Chapter 5 - THE FIRST WIFE
The call lasted forty-one seconds.
Police traced it to a cell tower near a regional highway.
Not Barbados.
Not an airport.
They had staged the aircraft departure to mislead investigators.
Elena was still in Illinois.
Alexander replayed her voice repeatedly.
He had not heard it in three years.
I watched him sitting in Detective Keller’s office with the phone in his hand.
“She sounded different.”
Daniel stood beside him.
“Three years changes people.”
Alexander shook his head.
“No.”
“She sounded afraid of me.”
Nobody knew what to say.
Then Keller entered.
“We found where the call originated.”
Alexander stood.
“Where?”
“A service station near Rockford.”
“Camera?”
“We have footage.”
The video showed a gray van.
Nathan drove.
A second man sat in the passenger seat.
In the back, barely visible through tinted glass, was a woman.
Elena.
Alive.
Alexander touched the screen.
For the first time, there was undeniable proof.
Not an old recording.
Not a medical record.
Elena was alive that morning.
Keller froze one frame.
The passenger turned toward the camera.
Daniel recognized him.
“Julian.”
Alexander stared at his uncle.
Julian Cross was sixty-three now.
Silver hair.
Lean face.
He looked nothing like the charming man in old Whitmore family photographs.
But it was him.
Keller issued alerts.
Roadblocks were established.
Airports notified.
Then another problem emerged.
The van had been found abandoned.
A second vehicle was missing from a nearby farm.
“They’re switching transportation.”
Keller said.
“They planned escape routes in advance.”
Alexander looked toward the map.
“Julian plans everything.”
Daniel nodded.
“He always did.”
I asked the question nobody else had.
“Why keep Elena alive for three years?”
Everyone looked at me.
“If all they wanted was an heir, why wait?”
Daniel frowned.
Alexander answered slowly.
“Because the embryos.”
He looked at Mercer’s statement.
“Elena refused fertility treatment after my father died.”
“Why?”
“She was afraid a child would become a target in the family fight.”
The irony was unbearable.
“She was right.”
Daniel said quietly.
Alexander continued.
“The embryos were stored under a legal agreement requiring both parents’ consent before use.”
Keller looked at him.
“But they used one anyway.”
“Yes.”
“So why wait three years?”
Daniel suddenly reached for the files.
“Because they couldn’t access them.”
He began scanning documents.
“Until the fertility clinic changed ownership.”
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
The timing matched perfectly.
Eight months.
Vanessa’s fake pregnancy.
Elena’s real pregnancy.
The company-share announcement.
Everything had started after someone gained access to the embryos.
Keller asked.
“Who bought the clinic?”
Daniel searched.
Then stopped.
“Vale Medical Holdings.”
Nathan.
The man declared dead had quietly purchased the company holding Alexander and Elena’s embryos through a shell corporation.
Alexander walked toward the window.
He appeared physically sick.
“They stole our child before it even existed.”
Keller nodded.
“And they needed Elena to carry it because DNA testing would show she was the biological mother.”
Daniel added.
“They could claim she had secretly given birth before her death.”
I shook my head.
“But Vanessa was pretending to be pregnant publicly.”
“That contradicts it.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Unless Vanessa intended to claim the baby as hers and prevent detailed testing.”
“But the child would not be biologically hers.”
“No.”
“So eventually someone would discover it.”
Daniel’s expression became dark.
“Not if Alexander died before anyone challenged the trust.”
The room went silent.
Alexander slowly turned.
Keller immediately asked.
“Was there a plan against you?”
Daniel looked at Vanessa’s trust paperwork.
“If Alexander died after recognizing the baby as his legal child, the voting shares would pass into the child’s trust.”
“Vanessa controls the child.”
“Cynthia becomes successor guardian.”
“And Julian controls both sisters.”
Alexander stared at the documents.
“So the final step was me.”
Keller nodded.
“You were never supposed to survive long enough to question the baby.”
That afternoon, Vanessa finally requested a deal.
She would give investigators everything she knew.
In exchange, she wanted protection from Julian.
Keller agreed to hear her.
Vanessa entered the interview room wearing a plain sweater provided by police.
Without the enormous false belly and glittering gown, she looked smaller.
Alexander sat across from her.
I remained behind the observation glass.
Keller placed a recorder on the table.
“Start with Elena.”
Vanessa stared at Alexander.
“I did love you.”
Alexander said nothing.
“I know you don’t believe me.”
“Where is my wife?”
Vanessa looked down.
“I don’t know where Julian is taking her.”
Alexander leaned forward.
“You visited her.”
“Yes.”
“You tortured her with photographs of our wedding.”
Vanessa began crying.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Julian said she had to stop believing you would find her.”
Alexander’s face remained hard.
“He wanted her emotionally dependent.”
“On whom?”
“Nathan.”
Alexander stared.
Vanessa wiped her tears.
“Nathan was supposed to convince her that you had abandoned her.”
“He brought food.”
“Medicine.”
“Books.”
“He acted kind after the first year.”
I understood.
Isolation followed by manufactured kindness.
They had tried to make the captor feel like the only safe person in Elena’s world.
Alexander asked.
“Did it work?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.”
A trace of something almost like resentment crossed her face.
“She never stopped loving you.”
Alexander looked away.
Vanessa continued.
“That made Julian furious.”
“Why?”
“Because Elena had to sign something.”
Daniel, listening from the other room, immediately stepped forward.
Keller asked.
“What?”
Vanessa whispered.
“A declaration stating the baby was conceived willingly while she and Alexander were secretly reunited.”
Alexander looked stunned.
“They wanted her to validate the child legally.”
“Yes.”
“Did she sign it?”
“No.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“She tore it up.”
“And then?”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“Julian said they would get her signature after the birth.”
Alexander understood.
“How?”
Vanessa barely whispered.
“By threatening the baby.”
Then she looked directly at him.
“But there is something else you need to know.”
Alexander stared at her.
“What?”
“Nathan is not just working for Julian.”
May you like
Vanessa swallowed.
“He believes Elena should belong to him.”
