A week later, when I tried anyway, my calls went straight to voicemail.
Then came an email from an address that looked like hers telling me there was nothing left to discuss.
I had answered with pride instead of suspicion.
Fine.
Take the divorce.
Take the apartment in Brooklyn.
Take whatever the agreement allows.
I never once went to her door.
Now I looked at her in the hospital bed and realized someone had known exactly which part of me to weaponize.
My pride.
“Why didn’t you come to me?” I asked.
“I did.”
“When?”
“Three times.
Your building security refused me entry.
They said your office had placed me on a no-contact list.”
I felt cold.
I had never given that order.
“I called your private number,” she continued.
“A man from your legal team called back and told me you would seek a restraining order if I kept trying.”
“Who?”
She gave me a name.
Elliot Crane.
My father’s former attorney.
The man who had stayed on as an outside adviser after Richard’s death.
The man who had recommended Harlan’s fertility clinic to us.
Victor’s expression told me I had just reached the part he did not want reached.
I looked at him.
“Crane works for you.”
“Crane works for many companies.”
“Including yours?”
Victor said nothing.
That was enough.
The doctor continued.
“Mrs.
Vexley became suspicious after she received a bill containing a procedure code that didn’t match the cycle she remembered.
She contacted the clinic, but the record had been amended.
When she pushed further, her access was suspended.
She came to me because I had treated her during one of her earlier pregnancies.”
Sylvie wiped tears from her cheeks.
“I thought I was losing my mind.”
I wanted to reach for her, but my hands were full of the children we had both believed we created together.
“Why would Victor do this?”
This time Sylvie looked at me as if the answer should have been obvious.
“Your father.”
Victor spoke before she could continue.
“Enough.”
I turned toward him.
He was no longer pretending to be kind.
“Get out,” I said.
“You don’t have authority to remove me from a Harlan-affiliated—”
“This hospital isn’t yours.”
The doctor added, “And security is already on its way.”
Victor’s attorneys exchanged another look.
He ignored them.
“Damon, whatever you think you’ve discovered, you need to understand that your father created obligations you know nothing about.”
