Chapter 5 - The Husband's Perfect Alibi
Harrison's first move was to control the story.
By Friday, Chloe had received messages from relatives asking whether she was having a breakdown. A family friend called to say Harrison was devastated by her accusations. Someone had apparently told his business partners that pregnancy complications were making Chloe irrational.
He never accused her directly in public.
He didn't need to.
He had spent years cultivating the image of a patient, devoted husband. He knew exactly how to make a quiet lie more believable than a desperate truth.
On Saturday morning, he arrived at Emily's apartment with groceries and a soft expression.
Emily refused to let him inside.
"I need to speak to my wife."
"Then speak to her through her attorney."
"I'm trying to save my marriage."
"Funny way to do it."
Chloe appeared in the hallway, one hand resting against the wall.
"Harrison, what do you want?"
He looked at her with wounded affection.
"I want us to stop letting strangers destroy our family."
"You arranged for three families to take my babies."
"I arranged for three children to have loving homes."
"Without telling me."
He exhaled.
"The clinic made mistakes. I was trying to help people."
"Then why did you call me an incubator?"
For the first time, genuine anger broke through his performance.
"Because I was talking to friends in a private room. You weren't supposed to hear it."
The answer was so grotesque that Chloe couldn't speak.
Harrison stepped closer.
"Harper lost years of her life trying to have a child. Madison has been through surgeries you can't imagine. Audrey is dead. I thought I could do something meaningful for all of them."
"And what did you think I was?"
His gaze dropped to her belly.
"You wanted to be a mother."
"I wanted to be a mother with the truth."
He rubbed his forehead.
"You're making this sound crueler than it was."
Emily stepped between them.
"Leave."
Harrison looked at Chloe one final time.
"When those babies arrive, you'll understand that love isn't about genetics. It's about doing what's best for them."
Chloe's eyes burned.
"Then why did you have to lie?"
He left without answering.
That afternoon, Rebecca reviewed the court filing and found a startling detail. Harrison had submitted an affidavit claiming Chloe had received counseling about donor embryos and had voluntarily agreed to carry them for other families.
The document contained a signature that looked like hers.
Chloe stared at it.
"I never signed this."
Rebecca enlarged the image.
The signature resembled Chloe's handwriting, but the date was impossible. On the day listed, Chloe had been hospitalized with severe ovarian hyperstimulation following an earlier IVF cycle.
Her medical records confirmed it.
"Someone forged your signature," Rebecca said. "We can challenge the filing, but we need the original documents and the clinic's records."
Chloe remembered a stack of papers Harrison had brought home months earlier. He'd said they were routine insurance forms. She'd signed some pages without reading every line because she trusted him.
Had he substituted pages afterward?
Rebecca advised her not to speculate publicly. They would request the originals and preserve all communications.
Then Natalie called with news.
She had found a second document in Audrey's estate files: a letter Audrey had written to Dr. Vale shortly before her death.
In it, Audrey expressly refused to donate her embryos to anyone without her written authorization.
The letter was dated three weeks before the clinic claimed she had consented to the arrangement.
That evening, Harrison sent Chloe a video.
It showed him in their nursery, carefully assembling a crib beneath a framed picture of three tiny stars.
His voice was gentle.
"I know you're frightened. But these children deserve stability. I hope you'll remember that when people start asking you difficult questions."
The video ended.
Chloe watched it once, then forwarded it to Rebecca.
"He wants me to look unstable," she said.
"Then don't give him what he's looking for," Rebecca replied.
On Sunday, Madison Cole contacted Chloe through a lawyer.
She requested a private meeting.
Rebecca advised caution, but Madison offered to provide her own medical records and explain what Harrison had promised.
They met in Rebecca's office the next morning.
Madison was pale and visibly nervous.
"Harrison told me you knew everything," she said. "He said you were being compensated and had agreed to carry the embryos."
"I was never told they came from other women."
Madison closed her eyes.
"I thought I was finally going to be a mother."
Chloe's anger collided with something she hadn't expected: grief.
Madison wasn't innocent of every choice. She had accepted Harrison's assurances without demanding to speak with Chloe. But she was not the architect of the scheme.
"Did you sign anything?" Chloe asked.
"Yes. A private agreement. Harrison said the clinic had obtained your consent."
Madison reached into her bag and placed a copy on the table.
One paragraph had been highlighted.
It stated that all parties had been informed that Chloe was a gestational carrier and had voluntarily agreed to relinquish parental claims.
Beneath the paragraph was Chloe's forged signature.
Madison's hands shook.
"I never knew it was fake."
Rebecca examined the document.
Then she turned to the final page.
The witness listed beside Chloe's signature was not a clinic employee.
It was Harrison's mother, Eleanor Bennett.
Chloe went cold.
Eleanor had helped raise her after Chloe's own mother died.
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She had called Chloe her daughter for eight years.
And now Chloe had to ask herself whether the woman who taught her to trust had helped her husband steal her children.
