Chapter 4 - The Doctor Who Disappeared
Evelyn met Dr. Price at a quiet café forty minutes outside the city.
The doctor arrived wearing sunglasses and kept looking toward the entrance.
“I shouldn’t be speaking to you,” she said.
“Then why did you contact me?”
“Because your former husband’s medical records were altered.”
Evelyn felt a chill.
Dr. Price explained that Grant’s vasectomy had been successful. Two follow-up tests confirmed it. Natural conception would have been extraordinarily unlikely.
“Then Celeste’s child cannot be his.”
Dr. Price looked down.
“There may not be a child.”
Evelyn stopped breathing for a moment.
“What do you mean?”
“Celeste attended the clinic using another patient’s identification. She demanded pregnancy records that matched specific dates. When the staff refused, someone from the Ashford Foundation contacted the clinic’s director.”
“Who?”
“I never heard the name. But the caller was a woman.”
Vivian.
Evelyn did not say it aloud.
Dr. Price continued.
“A week later, I noticed Grant’s follow-up results had been removed from the digital system. I reported it. The clinic placed me on administrative leave.”
“Do you have proof?”
“I kept a copy of the laboratory report because the deletion frightened me.”
Dr. Price slid a folded document across the table.
The report confirmed that Grant’s procedure had succeeded.
“Why create a fake pregnancy?” Evelyn asked.
“Money. Marriage. Influence. Possibly all three.”
Evelyn thought of the family trust.
A male heir would receive control of several businesses, investment accounts, and voting rights in the Ashford Foundation. Celeste’s unborn son was not only a baby to them.
He was a key.
“How long can she maintain this?” Evelyn asked.
Dr. Price hesitated.
“She may eventually claim a medical emergency. A private hospital. A tragic loss no one is permitted to question.”
Evelyn felt sick.
They planned to create an heir, use him to change the trust, and then make him disappear before anyone could demand proof.
“Grant needs to know.”
“Grant doesn’t want to know,” Dr. Price said. “That makes him dangerous in a different way.”
May you like
Evelyn understood.
Grant’s pride would protect the lie until the lie destroyed him.
