Chapter 7
By sunrise, I was at the police station.
Dad came with me.
Detective Sloan met us in a private interview room.
On the table sat a thick folder marked RIVERSIDE.
“Dr. Vale gave us records.”
I sat slowly.
“Tell me everything.”
“He says Damon approached him almost two years ago after learning he was infertile.”
Dad clenched his jaw.
“He knew before marrying Claire?”
“Yes.”
My stomach twisted.
Damon had proposed eighteen months ago.
That meant he already knew.
Sloan continued.
“He didn't tell you because he was afraid you wouldn't marry him.”
“He was right.”
“After the wedding, he started discussing donor conception with Vale.”
“Without me.”
“Yes.”
I felt violated in a way I couldn't explain.
My marriage had been built around a secret.
Even my pregnancy had become part of someone's plan.
“Who was the donor?”
Sloan opened the folder.
“His name was Aaron Blake.”
The name meant nothing to me.
Dad reacted.
His face lost color.
I turned toward him.
“Dad?”
He stared at Sloan.
“Did you say Aaron Blake?”
“You know him?”
Dad slowly sat down.
“He worked for me.”
My heart started pounding.
“What?”
“Years ago.”
“Who was he?”
Dad looked shaken.
“Aaron was the son of my business partner.”
I waited.
Dad rubbed both hands over his face.
“When your mother became sick, Aaron helped me run the company. He was young. Brilliant. Loyal.”
“Why would Damon choose him?”
“I don't know.”
Sloan answered.
“Vale says Aaron was part of a private donor program.”
Dad shook his head.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“Why?”
“Aaron died three years ago.”
Elaine had been telling the truth.
I gripped the table.
“So Damon used material stored before Aaron died?”
“Yes.”
“Why him?”
Detective Sloan turned another page.
“Because Aaron Blake left an estate.”
Dad's eyes narrowed.
“What estate?”
“A family trust.”
“I know about that trust.”
“Apparently Damon did too.”
I stared between them.
“Someone needs to explain this.”
Dad looked at me.
“Aaron's grandfather built a pharmaceutical company. Most of the money went into a family trust. Aaron had no children when he died.”
“So?”
“The trust passes to a biological descendant if one exists.”
Silence.
My hand moved toward my belly.
“No.”
Sloan nodded.
“If your daughter is biologically Aaron Blake's child, she may qualify.”
My mouth went dry.
“How much?”
Dad whispered the answer.
“Potentially hundreds of millions.”
I stood so quickly the chair almost fell.
“This was never about my trust.”
Dad looked devastated.
“No.”
“The house?”
“Part of the plan.”
“The insurance?”
“Another part.”
My voice broke.
“But the baby was the real target.”
Detective Sloan nodded.
“That's what we believe.”
I started pacing.
Damon had researched Aaron.
Found the donor program.
Paid Vale.
Used my body to create a child tied to a fortune.
Then planned to make me appear unstable after delivery.
Emergency guardianship.
If he controlled my daughter, he could potentially control her inheritance.
Dad punched the table.
Sloan didn't react.
“There's more.”
I stopped.
“Of course there is.”
“Aaron's trust has protections.”
“What kind?”
“If a biological child exists, an independent trustee controls the assets until adulthood.”
Dad exhaled.
“So Damon wouldn't get direct control.”
“No.”
“Then why do this?”
Sloan turned another document toward us.
“Because Damon believed he had found a way around that.”
It was an application.
A petition draft.
Damon planned to legally adopt the baby immediately after birth.
Then seek control over any trust distributions as her legal parent.
“He planned all of this.”
“Yes.”
My legs shook.
Dad guided me back into the chair.
Then Detective Sloan placed one final page on the table.
“This is the part Dr. Vale says he didn't understand.”
At the bottom of Damon's handwritten notes was another name.
Elaine Carter.
Beside it:
Original idea - E.C.
I stared at the initials.
“His mother.”
Dad's expression became murderous.
“Elaine planned it?”
Sloan spoke carefully.
“We don't know how much she planned.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
I opened the message.
It contained one sentence.
Elaine knows police found the records.
Then another.
She is leaving town.
I showed Sloan.
She immediately stood.
Before she reached the door, another message appeared.
This one included a photograph.
May you like
Elaine was standing at an airport check-in counter.
Beside her was Lacey.
