Chapter 7 - THE FATHER WHO CAME BACK FOR THE WRONG REASON
Victor didn't enter the hospital.
He sat inside a black sedan across the street.
Watching.
Waiting.
Police approached before he could move.
He claimed he was there to see his children.
That sentence made me laugh.
Not because it was funny.
Because three days earlier he'd called them a curse.
Now that he knew what one of them represented, he suddenly wanted to be a father.
I refused contact.
Naomi supported me.
The children were medically stable.
Both gaining weight.
Both recovering from the cold exposure.
I was still weak.
Bruises fading.
Stitches healing.
But every day I could hold them felt like victory.
Victor's attorney filed an emergency petition for parental access.
My body went cold when Naomi told me.
"He can do that?"
"He can file."
"Will he win?"
"That's for the court to determine."
I hated uncertainty.
But I also understood something new.
I didn't need Elias to make Victor disappear.
I needed evidence.
Law.
Records.
The truth.
We documented everything.
My injuries.
Hospital findings.
Witness statements.
Security footage.
The midwife's testimony.
And then something unexpected happened.
One of Victor's men came forward.
His name was Daniel Crowe.
He had been there the night we were taken.
He admitted helping transport us.
But insisted he had refused to strike me.
I didn't care about his excuses.
Then he gave investigators a phone recording.
Victor's voice.
Clear.
Cold.
Leave them where nobody finds them.
My chest tightened.
Then:
If the babies die, the trust problem disappears.
I almost vomited.
He hadn't merely abandoned us.
He wanted us dead.
Daniel also recorded Charles Miller.
Victor's father.
The older man's voice was weaker.
You were supposed to give her a son, not kill her.
Victor laughed.
She failed.
Then Charles answered:
If Ava dies, Margaret's trust goes to Elias.
Silence.
Victor hadn't known that.
Neither had I.
Elias stared at Naomi.
"To me?"
She reviewed the trust.
"Yes. If Margaret's daughter and descendants die, remaining assets revert to Margaret's nearest surviving sibling."
Elias.
Victor hadn't only been trying to steal my inheritance.
By attempting to kill me, he'd almost handed everything to the one man he feared most.
Suddenly, his panic after learning Elias rescued us made perfect sense.
He hadn't come because he loved me.
He came because I was alive.
And because Elias now knew.
The court denied Victor unsupervised access pending investigation.
A protective order followed.
For the first time since our marriage, I slept knowing he couldn't legally walk into my room.
Then Margaret asked to see him.
I stared.
"Why?"
"Because I need to know what Charles told him."
Elias shook his head.
"No."
My mother looked at him.
"You don't decide for me."
He went silent.
Then nodded.
"You're right."
That mattered.
The meeting was arranged through attorneys and investigators.
Victor sat behind glass.
When he saw Margaret, his face changed.
"You're alive."
She smiled sadly.
"So are you."
He leaned forward.
"You ruined everything."
My mother looked at him.
"No."
Her voice was calm.
"You did."
Victor laughed bitterly.
Then whispered:
"You think Elias will protect Ava?"
Margaret's expression hardened.
"He already did."
Victor smiled.
"For now."
My stomach tightened.
Then he looked directly toward the observation camera.
Toward me.
May you like
And said:
"Ask Elias what happened to Ava's real father."
