Chapter 11 - THE LIE INSIDE MY MARRIAGE
I vomited in the motel bathroom.
Then I washed my face.
Then I did something I had not done once since Grace was born.
I screamed.
I screamed into a folded towel until my throat burned.
Adrian had known we were related.
He had known he was infertile.
He had let me believe we had created Grace together through fertility treatment.
He had signed consent forms beside me.
He had held my hand while doctors transferred the embryo.
It had all been staged.
When I finally walked out, Luka stood alone in the hallway.
My father had given me space.
“Take me back to Grace.”
Luka nodded.
He didn’t offer comfort.
I appreciated that.
Halfway to the cabin, I spoke.
“If Adrian wasn’t the donor, someone substituted another sample.”
“Yes.”
“Without my consent.”
“Yes.”
“Did my father know?”
“Not until tonight.”
I looked out the window.
“Do you believe him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas would burn the world before allowing that to happen to you.”
“Apparently he had no problem letting me marry my cousin.”
Luka gripped the steering wheel.
“He believed Adrian didn’t know the biological connection.”
“That makes it better?”
“No.”
His answer surprised me.
“No, Elena.”
He looked at me briefly.
“It makes it a different failure.”
When we reached the cabin, I ran inside.
Grace was sleeping peacefully.
I picked her up.
Her face rested beneath my chin.
Whatever had been done to me, she was innocent.
Completely.
Perfectly.
Mine.
“I don’t care whose DNA you have.”
I whispered into her hair.
“You are mine.”
Mia stood quietly behind me.
Then she said something important.
“We found the fertility clinic records.”
I turned.
“They were deleted from the clinic database.”
“Of course.”
“But the clinic’s insurance company retained archived billing data.”
She placed a file on the table.
The procedure number matched my IVF cycle.
Beside it was a donor code.
D-4418.
No name.
Mia continued.
“The donor material came from a private cryobank purchased by Vale Biomedical three years before your treatment.”
“Can we identify the donor?”
“Possibly.”
“How?”
She looked toward Luka.
“We need the acquisition records.”
Luka frowned.
“Where?”
“At Vale Tower.”
I laughed bitterly.
“So we break into my husband’s company?”
“No.”
Mia smiled.
“We use your ownership rights.”
I stared at her.
“What ownership rights?”
My father finally stepped forward.
“The shares your mother left you.”
“What shares?”
He looked almost apologetic.
“Your mother never told you?”
“No.”
Thomas took a document from his case.
My name appeared beside a percentage.
18.6%.
I stared at it.
My mother had quietly inherited stock from the original St. Catherine partnership.
Vale Biomedical had later acquired the company.
The shares had transferred.
I was one of the largest individual shareholders in Adrian’s company.
I looked at Luka.
For the first time, he smiled.
“Your husband spent six years searching your boxes.”
May you like
He nodded toward the document.
“And apparently never found the one thing that could actually destroy him.”
