Chapter 14 - The Embryo
I thought I understood how Micah and Mila had come into the world.
I was wrong.
After Luca and I separated, I had believed the twins were conceived naturally during the last month of our marriage.
Dr. Hargrove told us something else.
“Our final IVF cycle produced three embryos,” he said in the interrogation room. “You were told none were viable.”
“Yes.”
“One was viable. It was transferred.”
I stared at him.
“I remember the transfer.”
“You were told implantation failed.”
My knees weakened.
Hargrove nodded. “The early blood test was deliberately reported as negative.”
Luca gripped the table. “Why?”
“Victor wanted the marriage over before a pregnancy could stabilize it.”
I wanted to throw the chair at him.
“You let me drink wine. You let me take sleeping medication. You let me believe there was no pregnancy.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t know.”
My voice cracked so loudly the detective outside looked in.
“I spent three weeks thinking my body had failed again. I signed divorce papers while pregnant with twins.”
Hargrove began to cry.
I felt nothing for him.
Luca sat beside me but did not touch me.
Good.
Not yet.
The medical evidence was enough to trigger federal charges for fraud and unlawful alteration of records. Victor’s gun carried an erased serial number. His travel case held encrypted drives and Swiss trust documents.
And buried inside those documents was one final insult.
Victor had created an irrevocable “continuity plan” transferring control of certain Moretti assets to himself if Luca became incapacitated before acknowledging an heir.
The twins changed everything.
Their existence destroyed the structure.
That was why Victor wanted them hidden.
That was why he had tracked us.
Luca stared at the documents for a long time.
Then a federal agent entered.
“We found one more file on Dane’s drive.”
She turned the laptop toward us.
The filename was simple.
L.M. - PERMANENT SOLUTION.
Luca’s face went blank.
May you like
The agent clicked it open.
Inside was a detailed plan for Luca’s death.
