Chapter 13 - Ryan's Choice
Ryan stopped pretending when investigators confronted him.
Yes.
He knew.
Not everything.
But enough.
At twenty-one, Dr. Vale told him Arthur had selected him as part of a long-term hereditary study.
Ryan initially reacted with disgust.
Then Vale showed him the money.
Northstar paid Ryan quietly for annual samples and psychological assessments.
Later, when Ryan met Claire, he recognized her name from a restricted file.
He did not know the fundraiser had been arranged.
But after their first date, he searched.
He learned Claire was a Northstar subject.
He went on the second date anyway.
Then the third.
Claire listened from her hospital room as an investigator summarized his statement.
“Did he marry me for them?”
“At this point, he claims no.”
That distinction hurt.
Maybe Ryan really loved her.
Maybe he also liked the access.
Both could be true.
After their miscarriages, Ryan became obsessed with the promised Hale trust.
Vale told him a successful child could eventually unlock family assets.
Ryan began seeing the baby not only as a son or daughter.
But vindication.
Then Thomas’s warnings arrived.
Ryan believed Thomas might expose Northstar and destroy the trust.
So when Thomas instructed him to keep Claire home, Ryan complied.
But Thomas had never sent those letters.
Claire stared.
“What?”
Forgery.
Thomas sent only one message:
GET CLAIRE AWAY FROM NORTHSTAR.
Someone intercepted it and created the rest.
Who?
Ryan believed Rebecca.
Rebecca denied it.
Then handwriting analysis pointed somewhere else.
Evelyn.
Claire asked to see her.
Evelyn entered the hospital room looking twenty years older.
“You wrote them.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To scare Ryan into keeping you away from Vale.”
Claire almost laughed.
“You told a controlling man his pregnant wife was in danger and should not leave the house.”
“I thought he would take you somewhere safe.”
“You knew what he was capable of.”
Evelyn cried.
“I knew he had anger problems.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
Another protection plan built on someone else’s risk.
Claire turned away.
“Leave.”
Evelyn obeyed.
At least now she did.
Then Melissa arrived.
Rebecca had finally surrendered to federal investigators.
She brought Olivia with her.
Alive.
Marianne collapsed when she saw her daughter.
Olivia had been hiding voluntarily after discovering Dr. Vale intended to frame her for stolen Northstar data.
Her pregnancy?
Real.
But she had lost the baby during a medical emergency months earlier.
The newborn Marianne found was not Olivia’s.
Marianne had been manipulated through grief.
Who sent the baby?
Rebecca didn’t know.
But she knew where NV-04 originated.
A private maternity center in Nevada.
Investigators traced records.
The newborn’s biological mother had willingly arranged an adoption.
Nothing sinister about the birth itself.
Someone had intercepted the legal placement and redirected the child as a prop in the Northstar conflict.
Claire was furious.
“Who?”
Rebecca looked at Thomas.
He stood.
“No.”
Rebecca placed a receipt on the table.
Thomas Bennett had rented the vehicle used to transport the newborn.
Claire stared at her father.
“Dad?”
Thomas whispered:
“I can explain.”
Claire closed her eyes.
May you like
Of course he could.
Everyone could.
