Chapter 9 - I DID NOT SAVE GRANT FROM LOSING EVERYTHING
Grant’s attorneys arrived before sunset.
Three men.
Two women.
All expensive.
All terrified.
They explained options.
Challenge the trust.
Dispute Aubrey’s testimony.
Claim coercion.
Delay paternity evidence.
Question my pregnancy timeline.
That last suggestion ended the meeting.
Grant stood.
“Get out.”
His lead attorney stared.
“Grant—”
“You heard me.”
When they left, he looked at me.
“I won’t challenge you.”
“That doesn’t earn you anything.”
“I know.”
Good.
Aubrey delivered a boy at 5:32 p.m.
Marcus was with her.
Grant was not.
The DNA test later confirmed Marcus as father.
Grant’s name disappeared from every legal document.
But not from the moral ones.
He still betrayed me.
He still financed the apartment.
He still packed me out.
He still let me spend years questioning myself.
I filed for divorce the next morning.
Grant signed without protest.
Evelyn arrived at the penthouse before noon.
I had moved into a hotel.
She found me anyway.
“Claire.”
I almost closed the door.
Then decided I wanted to hear what a woman says after helping erase another woman from her own home.
She sat.
Perfect hair.
Pearl earrings.
No shame visible yet.
“I was trying to protect the family.”
I laughed.
“Of course.”
“Aubrey’s baby—”
“Was not Grant’s.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You knew he was sleeping with her.”
She looked down.
“Yes.”
“You helped move her into my home.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me inject fertility medication.”
Tears finally formed.
“Yes.”
“You hugged me.”
Her face broke.
“I’m sorry.”
I believed she meant it.
That did not make it useful.
“Why did you do it?”
“Fear.”
At least the answer was honest.
“Harrison told me the company would collapse if the trust transferred outside our control.”
“So you chose the company.”
“I chose what I thought protected my sons.”
“You protected their inheritance by destroying my marriage.”
She cried.
I did not comfort her.
Then she gave me a file.
“What is this?”
“Something Harrison never wanted you to see.”
Financial records.
Three years.
Fertility treatments.
Payments.
I frowned.
Grant had paid for every cycle personally.
I knew that.
But another column showed reimbursements.
Harrison reimbursed Grant through corporate accounts.
Why?
Then I saw the memo codes.
SUCCESSION PREPARATION.
My fertility treatments had been tracked as part of the family trust strategy.
I felt sick.
“Grant knew?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn whispered:
“Harrison wanted your pregnancy.”
That sentence chilled me.
He had encouraged Grant to continue IVF not because he cared about us.
Because he wanted a legitimate heir before Marcus reappeared.
Then another record.
A payment to the fertility clinic.
Private genetic screening.
Unauthorized.
My embryos had been tested without my consent.
I stared at Evelyn.
“What were they looking for?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Naomi found the answer later.
Not disease.
Paternity markers.
Harrison wanted confirmation Grant could biologically father children.
Why?
May you like
Because years earlier, a medical test had told Harrison something Grant did not know.
Grant might not be his biological son.
