Chapter 8
Grace showed Nathan the message.
His face hardened immediately.
“You’re not going.”
Grace looked at him.
“I know.”
Nathan seemed surprised.
“You’re not?”
“I have a four-year-old daughter. I’m not walking into a trap.”
For the first time that night, Nathan almost smiled.
“Good.”
Grace held up the phone.
“But we’re going to make them think I will.”
The detective agreed.
Within minutes, officers began tracing the number.
It was disposable.
The sender sent an address.
An abandoned medical office thirty miles away.
Grace read it.
She recognized the street.
“No.”
Nathan looked at her.
“What?”
“That was Dr. Mercer’s old clinic.”
The detective nodded.
“Then it’s almost certainly connected.”
Police prepared an operation.
Grace would not attend.
Instead, an unmarked vehicle would arrive at the location while officers watched every exit.
Nathan stayed with Grace and Lily.
At midnight, the detective called.
“No one showed.”
Nathan frowned.
“What was inside?”
“A laptop.”
Grace leaned toward the phone.
“Anything on it?”
“One video file.”
Nathan and Grace watched through a secure link.
Nathan’s father appeared again.
The video continued from where the first file ended.
“Victoria did something I did not authorize.”
He coughed.
Then looked directly at the camera.
“When Grace was pregnant, Victoria paid Dr. Mercer to tell her the child had a serious genetic disorder.”
Grace’s hand flew to her mouth.
Memories rushed back.
The doctor had frightened her with vague warnings.
More tests.
More appointments.
He had told her the baby might not survive.
Nathan stared at Grace.
“You never told me.”
“I tried.”
His father continued.
“Grace was encouraged to terminate the pregnancy.”
Nathan stood abruptly.
“No.”
Grace began crying.
“She wanted Lily never to be born.”
Nathan’s father nodded on the screen as if answering him.
“I learned this much later.”
Grace remembered sitting alone in Dr. Mercer’s office.
He had placed forms in front of her.
She had refused.
She had walked out.
And months later, Lily was born perfectly healthy.
The video continued.
“When Grace refused, Victoria changed strategies. She made certain Nathan believed Grace had left him.”
Nathan lowered his head.
His father looked deeply ashamed.
“I allowed the separation because of the merger. That is my sin.”
Then his expression changed.
“But Victoria’s plan did not end there.”
Grace stopped crying.
“After Lily’s birth, Victoria began building a false financial history around Grace. She intended to use it if the truth ever emerged.”
Nathan looked at Martin.
“The transfers.”
Martin nodded.
The video continued.
“I tried to stop her.”
Nathan’s father leaned closer.
“If Victoria is still near Nathan when he sees this, she is dangerous.”
The screen went black.
Grace stared at it.
“That still doesn’t explain the message.”
Nathan nodded.
Why had the sender written, Why Lily was really born?
Lily had been born because Grace had refused Victoria’s scheme.
Unless there was something else.
A file appeared after the video.
The detective opened it.
It contained a scanned letter from Dr. Mercer.
Grace read the date.
Four years earlier.
The letter was addressed to Victoria.
The first lines made no sense.
Then Grace suddenly sat down.
Nathan noticed.
“What?”
Grace pointed.
“Read that.”
Nathan read aloud.
“Embryo sample confirms desired paternal match.”
He stopped.
Grace stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Martin took the document.
His face changed.
“Grace, did you undergo fertility treatment?”
“No!”
“Any procedure during early pregnancy?”
Grace thought back.
Blood tests.
Injections the doctor claimed were necessary.
Then one appointment she had never understood.
Dr. Mercer had sedated her for what he called an emergency diagnostic procedure.
Grace began shaking.
Nathan moved beside her.
Martin continued reading.
“This suggests someone collected genetic material.”
Nathan’s voice became cold.
“For what?”
Martin looked at the letter again.
“I don’t know.”
The detective interrupted from the phone.
“We found another file.”
It was a photograph.
A newborn baby.
Grace stared at it.
“That isn’t Lily.”
Nathan looked closer.
The photograph had a hospital tag visible around the infant’s ankle.
The surname was Carter.
Nathan froze.
Grace whispered, “Nathan…”
May you like
The detective’s voice became careful.
“There may be another child.”
