Chapter 9 - The Truth Beneath the Contract
Dr. Vale agreed to meet Rebecca in the presence of independent counsel.
He did not receive immunity merely for offering information. Instead, his attorney proposed cooperation in exchange for consideration in any future proceedings, with no guarantee that the authorities would accept his account.
Chloe attended only the portion concerning her medical care.
She wanted answers, not a bargain.
Dr. Vale looked older than he had at the hospital. His confidence had eroded into nervous precision.
"I should never have allowed the transfer to proceed without ensuring every consent requirement was satisfied," he said.
"That's a very careful way of saying you helped my husband deceive me."
He lowered his eyes.
"Harrison told me you had agreed to the arrangement."
"Did you speak to me?"
"No."
"Did you verify my consent independently?"
"No."
"Then what exactly did you rely on?"
"Documents supplied by Harrison and communications from the legal representatives."
"Documents with a signature I never wrote."
Dr. Vale said nothing.
He eventually acknowledged that the clinic's records contained inconsistencies. He could not establish who had altered every entry, but he knew that at least one embryo's recorded disposition did not match the laboratory inventory.
He also confirmed that Harrison had repeatedly requested information about the legal consequences of a pregnancy involving embryos from different genetic sources.
"Why?" Chloe asked.
"Because he wanted certainty about the children's future."
"No. He wanted certainty that I couldn't stop him."
Dr. Vale did not dispute it.
He provided Rebecca with a list of communications that could be preserved for independent review. He also identified a former clinic administrator who had handled the financial records.
The administrator's name was Marissa Cole.
Madison recognized it immediately.
"She's my cousin," she said when Rebecca told her.
That revelation stopped the room.
Marissa had recommended Dr. Vale to Madison years earlier. She had also introduced Harrison to the clinic.
Madison stared at the table.
"I thought she was helping me."
No one accused her of knowing more than she had admitted. Rebecca simply asked her to provide every message she had received.
Meanwhile, Natalie located a certified copy of Audrey's missing estate addendum through the attorney who had originally prepared her will.
The blacked-out name was visible in the original.
It belonged to Audrey's younger brother, Daniel.
Daniel had died in a car accident when he was twenty-two, leaving behind a young daughter. Audrey had established the trust to provide for her niece, Lily, should the girl ever need long-term support.
The trust did not grant anyone automatic custody of a child born from Audrey's embryo. It simply provided financial support for a beneficiary.
Yet Harrison's correspondence treated the birth of the third child as a condition for unlocking funds.
"Why would a baby affect the trust?" Chloe asked.
Rebecca studied the documents.
"Possibly because someone drafted a new arrangement that tied the trust to the child's birth. We need the governing documents and the actual beneficiary instructions before we can know."
Natalie was furious.
"Audrey would never have agreed to use a child as a financial condition."
The investigator traced the most recent account activity to a company whose directors included Harrison and Marissa.
The company had no meaningful public business operations. Its accounts showed consulting payments and transfers to several intermediaries.
Authorities began examining the transactions.
Harrison, meanwhile, stopped answering Chloe's messages.
His attorney sent a formal letter proposing a settlement.
In exchange for a substantial payment, Chloe would agree not to challenge the private agreements until after the babies were born. The letter claimed the arrangement would reduce stress and protect all three children's future.
Rebecca advised her not to respond immediately.
Chloe read the offer once.
Then she pushed it away.
"He still thinks there's a price for my silence."
That night, she felt the babies move for the first time in hours. She placed both hands against her stomach and breathed through the fear.
"I don't know what the world is going to ask of you," she whispered. "But you will never have to earn the right to be loved."
Emily sat beside her.
"You don't have to solve every mystery tonight."
"I know."
But one mystery would not leave her alone.
Why had Harrison chosen her?
He had known her before the marriage, before the fertility treatments, before the first ultrasound. He knew how much she wanted a child because she'd told him the story of losing her mother while still young and fearing she would never build a family of her own.
Had he used that vulnerability because he loved her and believed she would forgive him?
Or had he selected her because he knew she would be too trusting to resist?
The next morning, Rebecca called with an answer that was also a new question.
A financial investigator had recovered a deleted email from an account associated with Marissa.
It had been sent to Harrison three months before their wedding.
The subject line read:
CHLOE BENNETT — CONFIRMATION OF IDENTITY.
Attached was a photograph of Chloe at twenty-four, standing outside a fertility clinic with a woman Chloe had not seen in years.
May you like
Her biological mother.
The woman Chloe had been told died when she was a child.
