Chapter 2 - THE PARTY ENDS
Adrian released me as though my skin had burned him.
Julian crossed the room without looking away from him.
My brother had always been quiet.
Adrian mistook quietness for weakness.
Most people did.
Julian knelt beside me while Dr. Elise Morgan, the private obstetric specialist he had brought, checked my pulse and examined the wound near my temple.
“How long have you been having contractions?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe twenty minutes.”
Her expression sharpened.
“We need to move now.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“She’s exaggerating.”
Julian stood.
The punch came so quickly that Adrian never saw it.
His body struck the dresser.
Vanessa screamed.
Julian did not hit him again.
He simply adjusted his cuff and said, “That was for dragging her. The courts will handle the rest.”
Two security officers blocked Adrian from approaching.
They did not work for him.
They worked for Northstar.
For years, Adrian believed every person guarding the mansion answered to his authority.
That evening, he learned the security contract had always been paid by me.
Downstairs, chaos spread through the party.
Investors stood beneath the chandeliers reading default notices on their phones.
A venture capitalist named Raymond Cole demanded to know why Ardent Vale’s voting rights had been reassigned.
Another investor shouted that the company’s accounts were frozen.
Someone discovered the mansion itself was listed as loan collateral.
When Julian carried me toward the staircase, every face turned upward.
I saw shock.
Confusion.
And, in several faces, sudden fear.
Adrian pushed past the guards and followed us.
“Mara!” he shouted. “Tell them this is a misunderstanding.”
I looked down at him from Julian’s arms.
“It isn’t.”
“You can’t destroy a billion-dollar fund because of a marital argument.”
“You assaulted a pregnant creditor while committing financial fraud.”
The room went silent.
Vanessa appeared behind him.
Her hand gripped the railing.
“What fraud?”
Adrian looked at her with such raw panic that I understood immediately.
She did not know everything.
She thought she was his partner.
She was only another liability.
Outside, an ambulance waited behind black security vehicles.
As paramedics transferred me onto a stretcher, three police cars entered the circular driveway.
One of the guests must have called them.
Or perhaps Julian had before entering.
Adrian attempted to return inside, but an officer stopped him.
“Mr. Vale, we need to speak with you regarding an alleged assault.”
“My wife fell.”
Twenty people heard him say it.
Several looked away.
Others suddenly became interested.
Money made witnesses forget what they saw.
Fear of losing money often restored their memory.
Julian climbed into the ambulance beside me.
As the doors closed, I caught one final image of Adrian standing beneath the porch lights.
His expensive suit was wrinkled.
Blood from Julian’s punch stained his lip.
Behind him, investors were leaving.
Nobody shook his hand.
Nobody waited for an explanation.
At the hospital, doctors found signs of placental irritation but confirmed both babies still had strong heartbeats.
I cried when I heard them.
Not loudly.
I turned my face toward the wall and let the tears fall into the pillow.
Julian sat beside me.
“You should have called sooner.”
“I know.”
“How long?”
I did not answer.
He lowered his voice.
“How long has Adrian been hurting you?”
“Physically? Six months.”
“And before that?”
“Years.”
Julian closed his eyes.
He did not blame me.
That almost made it worse.
At midnight, my attorney, Celeste Ward, arrived with three binders.
“The acquisition is proceeding,” she said. “But we found something unexpected.”
She placed a photograph on my blanket.
It showed Adrian entering a private fertility clinic with Vanessa.
The date was three months before my embryo transfer.
I stared at it.
“Why were they there?”
Celeste opened the first binder.
“Because the embryos implanted inside you may not be the ones you created with Adrian.”
The room tilted.
My hands moved protectively over my stomach.
Celeste continued carefully.
“We believe Adrian and Vanessa altered the clinic records.”
Julian stood.
“What are you saying?”
May you like
Celeste looked at me.
“I’m saying someone may have tried to make you carry another woman’s children.”
