Chapter 15 - The Clinic Basement
The fire alarm was false.
Someone had pulled it on the first floor.
During the evacuation, a man wearing maintenance clothes tried to enter Elise’s room.
Police caught him in the stairwell.
He worked for Caleb Mercer.
That ended any doubt that the conspiracy was still moving.
By evening, federal investigators joined the case.
They searched Hawthorne Fertility.
In the basement archive, they found files nobody had logged.
Mine.
Ryan’s.
Elise’s.
And twenty-three others.
Dr. Cole sat across from Nina and me with his lawyer.
His hands would not stop shaking.
“Victoria paid the previous clinic administrator for information,” he said.
“Did she alter my treatment?”
“No.”
I watched his face.
“That isn’t the whole answer.”
He looked at his lawyer.
Then at me.
“She pressured staff to delay certain lab notifications.”
“What notifications?”
“Results showing that Ryan’s factor was the primary fertility issue.”
I felt sick.
“She let me believe my body was failing.”
“Yes.”
“Did she cause my miscarriages?”
“No. I have no evidence of that.”
I held onto that sentence.
Some grief belonged to chance.
Not every wound had been engineered.
But Victoria had used those wounds.
Dr. Cole continued.
“After your last loss, she asked whether pregnancy was still possible naturally.”
“And?”
“I said unlikely. Not impossible.”
That explained her confidence.
Eleven years of probability had become a weapon.
Then an investigator entered carrying a clear evidence bag.
Inside was an old cassette recorder.
“Found in the archive wall.”
Samuel recognized it.
“Thomas used those.”
The tape was dated the day before my wedding.
Dad’s voice came first.
Then Victoria’s.
“You can keep your daughter,” she said, “or you can keep the company alive. You don’t get both.”
Dad answered.
“If you ever use Madeline’s marriage to touch her inheritance, the trust takes everything back.”
Victoria laughed.
“Only if she has an heir.”
Dad’s voice went cold.
“You sound very sure she won’t.”
The tape ended.
May you like
No one moved.
Because now we knew my father had suspected the fertility sabotage before he died.
