Chapter 25 - The Testimony From the Hospital Bed
Hunter’s heart stopped in the ambulance.
Paramedics revived him before reaching the hospital.
The bullet had entered below his collarbone, damaged his lung, and lodged near a major artery.
Surgeons worked for six hours.
I stayed in the waiting room.
Samuel sat beside me with a bandage around his neck.
Rose waited across the room holding Emma.
Daniel lay one floor above under guard.
David stood near the window.
Our broken family gathered beneath fluorescent lights while doctors tried to save the man who had betrayed me.
I did not know what I wanted.
I wanted justice.
I wanted answers.
I wanted Hunter to live long enough to face what he had done.
But somewhere beneath all of that, I still remembered his hand holding mine after my miscarriage.
I remembered dancing barefoot in our kitchen.
I remembered the person I thought he was.
Grief does not ask whether the love was deserved.
It simply remembers where it lived.
The surgeon entered shortly after sunset.
“He survived.”
My breath left slowly.
“He will need another procedure, but he is stable.”
Agent Morris arrived with news.
Isabelle had survived her shoulder wound.
She had been charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, fraud, conspiracy, trafficking in genetic material, and multiple federal offenses.
Charles and Bell remained in custody.
Victor’s body had been recovered.
The ledgers from Arthur’s vault linked him to sixty-three transactions.
Five missing children had been located.
The sixth child, Emma, was safe beside Rose.
“What about the foreign clinics?” I asked.
“Authorities in all three countries executed warrants.”
“Were the embryos recovered?”
“Most of them.”
“Most?”
“Four containers are still unaccounted for.”
The network was wounded.
Not erased.
But now it was visible.
Visibility made hiding harder.
Hunter woke two days later.
Agent Morris recorded his testimony from the hospital bed.
He admitted everything.
He admitted hiring Isabelle.
Opening the foreign accounts.
Forging part of the trust paperwork.
Planning the incompetency petition.
Buying the sedative used in the wine.
Helping move Emma into the hidden apartment.
He denied knowing the gas system could kill her.
He denied ordering children harmed.
But he did not ask for immunity.
His attorney repeatedly advised him to stop speaking.
Hunter continued.
“Why?” Agent Morris asked.
He looked toward me through the glass wall.
“Because every time I called something protection, I was really protecting myself.”
He identified judges, doctors, accountants, and clinic directors.
His testimony confirmed Victor as the network’s central broker.
It also proved Charles ordered the deaths of three whistleblowers.
Bell performed illegal procedures on dozens of women.
Isabelle arranged embryo transfers after learning the full truth.
Hunter’s cooperation helped locate the four missing containers inside a bonded warehouse in Rotterdam.
When the interview ended, I entered his room.
He looked exhausted.
“The divorce papers are still valid,” I said.
“I know.”
“I will not withdraw them because you testified.”
“I know.”
“You may still spend years in prison.”
“I know.”
I stood beside the bed.
“Why did you step in front of Isabelle’s gun?”
He took a shallow breath.
“I spent seven years putting myself between you and the truth.”
His eyes filled.
“I wanted to do one thing that placed me between you and the danger instead.”
“That does not erase anything.”
“No.”
He looked away.
“I don’t expect forgiveness.”
I believed him.
That was the first honest gift he had given me.
“You will testify at every trial,” I said.
“Yes.”
“You will help identify every child.”
“Yes.”
“You will surrender every personal asset.”
“Yes.”
“And you will never contact Emma unless Rose permits it.”
His face tightened.
But he nodded.
“Yes.”
I turned to leave.
“Kylie.”
I stopped.
“I loved you badly,” he said.
“That is not the same as loving me well.”
“No.”
His voice cracked.
“But it was real.”
I looked back at him.
“Maybe part of it was.”
Then I walked away.
Not because I felt nothing.
May you like
Because feeling something no longer meant I had to stay.
👉 Hunter’s confession brought the network to court, but Kylie still had to expose Arthur’s crimes publicly—even if doing so destroyed the father she had loved.
