Chapter 11 - VANESSA’S CONFESSION
I did not go alone.
I was angry.
I was not stupid.
Rachel arranged for investigators to remain outside the abandoned Hale Reproductive Center.
Luka stayed across the street because I insisted.
“If she sees you, she’ll run.”
“She may run anyway.”
“Then let her run toward me first.”
The clinic had closed two years earlier.
Dust covered the reception desk.
The logo had been removed from the wall, leaving a pale outline.
Vanessa stood inside the old consultation room.
She was no longer wearing the red dress she had worn when she left the hospital with my husband.
Now she wore jeans and a gray sweater.
She looked younger.
And frightened.
“You came.”
“You slept with my husband.”
She flinched.
“I know.”
“You helped him choose a donor without my consent.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t choose Luka.”
“Then who did?”
“My father.”
I stared at her.
Vanessa wrapped both arms around herself.
“Ethan came to the clinic before your wedding.”
“He told me about his infertility.”
“He was desperate about the Bennett trust.”
“He wanted a donor nobody could ever trace.”
“So you helped him.”
“I processed the request.”
“You forged my consent.”
Her eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
The word made me want to hit her.
Instead, I forced myself to stay still.
“Why Luka?”
“My father had a list.”
“Samples he called legacy profiles.”
“M-17 was the most valuable.”
“Your father found out.”
“My father?”
“Michael.”
Vanessa looked toward the hallway.
“He threatened to expose everything.”
“Then he died.”
Vanessa began crying.
“I didn’t know they were going to kill him.”
My blood went cold.
“They?”
She covered her mouth.
I stepped closer.
“Who killed my father?”
“I don’t know who physically did it.”
“But my father ordered someone to stop him.”
The room tilted.
“You knew?”
“Not until years later.”
“And you still worked for him?”
“He’s my father.”
“So?”
Vanessa laughed through tears.
“You don’t understand Victor Hale.”
“He owns judges.”
“He funds campaigns.”
“He has police officers on private payroll.”
“He doesn’t ask people to keep secrets.”
“He makes sure they’re too afraid to speak.”
I thought of my daughter.
“You weren’t too afraid to sleep with Ethan.”
Her face hardened.
“I didn’t sleep with him because I loved him.”
That surprised me.
“Why then?”
“Because he found the old records.”
“He realized your father had hidden copies.”
“He threatened to expose me unless I helped him find them.”
“So you started an affair?”
“I kept him close.”
Vanessa looked sick.
“Then it became what it became.”
I had no sympathy for her.
But I believed she was afraid.
“Why did Ethan abandon me today?”
“Because my father told him the newborn screening would reveal a genetic marker connected to Moretti.”
“He panicked.”
“He thought Luka would destroy him.”
I almost laughed.
“He should have worried about me.”
Vanessa stared at me.
Then she reached inside her bag.
Luka’s investigators moved outside the frosted glass.
I tensed.
Vanessa removed a small digital recorder.
“My father talked to Ethan this morning.”
“I recorded it.”
She placed it on the table.
“Everything you need is on there.”
Before I could touch it, headlights flooded the clinic windows.
Vanessa’s face turned white.
May you like
“He found me.”
Outside, three black vehicles stopped in front of the building.
