Chapter 5 - Chloe’s Confession
I met Chloe in a crowded coffee shop with Rachel sitting three tables away.
Chloe wore a loose sweater over her pregnancy.
She looked younger than thirty-two.
And more frightened than guilty.
“I know you hate me,” she said.
“I don’t know what I feel yet.”
She twisted a napkin between her fingers.
“Julian told me you agreed.”
“To what?”
“To let me carry your child.”
I laughed once, sharply.
“You believed that?”
“He showed me forms with your signature. Evelyn said you were ashamed because you couldn’t carry a pregnancy.”
Every word sounded like Evelyn.
Cruelty disguised as concern.
“Why didn’t you ask me?”
Chloe’s eyes filled.
“Because I wanted it to be true.”
There it was.
Not innocence.
Weakness.
She had wanted a baby after two miscarriages and a broken engagement. Julian and Evelyn offered her a miracle, and she chose not to question the cost.
“When did you learn I hadn’t consented?”
“The day after the transfer.”
I went still.
“You knew before the pregnancy test.”
She nodded.
“Julian said it was too late. He said if I told you, the clinic would take the embryos and I’d lose everything.”
“You still had choices.”
“I know.”
She slid a small flash drive across the table.
“I started recording Evelyn.”
“Why?”
“Because she wasn’t planning to let me keep the baby.”
According to Chloe, Evelyn wanted the child raised as Julian’s heir.
She intended to portray Chloe as emotionally unstable after delivery and remove the baby through a private guardianship petition.
“And Julian?”
“He said he would stop her. But I don’t believe him anymore.”
The flash drive contained weeks of recordings.
On one, Evelyn said:
Clara’s eggs gave us the right bloodline. Chloe is only the vessel.
My stomach turned.
Then another voice entered the recording.
A man I did not recognize said:
May you like
Once Clara’s inheritance transfers, the child becomes worth more than the house.
👉 Evelyn had not stolen Clara’s eggs only to give Julian a baby—she believed the child could unlock a hidden fortune.
