Chapter 10 - A Record of the Second Loss
Dr.
Moreno spent two days reconstructing the hospital's file history.
She found no undisclosed pregnancy and no concealed miscarriage.
The phrase second loss had been a reference to my second documented miscarriage, stripped from its clinical context to make it sound like a new revelation.
The lab specimen had been part of a routine pathology review.
Its transfer record had been copied and altered.
For months Nathan had built a deception around ordinary medical facts, gambling that fear would fill the gaps.
I should have been relieved.
I was angry in a way that did not burn quickly.
It settled in me like iron.
Mara asked how I wanted to proceed.
"No private deal," I said.
"Everything goes through counsel and investigators."
That week, the bank filed its own complaint after discovering that collateral documents submitted by Meridian included forged board resolutions.
The disputed money had helped support Nathan's development project.
The family center renderings were not merely sentimental decorations.
They were part of a pitch to outside investors, with promised revenue and sponsorship funds that did not exist.
We learned that at least four small investors had contributed savings believing my firm was backing the project.
I requested a meeting with them through their attorneys.
One was a retired teacher named Mrs.
Alvarez.
She had sold a small property to invest, imagining a community center named after her late husband.
"They showed me your company logo," she told me.
"They said it meant the investment was secure."
I could not promise she would recover her money.
I could promise to testify honestly about the unauthorized use of our name.
When I returned home, I found an old birthday card from Brooke in a box of photographs.
She had written that we would grow old together, two women who knew all each other's secrets.
I stared at the handwriting.
Had she believed those words then?
Or had I simply failed to notice the person she was becoming?
My phone lit up with a call from an unknown hospital number.
A nurse from the twins' pediatric clinic said Brooke had listed me as an emergency contact years ago and never removed the entry.
The clinic was trying to reach Brooke about a time-sensitive appointment and had exhausted its usual contact methods.
I asked the nurse to follow her institution's procedures and contact the appropriate guardian and authorities if necessary.
I would not use a child's medical needs as a way into Brooke's life.
But after the call ended, I couldn't forget that two newborns were living inside the chaos we had all helped create.
Then Mara sent me an image recovered from Nathan's discarded phone.
Brooke stood beside him outside the fertility clinic.
The timestamp was eighteen months old.
May you like
They had been planning something long before Arthur believed their affair began.
