Chapter 7 - CHLOE’S BARGAIN
Chloe demanded immunity.
Prosecutors refused.
She negotiated a protected interview instead.
Her pregnancy was real.
Her relationship with Julian was real.
She believed the child was his because Beatrice arranged her fertility appointments and told her the timing matched.
The independent test excluded Julian.
Chloe admitted she had also been involved with a former boyfriend, Noah Pierce, during the same period.
Beatrice knew.
Rather than wait for certainty, the family announced Chloe’s pregnancy privately as the legitimate succession child.
They needed a compliant mother more than Julian’s confirmed paternity.
Vance Biologics faced an emergency board vote. Arthur planned to transfer core patents and federal contracts into a new company controlled by Julian.
The family’s corporate trust required a descendant-based succession plan before Arthur could move certain voting shares without outside approval.
Clara’s baby—my baby—should have satisfied that requirement.
But I controlled potential rights through my mother.
They could not allow my child to become both Julian’s descendant and my mother’s beneficiary.
So they forged a paternity exclusion.
Chloe’s baby became their replacement heir.
Chloe said the black case had contained original patent assignments, trust records, and an encrypted drive showing false clinical-trial data.
“Where are they now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were standing beside it.”
“Beatrice moved it before the agents entered.”
The case appeared beneath the table after the transfer.
Someone had emptied it and returned it as a decoy.
Chloe agreed to identify the person who impersonated me at the Vance clinic.
It was Julian’s executive assistant, Paige Keller.
Paige disappeared before agents reached her home.
Her car was found at an airport garage.
No flight record showed her leaving.
Then Beatrice released a family statement claiming Chloe had deceived Julian about paternity and acted alone in forging my report.
The alliance broke instantly.
Chloe sent me a photograph of Beatrice carrying a black document pouch through the ballroom kitchen.
The time stamp was 1:52.
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Eight minutes before the raid.
Before investigators could obtain the original image, Chloe’s phone went dark.
