Chapter 6
We met Chloe in the parking lot of a closed pharmacy.
Nathan hated the idea.
Martin hated it more.
But Chloe said she would only speak to me.
So I went with a wire under my coat and two detectives in an unmarked car across the street.
Chloe looked nothing like the woman who had stood in my hallway wearing my sweater.
Her hair was messy.
Her eyes were swollen.
She clutched a padded envelope against her chest.
When she saw me, she broke down.
“I’m sorry.”
I did not move.
“Don’t start there.”
She nodded, crying harder.
“You’re right.”
“What did you find?”
She handed me the envelope.
Inside was a flash drive, bank records, and a handwritten list.
Dates.
Payments.
Doctor names.
Insurance amounts.
I saw Leo’s name halfway down the page.
My knees almost gave out.
Chloe reached for me.
Nathan stepped between us.
“No.”
She dropped her hand.
“I didn’t know at first,” she said. “Julian told me the transplant would only make Leo suffer.”
“You witnessed the refusal.”
“I believed him.”
“You are a nurse, Chloe.”
Her face crumpled.
“I was sleeping with him. I wanted to believe him.”
The honesty was uglier than any excuse.
She wiped her face.
“Then I got pregnant, and he changed. He started talking about policies and trusts and your house. He said grief made women easy to manage.”
My stomach turned.
“Did he say that about me?”
“Yes.”
The wire caught every word.
Chloe looked toward the street.
“He’s been meeting Dr. Miles. Paying him through a company called BrightPath Consulting.”
Martin had already found that name.
A shell company tied to Julian’s business.
Then Chloe said, “There’s more.”
I braced myself.
“Leo’s donor heart was never wasted.”
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It went to another child after Julian refused.”
For one second, relief and agony hit at the same time.
Some child lived.
My child died.
Chloe whispered, “Julian got a private payment that same week. Not from insurance. From someone connected to that other family.”
Nathan said, “Are you accusing him of selling access to the heart?”
“I don’t know. But the payment was two million dollars.”
The detectives moved in then.
Chloe did not resist.
She gave a formal statement for six hours.
By evening, Dr. Miles was arrested.
Julian disappeared.
Police went to the house and found his closet empty.
His passport gone.
The bassinet still in the living room.
The dinosaur drawing still taped to the fridge.
At midnight, I received a video from an unknown number.
Julian sat in my kitchen.
Behind him, Leo’s drawing was gone.
He held it in his hand.
“You should have left this alone, Clara,” he said.
My blood went ice cold.
Then the camera shifted.
Chloe was tied to a dining chair, crying with tape over her mouth.
May you like
Julian leaned close to the camera.
“If you want the truth about Leo, bring me the deed.”
