Chapter 3 - GRANT HAD BUILT TWO MARRIAGES
Grant arrived at the penthouse at 2:11 in the morning.
I had not invited him.
I also had not left.
Yet.
He opened the door and stopped when he saw my suitcase beside the kitchen island.
For a second, neither of us spoke.
Then his eyes went to my face.
“Where are you going?”
I almost smiled.
“You really still ask questions like you’re entitled to answers.”
His jaw tightened.
“I need you safe.”
“From Aubrey?”
“My father.”
“Funny. Earlier you said Aubrey.”
“They’re connected.”
He took off his coat.
I noticed blood near one cuff.
“Whose blood?”
“Aubrey’s.”
That hit harder than I wanted it to.
“Did she deliver?”
“No.”
“Complications?”
He looked away.
“There’s something wrong with the baby.”
I hated myself for caring.
But a baby was a baby.
“What?”
“Heart rate issues.”
He sat down.
For the first time, Grant looked broken.
Not guilty.
Scared.
Then I remembered my own ultrasound.
My six-week heartbeat.
Two pregnancies tied to the same man.
One ending a marriage before it began.
One hidden inside the wife he had packed away.
“Why did you sign as her husband eight months ago?”
He closed his eyes.
“Insurance.”
“That is not an answer.”
“She had no family coverage. The hospital required—”
“Then say domestic partner.”
Silence.
“You wanted people to believe it.”
“Yes.”
There it was.
“Why?”
“Because my father was watching.”
Again Harrison.
“Everything somehow becomes your father.”
Grant stood.
“You don’t understand what he can do.”
“I understand what you did.”
“I’m not denying it.”
“Good.”
I opened another file.
Bank transfers.
Monthly payments to Aubrey.
Apartment lease.
Medical bills.
Baby furniture.
“You funded an entire second household.”
“Yes.”
“With marital money?”
“No.”
“Prove it.”
He flinched.
That one mattered.
I had spent years leaving finances to Grant because he was “better with numbers.”
Never again.
Then he saw the ultrasound envelope on the counter.
My doctor’s logo.
His face changed.
“What is that?”
I reached for it.
Too late.
He moved closer.
“Claire.”
“No.”
“You had an appointment today?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I stared at him.
I could tell him.
Destroy him.
Watch every expression collapse at once.
Instead I slid the envelope into my purse.
“None of your business.”
His face went white.
For one horrible second, I thought he understood.
Then his phone rang.
Evelyn.
He rejected it.
She called again.
And again.
Finally Grant answered.
“What?”
His mother’s voice was loud enough for me to hear.
“Grant, Aubrey’s gone.”
He froze.
“What?”
“She left the hospital.”
“What do you mean left?”
“No one can find her.”
Grant looked at me.
Then Evelyn said something else.
“The trust documents are missing.”
Grant’s face changed completely.
“What documents?”
“The originals.”
He went pale.
Then Evelyn whispered:
“And Harrison is gone too.”
I stared.
Aubrey had not been abandoned at the hospital.
May you like
She had disappeared with the one man Grant claimed she had been spying for.
And whatever they took was apparently worth more than the baby about to be born.
