Chapter 14 - Vanessa’s Bargain
I didn’t open the envelope.
Not yet.
That surprised everyone.
Especially Ryan.
I wanted him to wonder.
I wanted him to experience one night of uncertainty after seven years of controlling mine.
Federal agents took him away for questioning.
He wasn’t formally charged that night.
The investigation was still expanding.
But his passport was surrendered.
His accounts connected to Hale Medical were frozen.
And the husband who had walked out of the hospital like he owned the world suddenly needed permission to leave the state.
Vanessa asked to speak with me the next morning.
I almost refused.
Then she offered evidence.
We met inside a federal interview room with attorneys present.
She looked exhausted.
No makeup.
No expensive coat.
No smug smile.
“Ryan lied to me too.”
I almost laughed.
“Do you want sympathy?”
“No.”
“Good.”
She pushed a phone across the table.
“There are recordings.”
“Ryan started making them because he planned to betray my father.”
I looked at the device.
“How long were you sleeping with him?”
“Eight years.”
The answer hurt less than I expected.
Probably because my marriage had already died.
“You were with him before he met me.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know why he married me?”
“Yes.”
That one still hurt.
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
“He said it would only last until he found Robert’s evidence.”
“How long?”
“A year.”
I stared at her.
“We were married for six.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t he leave?”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
“He said you were useful.”
I knew she wanted those words to wound me.
They did.
Then she added something unexpected.
“But I don’t think that was the whole truth.”
I said nothing.
“Ryan became possessive of you.”
“He stopped telling me things.”
“When you got pregnant, he changed.”
“He started questioning my father.”
“He asked whether M-17 could be reversed.”
“Reversed?”
“Whether your procedure could be stopped.”
My heart pounded.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa pushed the phone closer.
“But three days before your embryo transfer, I heard Ryan screaming at my father.”
“What did he say?”
Vanessa looked directly at me.
“He said, ‘If Moretti’s sample goes into my wife, I’ll burn this entire operation down.’”
I went still.
That didn’t sound like the Ryan I knew now.
Vanessa continued.
“My father told him it was too late.”
“Ryan left furious.”
“Then Robert disappeared.”
She nodded toward the sealed envelope on the table beside me.
“Whatever your father substituted, Ryan found out.”
“When?”
“The day Grace was born.”
“How?”
“Her blood type.”
Everything clicked.
Ryan had received the newborn information.
He realized something.
Then he abandoned us.
Not because he knew Grace wasn’t his.
Maybe because he knew she was.
I looked at Vanessa.
“Who does Ryan think the father is?”
May you like
She gave me the answer I had been afraid to hope for.
“Himself.”
