Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO CHOSE MY HUSBAND ON PURPOSE
Vanessa had targeted Grant.
That was his explanation.
I did not care.
Being manipulated does not erase choosing betrayal.
But I listened because facts still mattered.
Grant came to the hospital under security supervision.
I did not allow him into the NICU.
We met in a private family consultation room.
He looked terrible.
Good.
He sat across from me.
No touching.
No apology at first.
At least he understood that one apology would sound obscene against what he had done.
“Vanessa joined Holloway Meridian eighteen months ago.”
“I know.”
“She was recruited through Crane Strategy Partners.”
“Her father’s firm.”
“Yes.”
“When did you start sleeping with her?”
He looked down.
“Six months ago.”
“How long did she work on the merger before that?”
“Almost a year.”
“So you cheated with the woman negotiating a transaction that depended on my shares.”
“Yes.”
“That is spectacularly stupid.”
“Yes.”
I appreciated the lack of defense.
Slightly.
Grant explained that Vanessa repeatedly asked about the Carter Trust.
He assumed due diligence.
Then she suggested divorce.
Not directly.
She asked whether our marriage was “still functional.”
Whether I cared about corporate control.
Whether we had a prenup.
“She knew the answers before she asked,” I said.
“I think so.”
“And you still slept with her.”
“Yes.”
There was no rescue available from that fact.
Then Grant handed me a flash drive.
“Last night, after Margaret called, I checked Vanessa’s laptop.”
“You accessed her computer?”
“She left it open.”
“Convenient.”
“I deserve that.”
He did.
The drive contained emails between Vanessa and someone named D.C.
David Crane.
Alive.
The messages went back nearly two years.
One said:
Do not push Grant too quickly. Amelia must remain unaware until the children exist.
Another:
Once descendants activate the trust division, remove Grant from the marriage at the right time.
I stared at Grant.
“You were not supposed to divorce me before the babies were born.”
“No.”
“You were supposed to wait.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
Grant closed his eyes.
“Vanessa told me you might die.”
The room went silent.
“What?”
“She called me while you were in surgery.”
“What did she say?”
“That the doctors believed you wouldn’t survive.”
My hands went cold.
“She isn’t a doctor.”
“I know.”
“She wasn’t in the operating room.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you believe her?”
Grant looked ashamed.
“Because I wanted to.”
That answer was the first honest one.
He wanted permission.
Permission to stop pretending.
To run toward the new life he had already chosen.
“So you signed.”
“Yes.”
“And triggered the clause.”
“Yes.”
Vanessa and David had planned something different.
They wanted the babies born.
The trust divided.
Then Grant was supposed to remain married to me long enough to complete the merger.
Afterward, I could be discarded.
Grant’s impatience destroyed their timing.
My husband had betrayed me so selfishly that he accidentally protected my assets.
The irony would have been funny if I didn’t still have staples across my abdomen.
Then Grant said:
“There’s something worse.”
Of course.
He showed me a hospital authorization.
Someone had requested my embryos’ genetic records from the fertility clinic months earlier.
“We conceived naturally,” I whispered.
“I know.”
“So why would a fertility clinic have our records?”
Grant looked at me.
“They don’t.”
“Then whose records are these?”
The document named three embryos.
Three identifiers.
Three implantation dates.
My pulse began to race.
That was impossible.
My pregnancy had not involved IVF.
Unless the records were not about me.
Grant looked pale.
“Amelia…”
“What?”
“Vanessa’s pregnancy came from the same clinic.”
Then I understood.
May you like
The triplets were not the pregnancy David Crane needed.
Vanessa’s baby was.
