Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN BESIDE MY HUSBAND
I watched the video until Ethan’s voice stopped sounding familiar.
Mara immediately copied it to three secure servers.
“Tomorrow’s hearing is over.”
She said.
“Ethan just doesn’t know it yet.”
But I couldn’t stop thinking about Vanessa.
I had believed she was simply his mistress.
Now I understood she was part of something older.
“Who is she?”
I asked.
Grace answered.
“Vanessa Cole works for Mercer Medical’s legal compliance department.”
“She has access to sealed litigation.”
Luka typed her name into one of his databases.
A photograph appeared.
Then another.
Then an old birth certificate.
He went silent.
“What?”
I asked.
“Her mother’s name was Hannah Cole.”
Grace dropped into a chair.
“No.”
I looked between them.
“Who was Hannah?”
Luka opened the M-17 ledger.
Case seventeen listed one maternal name.
HANNAH COLE.
Vanessa wasn’t just Ethan’s mistress.
She was the daughter of the woman whose infant had disappeared from Mercer Medical twenty-eight years earlier.
My stomach twisted.
“Does she know?”
Luka nodded slowly.
“I think that’s why she’s here.”
Suddenly the affair looked completely different.
Vanessa had spent years getting close to Ethan.
Working at his family hospital.
Entering his marriage.
Helping him destroy records.
Maybe she wasn’t protecting him.
Maybe she was hunting him.
The next morning, we entered the courthouse through a private entrance.
Ethan was already inside.
He wore a navy suit.
Perfect hair.
Perfect expression.
His parents sat behind him.
Richard Mercer didn’t look frightened.
He looked offended that anyone had challenged him.
When Ethan saw me carrying Emma, his jaw tightened.
Then he noticed Luka.
“Stay away from my daughter.”
Luka didn’t respond.
I did.
“You left her before she was twelve hours old.”
Ethan lowered his voice.
“You have no idea what you’re involved in.”
“I know enough.”
“No.”
He looked genuinely afraid now.
“You don’t.”
The judge entered.
Mara presented Grace’s corrected testimony.
Then the security video.
Ethan’s attorney tried to stop it.
The judge watched anyway.
By the time Ethan’s recorded voice said, make sure she never leaves the hospital with the child, the courtroom had become completely silent.
The emergency custody petition was denied.
The judge ordered Ethan to remain fifty yards away from me and Emma.
Then Mara made one final request.
“A court-supervised paternity sample.”
Ethan’s head snapped toward her.
His father stood.
“No.”
The judge looked at Richard.
“Sit down.”
Ethan stared at me.
For the first time, I saw panic replace arrogance.
He leaned across his attorney and whispered,
“Claire.”
“Don’t do this.”
I looked at the man who had married me for a secret.
“You wanted to prove she was yours.”
May you like
“So prove it.”
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