my security line. “I have the real files! I couldn’t keep running. I brought everything!”
“Let her through,” I commanded.
Nora shoved the binder into my hands, tears streaming down her face. “I’m so sorry, Evelyn. I wanted to tell you. When you fainted in your second month… when Mrs. Harrington rushed you to our private clinic…”
My stomach plummeted. I remembered that day. A sudden wave of dizziness, a cup of tea Vivian had insisted I drink, and then darkness. I had woken up in the clinic, groggy, with Vivian holding my hand, claiming I had suffered a minor hemorrhage and they had performed a minor, non-invasive procedure to save the babies.
“It wasn’t a hemorrhage,” Nora choked out. “You were heavily sedated. Mrs. Harrington bribed the head surgeon. They terminated your natural pregnancy while you were unconscious.”
No. A visceral, agonizing scream clawed at the back of my
throat, but I swallowed it down. My hands shook violently. My babies.
“They implanted new embryos,” Nora confessed, stepping back as if expecting me to strike her. “Embryos Mrs. Harrington had created years ago, using her late husband Conrad’s frozen sperm.”
Graham let out a sound that was half-gasp, half-sob. “You made my sons… my brothers? You used my wife as a breeding dog?”
Vivian slapped him, a resounding crack that echoed in the courtyard. “You were weak, Graham! You were squandering the name. Conrad’s blood was the only thing that could save this family. I needed a pure heir, and this little nobody had a young, healthy body. She was nothing but a vessel!”
I stepped forward. The sheer gravity of my fury made Vivian take a step back. I had meticulously planned to ruin them financially, but this—this was a violation of my soul, of my flesh. I
