The document opened on Adrian’s screen.
For several seconds, he couldn’t make sense of what he was looking at.
Then he saw the name.
VANESSA REED.
His fiancée.
His hand went cold around the phone.
“Marcus.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Adrian shook his head.
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
“I didn’t say it did.”
“Maybe she had access because of her position.”
“She did.”
Adrian stared at the document.
Marcus continued.
“But there’s something else.”
A second file appeared.
Bank records.
Adrian opened it.
The first transfer was dated six weeks before his divorce from Claire.
$42,000.
From Adrian’s personal account.
To a company called Bennett Strategic Holdings.
Adrian frowned.
“That’s Claire’s company.”
“No,” Marcus said quietly. “That’s what you were told.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“Then whose company is it?”
Marcus didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he sent the incorporation documents.
Adrian opened them.
His breath caught.
The registered owner wasn’t Claire.
It wasn’t even Vanessa.
It was a man named Elliot Reed.
Vanessa’s older brother.
Adrian stood so quickly that his chair rolled backward.
“Marcus, why was my money going there?”
“I traced the transfers.”
“And?”
“They weren’t random.”
Marcus paused.
“They were being moved through three shell companies and eventually deposited into an account belonging to Elliot Reed.”
Adrian’s stomach twisted.
“Why?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Then find out.”
“I already did.”
Adrian stopped.
Marcus lowered his voice.
“The money was being used to pay someone at Willowcrest Medical Center.”
Adrian looked at the medical record again.
Claire.
Pregnant.
Twins.
His name listed as emergency contact.
Three unanswered calls.
And now Vanessa’s name attached to the person who accessed the records.
His mind began racing.
“Marcus.”
“Yes?”
“The twins.”
“I ran a preliminary DNA comparison using the photographs you sent me.”
Adrian couldn’t breathe.
“What did you find?”
“Photographs aren’t enough for a legal determination.”
“I didn’t ask for a legal determination.”
Silence.
“Tell me.”
Marcus finally answered.
“The probability is extremely high that those boys are yours.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
For nearly a year, he’d believed Claire had stolen from him.
He’d believed she’d cheated.
He’d believed the hotel photographs.
He’d believed the necklace.
He’d believed Vanessa when she cried beside him and said Claire had ruined everything.
But there was one thing he had never questioned.
The date of his divorce.
Claire had been pregnant when he threw her out.
And he hadn’t known.
“Where is she?” Adrian asked.
“I found an address.”
“Send it.”
“You’re not going alone.”
“I am.”
“Adrian—”
“I said send it.”
Five minutes later, an address appeared on his phone.
It was an old apartment building nearly forty miles outside the city.
Adrian drove there without telling Vanessa.
When he reached the building, he climbed three flights of stairs.
Apartment 3B.
He knocked.
Nothing.
He knocked again.
Then he heard a baby crying.
His heart stopped.
“Claire?”
The crying continued.
He tried the handle.
Unlocked.
“Claire?”
He pushed the door open.
The apartment was almost empty.
A mattress lay on the floor.
There was a small crib beside the window.
Two bottles sat on a table.
And taped to the wall were photographs.
Dozens of them.
Claire during pregnancy.
Claire holding newborn babies.
Claire sitting beside hospital beds.
Claire looking exhausted but smiling.
Adrian stepped closer.
Then he saw one photograph that made his knees weaken.
It was taken at Willowcrest.
Claire was sitting in a hospital bed.
One baby rested in her arms.
The other was beside her.
And taped underneath the photograph was a handwritten note.
I tried to tell him.
Adrian’s eyes filled with tears.
Then he noticed something on the table.
A sealed envelope.
His name was written across the front.
ADRIAN.
He opened it with trembling hands.
Inside was a single letter.
Claire’s handwriting.
Adrian,
If you’re reading this, then someone finally allowed you to see the truth.
I didn’t steal your money.
I didn’t betray you.
And those photographs were never what they looked like.
But there’s something I never told you because I was afraid.
The night your mother died, she called me.
She told me Vanessa had discovered something about our marriage.
Something that could destroy her family.
Your mother said if anything happened to her, I needed to protect you.
I didn’t understand what she meant until the next morning.
That’s when the money disappeared.
That’s when the necklace appeared in my closet.
And that’s when Vanessa showed me the photographs.
She told me that if I fought the divorce, you’d never see your children.
So I left.
I thought staying away would keep you alive.
I was wrong.
Adrian stopped reading.
His hands were shaking.
He looked toward the crib.
The crying had stopped.
Then he heard footsteps behind him.
He turned.
Claire stood in the doorway.
She looked thinner than he remembered.
Older.
Exhausted.
But her eyes were exactly the same.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Claire looked at the letter in his hand.
“You finally found it.”
Adrian swallowed.
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“I tried.”
“The hospital called me.”
“I know.”
“Three times.”
Claire’s eyes filled with tears.
“I called you too.”
Adrian stared at her.
“When?”
“The morning after the twins were born.”
“And?”
She looked toward the babies.
“Vanessa answered your phone.”
Adrian’s blood ran cold.
“What did she say?”
Claire wiped her cheek.
“She told me you were sitting beside her.”
A pause.
“She said you knew everything.”
Adrian shook his head.
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
A car door slammed somewhere outside.
Claire’s expression suddenly changed.
“Adrian.”
“What?”
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
“Why?”
She stepped closer.
“Because Vanessa knows you found the records.”
Adrian turned toward the window.
A black SUV had stopped outside the building.
His phone began ringing.
Vanessa.
He didn’t answer.
It stopped.
Then another call came.
Marcus.
Adrian picked up.
“Marcus?”
“Adrian, listen carefully.”
“What happened?”
“I traced the person who ordered the medical records deleted.”
Adrian looked at Claire.
Marcus spoke only four words.
“It wasn’t Vanessa.”
Adrian froze.
“Then who was it?”
Marcus hesitated.
“It was your father.”
Adrian’s face went completely blank.