Chapter 11 - Victor Finally Told The Truth He Should’ve Told First
I confronted Victor before dawn.
He met me at his office looking twenty years older than he had the week before. For once, he didn’t bother pretending he could talk his way around what he’d done.
I put the copied records on his desk.
“You prepared discharge papers to move my daughter out of town.”
He nodded.
“You took money from Vanessa.”
Another nod.
“You had an affair with the woman engaged to my son.”
This time, he flinched.
Then I asked the question that had started pressing against every other one:
“Who is listed under that private amendment?”
Victor closed his eyes.
“It wasn’t meant to stay hidden this long.”
“Answer me.”
He swallowed hard. “The second intended parent was supposed to be Vanessa. She asked for the amendment after the embryo transfer.”
My rage sharpened. “Why was it amended at all?”
“Because she said if her name stayed visible on every document, you might find out about the surrogacy before the wedding. She wanted privacy.”
I stared at him.
“That’s not the whole truth.”
“No.” His voice cracked. “It isn’t.”
He took off his glasses and rubbed his face like a broken man finally too tired to protect his own lies.
“A week after the transfer, Vanessa found out the embryo had taken. That should have made everything easier. Instead, she panicked. She started saying Sarah looked too radiant, too maternal, too close to Ethan. She became convinced that once the baby was born, Ethan would always be tied more deeply to Sarah than to her.”
“So she started planning control.”
“Yes.”
“And you helped.”
His eyes dropped.
“She said the marriage would stabilize everything. She said once the baby was delivered and legal parentage was formalized, Sarah could be compensated and distanced. I told myself it was cold, not criminal.” He looked up at me then, finally ashamed enough to sound human. “I was wrong.”
I leaned over the desk.
“Then why did you tell her to be careful about bruises?”
That made him go still.
“Because,” he said hoarsely, “when I saw her last week, Sarah already had marks on her shoulders.”
That meant he had known Vanessa was physically hurting her—and still kept helping.
I should have walked out.
Instead I asked the question that still burned hardest.
“If Vanessa was meant to be Parent Two, why did the final record hide her name under a private amendment?”
Victor hesitated.
May you like
And in that hesitation, I realized there was still one lie left inside the truth.
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