CHAPTER 2: THE MESSAGES THAT CAME FROM HIS HOUSE
Lucas read the messages twice.
They had been sent from his number and sounded like him—brief, formal, final. Yet he knew he had never written them.
He handed back the phone.
“The week these were sent, I was recovering from surgery. Vanessa had my phone.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Hannah stared at him. “Surgery?”
“A car accident,” Lucas said. “I called you from the hospital. A woman answered and said you had left the country with someone else.”
“No one called me.”
Vanessa backed toward the door. “This is becoming absurd.”
Lucas blocked her path without touching her.
“What did you do?”
Before she could answer, an older woman entered with a nurse behind her. Dr. Evelyn Shaw had directed the maternity department for nearly thirty years. She was known for speaking quietly, which made people listen more carefully.
“I can answer part of that,” she said.
Dr. Shaw placed a folder on the table. Earlier that evening, someone using Vanessa’s donor credentials had requested Hannah’s transfer to a distant clinic. The request falsely claimed Hannah was uninsured, unstable, and receiving care under a false identity.
The nurse had also discovered repeated access to Hannah’s records from an account linked to Vanessa’s assistant.
Lucas looked at Vanessa with open disgust.
“You were trying to remove her before I found out.”
Vanessa’s composure broke.
“You were supposed to move on,” she snapped. “Your father needed the Crowne partnership. The board needed stability. Hannah was never going to fit into that world.”
“So you sent the messages?”
Vanessa laughed bitterly. “You were unconscious. Your phone was unlocked. It wasn’t difficult.”
Hannah felt the room tilt.
Lucas had not rejected her. He had believed she had abandoned him, just as she had believed he had abandoned her.
But another question remained.
“The clinic told us the final embryo transfer had failed,” Lucas said. “How is she pregnant?”
Dr. Shaw opened the folder.
“It did not fail.”
The original laboratory report showed a successful implantation. A second report—created two days later—had been sent to Lucas. That altered report said the procedure had failed.
Vanessa denied changing it, but her silence said enough.
“You stole seven months from us,” Lucas said.
“I protected your future.”
“No,” he answered. “You tried to purchase it.”
Vanessa looked at Hannah. “He’ll resent you. He’ll resent the baby. Men like Lucas always choose the life that costs them less.”
Hannah placed both hands over her stomach.
“Then that will be his choice. But you don’t get to make it for him—or for me.”
May you like
Security escorted Vanessa from the room. Downstairs, rumors spread through the gala, but Lucas refused to continue the event. He took the stage and announced that the wedding was canceled because serious private misconduct had come to light. He did not mention Hannah’s pregnancy.
For once, he protected her before protecting his reputation.
