Chapter 20 - Isabelle’s Real Plan
I ran toward the medical storage wing.
Rose followed me.
Agent Morris stayed with Charles while federal officers rushed to secure the archive.
Hunter was carried upstairs on a stretcher.
I watched him disappear through the hallway doors.
Then I forced myself to keep moving.
Justice could wait.
The embryos could not.
The storage room door was open.
Victor lay on the floor, breathing but unconscious.
Dr. Crowe knelt beside him.
“She injected him with a sedative.”
“Where is Isabelle?”
“She took the service elevator.”
Rose checked the wall panel.
“It leads to the helicopter platform.”
We ran upstairs.
Wind tore across the rooftop.
A black helicopter waited with its rotors turning.
Isabelle stood beside it holding a silver cryogenic case.
Her elegant dress snapped in the wind.
One hand rested over her stomach.
The other gripped the case containing stolen lives.
“Stop!” I shouted.
She turned.
Her manipulative smile returned.
The same smile she wore beside Hunter at dinner.
“You really are difficult to erase.”
“You planned this before Hunter.”
“Years before.”
“You knew about your mother.”
“I knew she worked at the clinic.”
“You knew Daniel was not the father of your baby.”
“I knew the records could be changed.”
“What are you carrying?”
“Options.”
I stepped closer.
“Those are children.”
“They are contracts waiting for bodies.”
The cruelty in her voice erased my remaining sympathy.
She had not been manipulated into the project.
She had learned its language.
Then perfected it.
“Why marry your plan to Hunter?” I asked.
“Because Charles trusted his son’s greed.”
“He never trusted Hunter.”
“No. But he could predict him.”
“And me?”
She looked at me with open jealousy.
“You inherited everything while pretending wealth embarrassed you.”
“I never pretended.”
“You had a father who protected you, a husband who displayed you, a company that carried your name.”
“My father lied to me. My husband betrayed me. My name came from a man who was not my biological father.”
“And still everyone protects you.”
Her eyes burned.
“That is what you never understood. People looked at you and saw someone worth saving.”
The real wound was not money.
It was abandonment.
But she had chosen to heal it by turning other children into property.
“You could have helped expose them.”
“And become what? Evelyn Laurent’s tragic daughter?”
“You could have become yourself.”
“That is something wealthy women say when they already own a name.”
The helicopter pilot shouted for her to board.
I moved closer.
“You cannot fly out. Federal aircraft are already tracking this roof.”
She laughed.
“Those containers are not the real archive.”
My stomach tightened.
“What are they?”
“Empty decoys.”
She opened the case.
Inside were six metal canisters.
One lid had already loosened.
Nothing but cold vapor escaped.
“Where are the embryos?”
“Gone.”
“Where?”
“Three clinics. Three countries. Three new identities.”
“You sold them.”
“I secured them.”
“For whom?”
“For families willing to pay for perfect heirs.”
She had rebuilt Bell’s business.
Perhaps it had never stopped.
The helicopter began lifting slightly from the platform.
Isabelle stepped onto the landing skid.
Rose raised a recovered rifle.
“Don’t.”
Isabelle looked at her.
“You’re one of Arthur’s replacements.”
“I have a name.”
“Only because someone gave you one.”
Rose’s finger tightened on the trigger.
I lowered the rifle.
“We need her alive.”
Isabelle smiled.
“You need me because only I know where the five missing children are.”
Agent Morris emerged onto the roof with federal officers.
“Step away from the aircraft!”
The pilot panicked.
The helicopter rose too quickly.
Isabelle lost her footing.
The empty case fell from her hands and struck the roof.
She grabbed the skid with both arms.
Her body swung over the edge of the building.
For one second, I could have let her fall.
She had slept with my husband.
Forged my signature.
Helped drug me.
Used her pregnancy to steal my trust.
Sold genetic material.
But inside her was an innocent child.
And somewhere in the world, five missing children needed her testimony.
I dropped to my knees and grabbed her wrist.
She stared up at me in shock.
“Why?” she gasped.
“Because I am not you.”
Rose grabbed my waist.
Agent Morris seized Isabelle’s other arm.
Together, we pulled her onto the roof.
Federal officers arrested the pilot.
They cuffed Isabelle while she lay shaking on the concrete.
She looked at me with hatred and confusion.
“You should have let me die.”
“No,” I said. “You are going to live long enough to tell every parent where those children went.”
Her smile returned faintly.
“Then you should ask Hunter.”
My blood ran cold.
“What does Hunter know?”
“He opened the international accounts. He chose the clinics. He gave me the buyer list.”
I stared at her.
Hunter had claimed he knew nothing about her larger plan.
Below us, an ambulance raced away from the estate carrying him toward the hospital.
Isabelle watched it disappear.
Then she whispered, “Your husband didn’t betray me, Kylie.”
Her eyes met mine.
May you like
“He hired me.”
👉 Kylie had saved Isabelle’s life to recover the missing children, but her claim that Hunter created the international trafficking network threatened to make his apparent sacrifice another calculated lie.
