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“I’m on my way,” she promised, quickly hanging up the phone.
With all this craziness going on in her life, the pregnancy, the shooter and now this stalker, she was embarrassed to admit that she had completely forgotten about Ace and the DNA test. Marlowe felt almost guilty that she had.
But it wasn’t as if Ace needed her to boost his morale, she silently insisted. Of course the DNA test was going to show that he was a Colton. To think that anything else could possibly happen would be absurd, she told herself, hurrying to the boardroom.
The results were going to be positive. They had to be, Marlowe insisted.
Even so, her heart felt like it was racing to the tune of “Flight of the Bumblebee” by the time she walked into the boardroom.
The five other members of the board were already assembled in the room, just the way they had been when that bombshell of an email had been sent. Looking quickly around, she noted that their expressions all looked just as hopeful as hers did.
All except for Selina, Marlowe thought. Selina’s expression was that belonging to a woman who was anticipating her version of good news.
“Nice of you to join us,” Payne said sarcastically, the moment that Marlowe crossed the boardroom threshold. And then the man shifted his eyes toward Ainsley. “All right, Ainsley, go ahead. Open the envelope and read the results out loud.”
Ainsley flashed an encouraging smile at Ace, then ripped open the side of the envelope. She took out the lab results. Pressing her lips together, Ainsley scanned the single sheet of paper in her hand.
“I said out loud, Ainsley,” Payne repeated sharply, raising his voice so that it all but thundered through the room.
Ainsley’s expression turned grim.
This couldn’t be good, Marlowe thought, hoping against hope that her instinct was wrong.
Ainsley read the results out loud. “It says that there is less than zero chance that Ace Colton is a Colton by blood.”
“What?” Rafe cried, stunned.
“There has to be some sort of mistake,” Marlowe insisted. “It can’t say that.”
“That can’t be right, Ainsley!” Ace declared, looking like someone who just had a land mine explode right in front of him. “There must have been a mix-up at the lab. We need to have the sample retested, this time by another lab.”
“Dad,” Rafe spoke up, coming to Ace’s defense. “Marlowe’s right. A mistake has been made.”
All their voices were blending together in a cacophony of noise, each voice drowning out the others. Payne himself looked as if he was in a state of shock, and for once in his life, he was speechless.
Of all of them, only Selina looked pleased. Really pleased.
“Payne, remember, the bylaws are the bylaws and they have to be obeyed.” Her smile deepened, verging on almost malicious. “You know what you have to do,” she told him, looking at her ex-husband expectantly. “Go ahead,” she urged. “Do it.”
“I want no one to speak about this.” Payne’s dark eyes swept over every face at the table, almost as if he was looking into their very souls. “The public can’t get wind of this. This stays in the family. Am I making myself understood?” he demanded, looking at each and every one of them again.
“Payne,” Selina said in a patronizing tone.
Payne blew out an angry breath. Marlowe knew that what he was about to say gave him no pleasure. If Ace, or this person who had grown up in front of him with Ace’s name, wasn’t a Colton, then the man had no business being the CEO of Colton Oil. He needed to step down.
“She’s right, boy,” Payne said, his voice flat and cold, “you can’t be part of the board of directors and you most certainly can’t be the CEO now that we know the truth.”
Ace stared at the man he had thought of as his father for his entire life. How could some piece of paper, most likely faulty, negate forty years, just like that? As if they had never happened at all?
“Dad, you can’t really be serious,” Ace protested, stunned, hurt and angry. “I don’t care what that paper says, I’m still your son—”
“No, that’s just it. You’re not,” Payne retorted, his voice growing in volume. “I don’t know who you are, and I certainly don’t know who switched you with my son at birth, or why they did, but you are definitely not my son, and that means you can’t be the CEO of Colton Oil,” he repeated, all but shouting the words.
Ace shouted back. “You can’t do this!”
Payne’s eyes grew cold. “I just did,” he informed Ace flatly.
Fury entered Ace’s eyes. Visibly stunned and reeling, Marlowe imagined he felt as if the very rug had been pulled out from und
