Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN CARRYING MY SON
Sienna was not under arrest.
She was an adult who could travel unless a court order restricted her.
The problem was that a pending parentage case required notice of medical appointments, and Adrian had been ordered not to intimidate witnesses.
Sienna’s phone stopped transmitting location data near a private airfield north of Chicago.
A charter company confirmed that Celeste booked a flight to Nevada.
The passenger list included Sienna and a Vale family nurse.
Adrian was not listed.
Police could not ground a plane solely because Sienna missed an appointment.
Rachel sought an emergency preservation order preventing removal of reproductive or parentage records and requiring Sienna to maintain communication with her independent counsel.
The judge did not order a pregnant woman confined.
He ordered the parties not to interfere with her access to counsel or medical care.
Sienna called her attorney from Reno that evening.
She said she had traveled voluntarily.
Then she asked whether Adrian could hear the call.
He was in the room.
Her attorney ended the conversation and contacted the court.
The next call occurred privately from a clinic bathroom.
Sienna admitted that Adrian had brought her to a Vale-owned residence and taken her passport “for safekeeping.”
She wanted to return.
Local police conducted a welfare check.
Sienna told them she was not being held.
Adrian stood behind her.
Fear did not automatically authorize removal.
Her lawyer arranged a separate meeting at a courthouse the next morning.
Sienna did not appear.
A medical driver later found her outside a pharmacy and brought her to a hospital after she complained of abdominal pain.
The pregnancy remained stable.
The hospital restricted visitors at her request.
For the first time, Sienna spoke without Adrian present.
She admitted the affair began while she worked at Halcyon.
Adrian told her our marriage existed only for corporate appearances. He said I refused to use the remaining embryo and had signed a donation form.
Sienna wanted a child.
Adrian promised marriage, financial security, and a place inside the Vale family.
“Did you know the embryo was mine?” I asked during a court-supervised video meeting.
“Not at first.”
“When did you know?”
Her hand moved over her bump.
“After the transfer. Celeste said the Ashford genetics made him valuable.”
“And you stayed.”
“Yes.”
“You came to the ballroom.”
“Yes.”
“You watched Adrian hit me.”
Sienna’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“You looked pleased.”
“I wanted you to stop being the person everyone chose over me.”
The honesty was ugly.
It was still more useful than another performance.
“Did Adrian tell you I had agreed?”
“He showed me the black folder.”
“The forged one.”
“I didn’t know then.”
“When did you understand?”
“The week before the party. I saw the signature date. It was in the future.”
She had known before entering the ballroom that the document was false.
“Why help them?”
“Celeste said if I backed out, they would call me an embryo thief and take the baby anyway.”
Sienna had participated willingly until the system turned against her.
Victim and participant were not mutually exclusive.
She gave investigators access to her messages.
Adrian repeatedly called the fetus “the asset.”
Celeste discussed the trust.
Victor discussed the refinancing deadline.
One message from Adrian arrived two hours before the celebration.
If Mara refuses, make her lose control. The witnesses only need to see the end.
That sentence matched the missing beginning in Naomi’s first video.
Sienna also produced a contract promising her three million dollars after birth.
Payment depended on signing an acknowledgment that the embryo came from an anonymous donor and that she would transfer custody to Adrian.
She had never been intended to remain the child’s mother.
Adrian planned to use her pregnancy, remove me, take the boy, and discard her after delivery.
May you like
Sienna finally understood she had never been chosen.
She had only been easier to control.
