Chapter 4 - What Leo heard
I took the phone.
“Everybody stay where you are.”
Marco glared at me.
“Give me my son.”
“He’s standing exactly where he wants to stand.”
I pressed play again.
Marco’s voice:
“Once Andrea signs the papers, she’ll never know that Leo’s file proves Valerie wasn’t the surrogate.”
My heart stopped.
Valerie whispered:
“Marco.”
The recording continued.
Her voice came next.
“Then destroy it.”
“Already handled.”
“What about the clinic?”
“They won’t talk.”
My hands began trembling.
Not because I believed their story.
Because I suddenly understood something.
Marco and Valerie were not merely trying to convince everyone she was Leo’s biological mother.
They were trying to make me sign something before I could investigate.
The recording continued.
Valerie laughed.
“And the company shares?”
Marco answered:
“Once Andrea is emotionally unstable enough, we use the marital agreement.”
I looked at him.
There it was.
The real objective.
Not motherhood.
Money.
Control.
My company.
The party guests were completely silent.
One of my board members, Patricia Hale, stepped forward.
“Marco, what marital agreement?”
“Stay out of this.”
“That company employs four hundred people. I’m not staying out of anything involving fraudulent control of its shares.”
Marco turned toward me.
“You recorded a private conversation.”
“I didn’t.”
I looked down at Leo.
My son’s lower lip trembled.
“I heard Daddy say you were going away.”
My heart broke.
“So I wanted proof.”
I knelt.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“I didn’t want you to disappear.”
“You’re not losing me.”
Behind us, Valerie suddenly moved toward the garden gate.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
She stopped.
“I’m done with this circus.”
“No.”
I stood.
“You came here claiming my son.”
“You heard Marco.”
“I heard enough to know you lied.”
She smirked.
“Prove it.”
That was easy.
Leo’s gestational carrier had been a woman named Rachel Kim.
I had attended appointments with her.
I had photographs.
Contracts.
Medical documentation.
Marco knew all of that.
So why Valerie?
Then I remembered why I had fired her.
Unauthorized expenses.
Missing internal files.
Credentials used to access restricted company servers.
At the time, we believed she had been stealing money.
Maybe money wasn’t what she had wanted.
I looked at Marco.
“How long has Valerie had access to your office?”
His expression answered.
Then my phone rang.
My chief financial officer.
“Andrea, we have an emergency.”
“What happened?”
“Someone tried to execute a transfer of your founder shares this afternoon.”
I stared at Marco.
“What time?”
May you like
“3:52.”
Eight minutes before Marco entered the party.
