Chapter 4
Laura Simmons removed one final document from her briefcase.
The paper was thin.
Ordinary.
Almost harmless.
But the moment Weston saw the hospital logo printed across the top, his face changed.
Ashley noticed.
“What is that?” she demanded.
Laura did not look at her.
She looked only at Weston.
“This is a prenatal billing record submitted under the name Ashley Monroe.”
Ashley stiffened.
“So?”
Laura flipped to the second page.
“The pregnancy is real.”
Weston exhaled sharply, as if relieved.
Then Laura added, “The paternity claim is not.”
The NICU went silent.
Even the monitors around Sawyer and Quinn seemed louder.
Ashley’s smile vanished.
Weston turned toward her.
“What does that mean?”
Ashley laughed too quickly.
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
Laura remained calm.
“Ms. Monroe’s prenatal care was paid through a private account connected to a man named Derek Voss.”
Weston blinked.
“Who is Derek Voss?”
Arthur Blackwood’s eyes sharpened.
Laura continued, “A former partner in the same fraudulent real-estate investment group where Mr. Carter moved the joint funds.”
Weston’s face slowly emptied.
Ashley stepped back.
“Weston, I can explain.”
That was the first time I smiled.
Not happily.
Not cruelly.
Just because those words sounded familiar.
They were the same words Weston had expected me to swallow when he walked into the NICU with her wearing my coat.
Weston stared at her stomach.
“The baby…”
Ashley hugged the ivory coat around herself.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter?”
“I chose you.”
He laughed once, broken and ugly.
“You chose my access to money.”
Arthur looked mildly amused.
“How romantic.”
Ashley snapped toward him.
“You ruined everything!”
Arthur’s expression hardened.
“No, Ms. Monroe. You simply arrived at the consequences before you found a better exit.”
Security moved closer.
Ashley tried to remove the coat, but her fingers trembled too badly to manage the buttons.
I stepped forward despite the pain in my abdomen.
“Keep it,” I said quietly.
Everyone looked at me.
Ashley froze.
I looked at the coat that had once carried my babies’ initials inside the lining.
Then at my twins fighting for breath under blue-white NICU lights.
“That coat was made for a mother,” I said. “You wore it like a trophy. Let it remind you what pretending costs.”
Ashley’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Security escorted her away first.
Weston did not even try to follow.
He stood there, abandoned by the woman he had chosen and surrounded by people who now knew exactly how little he was worth.
Then Laura turned to him.
“Mr. Carter, federal investigators would like to speak with you regarding unauthorized transfers, investment fraud, and suspected laundering through marital accounts.”
Weston looked at Arthur.
“You can’t do this.”
Arthur leaned on his cane.
“I haven’t done anything yet.”
That was worse.
Weston looked at me then.
For the first time all day, he looked afraid of the woman he had called nothing.
“Jade…”
I turned back toward the incubators.
“My children need quiet.”
Arthur nodded once.
Security took Weston by both arms.
He shouted until the NICU doors closed behind him.
Then, finally, there was peace.
Not happiness.
Not yet.
Just the soft beeping of machines keeping my babies alive.
Arthur came to stand beside me.
“You should rest.”
“I will.”
“You shouldn’t have had to call me.”
“I know.”
His voice softened.
“Your grandmother would have destroyed him faster.”
I laughed.
May you like
It hurt my incision.
But it was the first real laugh I’d had since my emergency delivery.
