Chapter 4 - A NURSERY FOR ANOTHER WOMAN
Khloe stared at Celia until the hidden room seemed to narrow around them.
“You said Richard hired you.”
“He believes he did.”
“Who are you really working for?”
“My sister.”
Celia's answer came without hesitation.
“Her name is Laura Monroe.”
Khloe remembered the name from the clinic report.
L.M. had been listed beside a series of payments.
The initials meant nothing then.
Now they stood in front of her wearing a house manager's uniform.
Celia pointed toward the lower file cabinet.
“Open it.”
Khloe did not pick up the key.
“How do I know this is not a trap?”
“You do not.”
Celia glanced at the phone in Khloe's hand.
“But you have been taking photographs for eight minutes.”
“If I wanted to stop you, I would have called Richard before entering.”
“Maybe you already did.”
“Then we have very little time.”
Khloe pressed the back of the compass twice.
Celia watched.
“What is that?”
“Insurance.”
“Good.”
Celia placed the key into the cabinet lock and turned it.
Inside were hanging files labeled with women's first names.
Laura.
Megan.
Daphne.
Elise.
Sabrina.
Khloe counted eleven folders.
Each contained medical records, nondisclosure agreements, wire transfers, and photographs.
Some women appeared pregnant in the images.
Others posed beside newborn infants.
Several photographs showed Richard.
He stood at hospital bedsides.
He held babies.
He signed papers.
In every picture, he looked younger, cleaner, and completely in control.
“What is this?”
Celia's mouth tightened.
“A private surrogacy network.”
“Illegal?”
“Not at first.”
Celia removed Laura's file.
“Richard and Dr. Crane began arranging private carriers for wealthy clients who wanted absolute secrecy.”
“Politicians.”
“Executives.”
“Married men who did not want their wives to know.”
“Women whose embryos had been declared nonviable.”
Khloe felt the room tilt.
“Stolen embryos.”
“Some.”
“Others were purchased through coercive contracts.”
Celia opened Laura's file.
A photograph showed a smiling woman with auburn hair standing beside Celia.
The sisters looked almost identical.
Laura's stomach was visibly pregnant.
“Richard promised her sixty thousand dollars.”
“She was twenty-six and drowning in medical debt after our father died.”
“The child belonged to one of Richard's investors.”
“What happened?”
“She delivered a boy at a private clinic in Delaware.”
“Three days later, she called me from a gas station.”
“She said she had seen records proving the clinic was moving embryos without consent.”
“She also said one of the babies had been switched after birth.”
Khloe gripped the edge of the desk.
“Switched with whom?”
“I do not know.”
“That was the last time I heard her voice.”
“Police?”
“They called her a frightened young woman who ran away after violating a contract.”
“Richard's attorneys produced a letter saying she wanted no contact with me.”
“Did you believe it?”
“Laura misspelled my middle name in the letter.”
Celia closed the file.
“She gave me that middle name.”
“She would never spell it wrong.”
Khloe looked at the rows of women.
“Why wait four years?”
“I did not wait.”
“I worked in two clinics, followed three doctors, and spent every dollar I had.”
“I applied for this job under my married name when Richard replaced his staff.”
“He never connected me to Laura.”
“Until now?”
“I do not know.”
Celia looked toward the bookcase.
“He asked me yesterday whether anyone had contacted me about my family.”
“That is why I tried to keep you inside.”
“I thought the house was being watched more closely.”
Khloe remembered the nonexistent ice on the driveway.
“You were protecting me.”
“I was trying to protect both of us.”
The hidden phone vibrated.
Daniel's message appeared.
RICHARD VEHICLE TURNED BACK.
ETA NINE MINUTES.
Khloe showed Celia.
Celia's fear sharpened.
“He never returns without calling.”
“Which files matter most?”
“All of them.”
“We cannot carry a cabinet through the library.”
Celia removed three folders.
“Laura.”
“Your medical file.”
“And this one.”
The third was labeled V.K.
Vanessa Kensington.
Khloe opened it.
The first page was a fertility evaluation.
Vanessa had a congenital condition that made pregnancy extremely unlikely.
The second page documented a failed embryo transfer seven months earlier.
The third listed an upcoming transfer using donor material.
Khloe stared at the genetic source code.
Her own patient number appeared beside it.
“No.”
Celia touched her arm.
“Khloe.”
“No.”
“Richard took one of my embryos.”
“It appears so.”
“He told Vanessa she was carrying his child.”
“She may believe the next transfer will create one.”
“Using my child.”
The words became a whisper.
Celia closed the file.
“We need to leave.”
Khloe photographed every page as quickly as possible.
Celia returned the folders to the cabinet except for three original documents.
She slid those beneath the lining of Khloe's drafting case.
They closed the steel door and reset the bookcase with four minutes remaining.
Celia hurried toward the basement.
Khloe sat in the library and opened a design magazine.
Her hands shook too badly to turn the page.
At two-twenty-one, the front door slammed.
Richard's voice carried through the foyer.
“Khloe?”
She placed the magazine on her lap.
“I am in the library.”
He entered thirty seconds later.
His tie hung loose.
A muscle moved in his jaw.
“Why are you here?”
“I live here.”
“In this room.”
Khloe looked around.
“I wanted quiet.”
Richard's gaze moved to the shelves.
Then to her drafting case.
“Why did you bring that downstairs?”
“I was reviewing nursery sketches.”
“Show me.”
The command came too quickly.
Khloe lifted one eyebrow.
“Excuse me?”
Richard forced a smile.
“I want to see what you planned.”
“They are rough drawings.”
“I do not care.”
Khloe's pulse raced.
The three original documents lay beneath the case lining.
The insulated bottle was gone, but the hidden phone remained.
She opened the case.
Old pencils rested beside rulers, tracing paper, and a roll of plans.
Richard picked up the plans.
He unrolled them on the table.
Khloe had drawn the nursery months earlier.
Pale green walls.
Built-in shelves.
A window seat beneath painted branches.
Richard studied the design.
Something almost human touched his face.
“You drew this before you were pregnant.”
“After the first IVF cycle.”
“You never showed me.”
“You stopped asking.”
The answer landed between them.
Richard looked at her.
For a second, Khloe saw the man she had married.
Then his phone vibrated.
He glanced at the screen.
The softness disappeared.
“I have to go back downtown.”
“Why did you return?”
“A security alert.”
“Here?”
“The cameras reset unexpectedly.”
Khloe looked toward the ceiling.
“Did someone enter?”
“No.”
His eyes remained on her face.
“Did you notice anything unusual?”
“Only my husband interrogating me in a library he never uses.”
Richard rolled up the plans.
“I worry about you.”
“That is becoming your favorite sentence.”
He stepped closer.
“You are under stress.”
“Pregnancy after loss can cause paranoia.”
Khloe heard Harrison's warning in her mind.
He wants to call you unstable before you can call him a thief.
She smiled and touched Richard's cheek.
“Then stop giving me reasons to be suspicious.”
His hand closed around her wrist.
Not hard enough to bruise.
Hard enough to warn.
“What reasons?”
Khloe let confusion fill her face.
“Secret alarm codes.”
“Sudden trips.”
“Forty-seven-page agreements.”
“Normal things.”
She leaned closer.
“Unless there is something abnormal you want to tell me.”
Richard released her.
“No.”
“Then neither do I.”
He left the room.
Khloe waited until the front door closed again.
Then she carried the drafting case upstairs.
Daniel collected the documents through the laundry delivery entrance that afternoon.
By evening, Naomi had verified the signatures and patient numbers.
Harrison called Khloe from a secure line.
“The embryo release form is fraudulent.”
“I know.”
“No, you know Richard lied.”
“I am telling you the legal significance.”
Harrison's voice was measured.
“Your signature was digitally copied from an old property document.”
“Can we stop the transfer?”
“Yes.”
“Then stop it.”
“We need to decide how.”
“There is no decision.”
“Khloe, if we file an emergency injunction now, Richard learns what we have.”
“He cannot give my embryo to Vanessa.”
“He will not.”
“How can you promise that?”
“Because Daniel is standing outside the clinic with an order drafted and a judge waiting to sign it.”
Khloe closed her eyes.
“Thank you.”
“Do not thank me yet.”
“What else did you find?”
“Laura Monroe's file contains payments from a company connected to Judge Malcolm Mercer.”
Khloe knew the name.
Mercer handled complex family cases in Montgomery County.
He was also scheduled to preside over an upcoming Harrington zoning dispute.
“What kind of payments?”
“Monthly transfers for four years.”
“Bribes?”
“Possibly.”
“Or support for a child.”
Khloe opened her eyes.
“Whose child?”
“We do not know.”
Harrison paused.
“Celia may be in danger.”
“She is still inside this house.”
“Daniel will remove her tonight.”
“She will not leave without proof about Laura.”
“Then convince her.”
Khloe looked toward the hallway.
“What about me?”
“You are coming too.”
“Richard will know.”
“He already knows someone entered the hidden room.”
“We cannot assume he does not.”
A knock sounded at the bedroom door.
Khloe lowered the phone.
“Who is it?”
“Celia.”
Khloe opened the door.
The house manager carried a folded towel.
Her expression was rigid.
“Mr. Harrington sent a car for me.”
“What?”
“He says there is an emergency at the Rittenhouse penthouse.”
“Do not go.”
“I have to.”
“No, you do not.”
Celia handed her the towel.
Something hard was hidden inside it.
“He is watching the hallway camera.”
Celia spoke loudly enough to sound ordinary.
“I will return after I prepare the guest room.”
Then she lowered her voice.
“Take this to your brother.”
Khloe unfolded the towel after Celia left.
Inside was a small flash drive.
Words had been scratched into the plastic.
LAURA - FINAL CALL.
Khloe inserted it into the hidden phone with an adapter from her drafting kit.
An audio file opened.
Static filled the speaker.
Then a frightened woman's voice began to whisper.
“Celia, I found the baby they switched.”
Khloe stopped breathing.
Laura continued through tears.
“The boy did not go to the investor.”
“Richard kept him.”
A door slammed somewhere on the recording.
Laura gasped.
“He is coming.”
The next words were nearly swallowed by static.
“His name is Evan.”
The recording ended with a man's voice.
It was younger, but unmistakable.
Richard spoke five words before the file cut to silence.
May you like
“You should have taken the money.”
THE MISTRESS SHOVED HIS PREGNANT WIFE
