretty much set in stone."

A cold chill ran straight down my spine.

I didn’t move, my face didn’t change for a single second, and I kept sipping my drink like nothing happened.

The early hormone panel.

When Kyle brought the test results out to the hallway yesterday, he only showed us the final genetic DNA match screen. He had explicitly told the elders that the full hormone panel takes forty eight hours to process in the lab, meaning those specific hormone details wouldn’t even be ready until tomorrow morning.

So how did Kyle already know Brielle’s early hormone panel showed Alaric’s blood markers?

The only way he could possibly know that detail was if he had forged the lab results beforehand.

I looked across the table at Kyle. He was still giving me that helpful doctor smile, completely clueless that he had just rattled himself out.

My suspicion wasn’t just a hunch anymore, I finally had him.