Chapter 9 - THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT
Seven years ago.
Audrey stared at the date until the numbers stopped looking real.
Derek had always told the story of how they met by accident.
A charity auction.
One empty seat at Audrey’s table.
One spilled glass of champagne.
One charming stranger apologizing while helping clean it up.
Audrey used to love that story.
Now she understood something brutal.
It wasn’t a memory.
It was an operation.
Sienna forwarded photographs of every page.
The first letter came from Charles.
Derek Halston would receive $500,000 after legally marrying Audrey Vance.
Another $1.5 million if the marriage lasted five years.
Ten million after the birth of a direct Vance heir and transfer of specified voting rights.
Audrey read the documents without crying.
Nathan did not speak.
Elaine finally whispered:
“Oh my God.”
Audrey looked up.
“Did Mom know?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I don’t!”
Audrey stood.
For six years, Derek had slept beside her.
He knew how she took her coffee.
He knew she hated thunderstorms because one destroyed her childhood home.
He held her when her father died.
He sat beside her at fertility appointments.
He cried when the pregnancy test finally turned positive.
How much of that could be purchased?
Her phone rang.
Derek.
He had been released after Charles declined to press charges.
Audrey answered.
“Tell me the truth.”
Silence.
Then:
“You found the letter.”
“Yes.”
“Audrey—”
“Did you meet me because Charles paid you?”
Derek breathed into the phone.
“Yes.”
Elaine covered her mouth.
Audrey remained standing.
“Did you marry me because he paid you?”
A longer silence.
“At first.”
Those two words hurt more than anything else Derek had done.
“At first?”
“I was twenty-nine. I had debts. Mom knew Charles through a real-estate investor. He told me you were spoiled, cold, and sitting on money your family stole from him.”
“You accepted half a million dollars to marry someone you didn’t know.”
“I know how that sounds.”
“No, Derek. You know how it is.”
“I fell in love with you.”
Audrey shut her eyes.
He continued quickly.
“That part wasn’t fake.”
“Was Sienna fake?”
“No.”
“Was ignoring my calls fake?”
His silence answered.
Audrey’s voice dropped.
“Why didn’t you answer?”
“I was scared.”
“Of childbirth?”
“Of Charles.”
That surprised her.
“He told me the baby changed the timetable.”
“What timetable?”
“He wanted you to sign the voting proxy before delivery.”
“I refused.”
“I know.”
“So?”
“After you went into labor, he told Mom we had one final window.”
“What window?”
Derek’s voice became quieter.
“If something happened to you during delivery, the old trust clause could be activated immediately.”
Audrey felt physically sick.
“What are you saying?”
“I didn’t know they were going to hurt you.”
Nobody in the room moved.
Audrey gripped the phone.
“Who said anything about hurting me?”
Derek started crying.
“I should have answered.”
“Derek.”
“I should have been there.”
“What did they plan?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“What did they plan?”
He finally broke.
“Keller had access to the hospital.”
Audrey’s heartbeat thundered.
“He was supposed to alter your medication record.”
Elaine stood.
“What?”
Audrey put the call on speaker.
Derek continued.
“Nothing fatal. That’s what they told me.”
“WHAT?”
“Something that would make you confused after delivery. Enough for a competency evaluation.”
Audrey remembered Maisie’s birth.
The IV.
The sudden dizziness.
A nurse saying Audrey’s blood pressure had dropped unexpectedly.
Then the strange exhaustion after delivery.
Maybe normal.
Maybe not.
Derek whispered:
“But something went wrong.”
“What?”
“Someone stopped it.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Audrey could barely breathe.
Then Derek said:
“Charles thinks somebody inside the hospital switched the medication.”
Nathan immediately called the hospital.
Audrey asked:
“Why would anyone protect me?”
Derek didn’t answer.
“Who?”
“I swear I don’t know.”
Then another voice came through Derek’s line.
Male.
Calm.
“Put the phone down.”
Derek stopped breathing.
Audrey stood.
“Derek?”
The line shifted.
A struggle.
Then Derek shouted:
“RUN THE BABY’S DNA!”
The call ended.
Audrey stared at the phone.
Elaine whispered:
“Why would he say that?”
Audrey slowly looked toward the bassinet.
Maisie slept peacefully.
Nathan’s face had changed.
“Audrey…”
She shook her head.
“No.”
But another message arrived from Derek’s number.
Not text.
A photograph.
A hospital laboratory form.
MAISIE HALSTON — CORD BLOOD GENETIC SCREENING.
May you like
Across the bottom someone had written:
PATERNAL SAMPLE DOES NOT MATCH DEREK HALSTON.
