Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO DIED TWICE
The police arrived twelve minutes later.
By then, Nathan Vale had vanished from the hotel.
He had escaped through a delivery corridor and abandoned a stolen sedan three blocks away.
Vanessa and Cynthia were separated.
Dr. Mercer was taken into a private conference room.
The ballroom emptied under police supervision.
I sent Sophie home with my sister.
She protested until I promised I would call her.
Before leaving, she hugged me.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Is that lady really alive?”
I looked toward Alexander.
He was standing twenty feet away, staring at the ultrasound.
“I think she might be.”
Sophie looked worried.
“Then somebody should go get her.”
Children have a way of reducing complicated things to the one truth adults avoid.
Somebody should go get her.
Alexander heard it too.
After Sophie left, he approached me.
“You found the footage.”
“Yes.”
“You found the phone.”
“My daughter noticed it.”
He nodded.
“I owe her more than I can say.”
“You owe her nothing.”
“She told what she saw.”
Alexander looked toward the ballroom doors.
“She may have saved Elena’s life.”
Detective Maria Keller approached us.
She was in her mid-forties, sharp-eyed and direct.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
Alexander turned.
“We need a timeline.”
“I’ll give you anything.”
“Good.”
She looked at me.
“And I need copies of every relevant camera angle.”
“You’ll have them.”
Daniel Shaw joined us carrying the trust documents.
“There is more.”
Nobody wanted to hear those words anymore.
Daniel opened the papers.
“When Vanessa announced the pregnancy, Alexander established an irrevocable trust.”
Keller frowned.
“For the unborn child?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Alexander answered.
“Approximately one hundred eighty million dollars in shares.”
I stared at him.
Even knowing the Whitmores were wealthy, the number was difficult to absorb.
Daniel continued.
“The trust names Vanessa as the child’s primary parent and Cynthia as successor guardian.”
Keller looked at Vanessa across the room.
“If the baby never existed, how did they expect to claim the assets?”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“That is what worried me.”
He removed another page.
“The trust requires a live birth certificate.”
Alexander looked at Mercer.
Everyone understood simultaneously.
A doctor willing to fake months of pregnancy records could potentially fake other documents.
But Daniel shook his head.
“It goes deeper.”
He pointed at a clause.
“If Vanessa died before the child’s twenty-first birthday, Cynthia would control the trust.”
I looked at Cynthia.
She had stopped crying.
Now she simply watched us.
Alexander whispered.
“They were going to create a baby.”
Daniel nodded.
“Or obtain one.”
Detective Keller’s face became hard.
“Whose baby?”
Nobody answered.
Then my mind returned to the message.
THE REAL MOTHER DELIVERS IN THREE WEEKS.
Elena was eight months pregnant.
The ultrasound belonged to her.
I looked at Alexander.
His eyes met mine.
He had reached the same conclusion.
“No.”
Daniel slowly lowered the documents.
Alexander shook his head.
“No.”
Keller spoke carefully.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
“That child cannot be mine.”
His voice cracked.
“Elena disappeared three years ago.”
Keller did not respond.
Alexander paced once across the room.
“If she is pregnant now, then someone else is the father.”
Vanessa laughed from across the room.
It was a terrible sound.
Not amused.
Almost hysterical.
“You still don’t understand.”
Keller turned.
“Vanessa, your attorney has advised you not to speak.”
Vanessa ignored her.
She looked directly at Alexander.
“The baby is yours.”
Alexander became motionless.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
Vanessa smiled through tears.
“It isn’t.”
Daniel looked confused.
Alexander took one step toward her.
“I have not seen Elena in three years.”
Vanessa nodded.
“I know.”
“Then how?”
Vanessa looked toward Dr. Mercer.
The doctor closed his eyes.
Keller immediately noticed.
“Doctor?”
Mercer sat down.
His shoulders collapsed.
“I didn’t know what they were planning at first.”
Vanessa shouted.
“Coward!”
Keller ordered officers to move her farther away.
Mercer stared at the floor.
“Three years ago, Mrs. Whitmore underwent fertility treatment.”
Alexander frowned.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“We considered it.”
“We stopped.”
Mercer shook his head.
“Elena didn’t.”
Alexander stared at him.
Mercer continued.
“She had embryos preserved.”
The words landed slowly.
Alexander’s face lost all expression.
“My embryos?”
“Yours and Elena’s.”
Daniel whispered.
“My God.”
Mercer rubbed his forehead.
“Nathan Vale obtained access to the clinic records after Elena disappeared.”
Alexander grabbed the back of a chair.
Keller leaned forward.
“Are you saying someone implanted one of Alexander and Elena Whitmore’s embryos into Elena while she was being held?”
Mercer hesitated.
Then nodded.
“Yes.”
No one spoke.
It was more horrifying than anything I had imagined.
Alexander whispered.
“Why?”
Mercer looked toward the trust papers.
“The Whitmore succession agreement.”
Daniel suddenly understood.
Alexander looked at him.
“What?”
Daniel opened another document.
“Your grandfather’s original corporate charter.”
He flipped pages rapidly.
“There is an old inheritance provision.”
“What provision?”
Daniel found it.
“If a biological child of Alexander Whitmore exists, that child has a superior claim to the family voting shares over collateral heirs.”
Alexander looked at Vanessa.
Then Cynthia.
“They didn’t need a fake baby.”
Daniel shook his head.
“They needed your real baby.”
The fake pregnancy had never been intended to create a fictional heir.
It was a cover.
When Elena gave birth, Vanessa planned to present Elena’s child as her own.
And because the baby was biologically Alexander’s, the trust would be valid.
Vanessa would control the child.
Cynthia would control the trust if anything happened to Vanessa.
Alexander whispered.
“Where is she?”
Mercer looked terrified.
“I don’t know.”
Keller leaned closer.
“Doctor.”
“I swear.”
Mercer shook his head.
“I only saw Elena twice.”
Alexander stared at him.
“You saw my wife alive.”
Mercer’s face crumpled.
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I was threatened.”
“So was she.”
Mercer looked away.
Alexander’s voice dropped.
“Where did you see her?”
“An old private medical facility.”
“Where?”
“Outside Lake Forest.”
Detective Keller immediately called her team.
Mercer continued.
“But they moved her.”
“When?”
“Four days ago.”
“Why?”
Mercer looked at the black phone.
“Because Vanessa became nervous.”
Alexander closed his eyes.
Three weeks before the birth.
Elena had been moved.
May you like
Nathan was running.
And someone had spent three years preparing to steal a baby worth an empire.
