Chapter 8 - Why Emma Had to Sign Before the Birth
Thomas did not need Emma's money.
He needed legal access to her baby.
Buried inside the transfer agreement was a medical guardianship clause.
If W-17 transferred to Hale Strategic Holdings before Emma gave birth, any “heritable research asset” derived from prior W-17 subjects fell under the receiving entity's clinical oversight.
Disgusting language.
Potentially unenforceable.
But enough to create legal chaos.
Enough to move Emma into a private hospital.
Enough to control records.
Enough to disappear a newborn temporarily.
Robert nearly tore the contract in half.
Emma stopped him.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Evidence.”
Robert handed it back.
She was right.
Claire sat across the room.
“You think I knew?”
Emma looked at her.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did Victor?”
Victor had known there was a clause involving the baby.
Not its true purpose.
Thomas told him W-17 could fund specialized prenatal care and erase his debts.
Victor accepted too much without asking.
Again:
not mastermind.
Not innocent.
He chose convenience over questions.
Claire had believed the transfer would establish her as a Whitmore heir.
She wanted the name.
The inheritance.
The belonging her mother had hidden from her.
Thomas exploited that hunger.
He told Claire Emma was refusing to acknowledge her as a sister.
That Robert would destroy the evidence if Emma didn't sign.
So Claire helped intimidate Emma.
The cruelty was hers.
The story behind it was manipulated.
Emma said:
“You could have asked me.”
Claire cried.
“I thought you already knew.”
“That seems to be the sentence everyone uses after deciding for me.”
Claire had no answer.
Robert almost smiled.
His daughter sounded like Miriam at her best.
Then investigators found Thomas's surveillance archive.
Emma's prenatal scans.
Blood tests.
Victor's childhood medical records.
Claire's DNA.
Robert's military history.
Even photographs of Miriam's burned office.
One image stood out.
Taken the morning after the fire.
A man carried a metal case away from the property.
Face hidden.
Robert recognized the coat.
His.
Emma looked at him.
“Dad?”
“I wasn't there that morning.”
Someone had impersonated Robert.
Or used his clothing.
The next photograph caught part of the man's face reflected in a car window.
Robert stared.
Not Thomas.
Not himself.
A younger man.
Thirty-ish.
Emma had seen that face before.
In Victor's childhood photographs.
Michael Hale.
May you like
Victor's adoptive father.
The man who supposedly had no connection to W-17.
