MASON AND SAGE

Chapter 11 ~ Mason

I was enjoying the way Eva's bravado was leaching out of her, draining her of every last bit of color in her face. She just realized she had made an enemy of a man who could unleash all sorts of hell on her.

"You already know the Major will be proven not to be the father of your baby and you'll be going to jail. You're facing several serious crimes here. Abusing my name and position is one that will not go unchallenged. We have sworn affidavits from several key players at the DNA lab attesting to the fact that you came into the laboratory and showed letters saying the DNA test needed to show that Major Pierce was the father -- and all of this was done in my name and in the director's name. You made a grave mistake, Eva. I don't take lightly anything you've done. Now, first thing, we're going to get the damn blood samples."

The nurse came forward, the doctor watching, as he  drew all of our blood. Eva allowed it, subdued, no doubt wondering how she could possibly get out of this, perpetuate the lie...knowing she was fucked and about to pay for her sins. The vials were checked, double checked and triple checked by all of us, locked into a special courier bag and then two men in black suits came in to accompany the vials to an undisclosed lab where the results would be determined.

"You aren't really going to send me to jail -- right?" Eva weakly demanded when the two men left with the blood samples, her hand rubbing her belly. "You're not seriously going to take my baby away from me?"

"Captain James, if he is proven to be the father, is ready to assume full custody of the child. When you have served your sentence, you will have to work out visitation with the Captain -- or whoever turns out to be the father."

When I'd cornered Nate practically the minute he'd stepped onto the base, he'd been shocked -- horrified at what Eva had done -- and ashamed of what he'd done in the alley.

"Broke bro code, Mase," he'd said to me. "Don't know why I did that night except she was all sad in the alley and went after me hard. Now I'm fucked and I'm going to be paying for it the rest of my life in a way I don't really want to."

"You might want to get tested to make sure she didn't pass on any unwanted diseases."

"I'll definitely be doing that, but that's the funny thing. I think she was trying to set you up, trap you, man. I used a condom that night -- one she provided."

After I'd confronted Nate, I'd made a trip to the lab where the results were processed, and when I flashed my credentials to the receptionist, she'd shaken her head and said, "What on earth is going on? Two high-level visits in the same month?"

It was easy as hell after that. The director confirmed that Eva had visited the lab, flashing her CIA credentials, representing a Deputy Director and the Director, emphasizing the necessity, as a matter of national security, of ensuring the results showed Mason Pierce to be the father to protect a high-level ally from a country we were involved in delicate negotiations with. She had letter trails all the way up the ladder to the head of the CIA. All of them forged.

I'd taken copies of the letters Eva had used, approached her boss, who I had met years ago when Eva and I had been dating, and explained the situation. We gathered more information, developed a plan and that brought us to today.

Next, Robert brought in a federal court judge who sentenced Eva to six years in a minimum security prison for her indiscretions and signed the orders for her incarceration.

"That's not fair," she protested weakly. "What I did doesn't merit this kind of reaction. You can't possibly want to separate a mother from her child!"

"I have no problem separating a child from its mother when she's someone like you," Robert told her coldly. "Falsifying a paternity test leads to contempt charges, which lead to fines and criminal charges. Then on top of that, using my name and the director's name to commit a crime? No. If you think I'm pissed about you using my name to falsify the test results, the Director will burn you to the ground if he were to find out you misrepresented him for personal gain. You really want to push this?"

She shut up.

"Once you give birth, your child will go to the father -- assuming it's Captain James -- and you'll go back to prison, to serve out your sentence. Once you get out of prison, I'm going to make it my personal mission to see that you have a hard time getting hired for anything but the most menial of jobs."

"You'll be held in detention at a safe house until the results of the paternity test come back. From there, we'll take you to your new home for the next six years."

"Do I get time off for good behavior?" she asked the judge. This was a much more subdued woman than the Eva I'd known. She'd always been brash and bold, but all of that was gone as she faced, maybe for the first time ever, the consequences of her actions. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying every second of the show.

"Yes," he said, "but the reverse is also true. You can get time added to your sentence if you cause problems -- cause enough, you can even get moved to a more secure facility."

That made me sit up and smile. From the years I spent with Eva, if I knew one thing, it was how to trigger her temper.

As two more men in black suits came in to take her away, I called out to her.

"I'll write to you, Eva."

She looked startled, then confused and then grateful, and flashed me a smile I didn't return.

She would come to regret my letters. A six-year sentence wasn't enough of a punishment for what she'd done to Sage, to me, so I'd have to see how much time I could get her to add to her sentence for bad behavior.

Three days later, the tests results proved I was not the father of Eva's baby and Nate was.

"Guess I have to get ready to be a dad," he told me on the phone. He didn't sound happy about it, and I felt sorry for this baby about to come into the world with a viper for a mother and a reluctant father as its only parent.

"Good luck," I told him, figuring he'd need it.

And with the proof of my innocence in hand, it was finally time to talk with Sage.