Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN BESIDE MY HUSBAND
Selena had not chosen Mason accidentally.
That became obvious within hours.
Her father had helped hide Mason's true paternity.
Her brother shared Mason's biological father.
And Selena had spent three years moving closer to the Bennett family.
First through consulting work.
Then through the fertility clinic.
Then through Mason's bed.
The affair wasn't a romance.
It was access.
I should have enjoyed that realization.
Instead, I felt strangely sorry for Mason.
For about thirty seconds.
Then I remembered him walking past his newborn daughter.
The sympathy disappeared.
Noah uncovered financial transfers between Mason and Selena totaling $620,000.
Mason had paid her shortly before my fertility procedure.
When confronted through attorneys, Mason claimed the payments were investments.
Selena called them consulting fees.
The bank records called them something else.
One transfer memo contained only two words.
HEIR PROJECT.
I stared at the screen.
"He paid for the baby."
Luka's jaw tightened.
"He paid for a result."
That was somehow colder.
My legal paternity test with Luka was scheduled under court-supervised conditions.
No private clinic.
No St. Catherine employees.
No chain-of-custody gaps.
Three days later, samples were collected.
Results would arrive sealed.
During those three days, Mason changed tactics.
Flowers arrived.
I sent them back.
A diamond bracelet arrived.
I returned it.
Then came a handwritten letter.
Avery.
I made terrible choices.
But I did them because I was terrified of losing everything.
My father would have replaced me.
The board would have abandoned me.
You would have left me if you knew the truth about my infertility.
I loved you enough to build a future any way I could.
Please don't confuse desperation with cruelty.
I read the last line twice.
Then I tore the letter in half.
Luka saw me.
"He thinks that's love?"
"He thinks love is whatever makes him feel less guilty."
That evening, Mason appeared outside the apartment.
Luka met him in the hallway.
I watched through the partially open door.
Mason looked smaller than I remembered.
Not physically.
Morally.
"I need five minutes with my wife."
"She decides that."
Mason looked past him.
"Avery."
I stepped into view.
"You have two."
He looked at Luka.
"Alone."
"No."
His eyes filled with anger.
Then fear.
"Selena used me."
"I know."
"You don't know everything."
"Then tell me."
He lowered his voice.
"She chose the donor."
I stopped breathing.
Mason pointed toward Luka.
"I never selected him."
Luka's expression sharpened.
"Then why me?"
Mason swallowed.
"Because your father wasn't dead."
Everything stopped.
Luka moved one step forward.
"What did you say?"
Mason backed away.
"Antonio Moretti was alive when Selena arranged the procedure."
Luka's face lost every trace of color.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Where?"
Mason's voice cracked.
"Ask Selena."
Then the stairwell door opened behind him.
A woman screamed.
We ran toward the sound.
A security guard lay unconscious near the stairs.
May you like
Selena was gone.
And the court-sealed DNA evidence envelope that had arrived ten minutes earlier was gone with her.
