Chapter 9 - Victor Already Knew
Four years ago.
The number repeated in my head.
Micah and Mila had been one.
“Who ran it?” I asked.
The lab director hesitated. “The request was routed through a private genetics contractor.”
Luca’s voice became ice. “Name.”
“Dane Strategic Services.”
Evelyn swore under her breath.
Victor had known.
Not suspected. Not guessed.
Known.
Luca walked out without a word.
I followed him into the hall. “Where are you going?”
“To kill him.”
“No.”
He looked at me as if he couldn’t believe I had stopped him.
“You want him punished?” I said. “Then don’t give him a defense attorney’s dream. We collect everything.”
“He stole five years from me.”
“He stole them from me too.”
That landed.
Luca leaned against the wall, breathing hard.
For the first time, our anger pointed in the same direction.
By afternoon, Evelyn had secured access to audit records. Lena obtained emergency court orders preserving clinic and company files. Luca’s security chief isolated Victor’s corporate credentials without alerting him.
Then we found the second layer.
Northbridge Consulting had paid Dr. Hargrove $480,000 over three years.
The fertility clinic had altered lab values in my chart.
But the ugliest document came from Victor’s own archive.
A memo written one month before Luca left me.
OBJECTIVE: REMOVE N.C. FROM SUCCESSION RISK.
Below it was a paragraph describing me as “emotionally vulnerable due to reproductive failure.”
I read it twice.
Then I threw up in Lena’s office bathroom.
When I came out, Luca was waiting.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Don’t.”
“I should have protected you.”
“You should have believed me.”
He lowered his head.
Evelyn entered carrying another file.
“This gets worse.”
I almost laughed. “Of course it does.”
She placed a board resolution on the table.
If Luca died without acknowledged biological heirs, control of a massive block of Moretti voting shares would pass into a management trust.
The trustee named in the old document was Victor Dane.
Luca read it once.
Then twice.
And finally whispered, “He didn’t just want Nia gone.”
May you like
I knew the rest.
“He needed my children not to exist.”
