Chapter 3 - Three Lawyers at the Hospital Door
I didn’t sleep.
The medication slowed the contractions.
The babies remained inside me.
Those were the only two facts that mattered medically.
Emotionally, everything else was collapsing.
My father had been dead for twelve years.
My mother for nine.
For all that time, I believed I knew their lives.
My father, Daniel Bennett, had taught high school physics.
He loved old jazz records.
Fixed everything himself even when he clearly shouldn’t.
Took me camping every August.
Made terrible pancakes every Sunday morning.
That was my father.
Not some aerospace executive.
Not a man connected to Lucian Blackwood.
Not a man who had apparently saved the life of one of the richest people in the world.
Lucian remained near the window.
He had been silent since his confession.
“Tell me everything,” I said.
He looked at the monitors.
“You’re stable, but—”
“Everything.”
He sat again.
“Your father joined Blackwood Aerospace before I took control of the company. Back then, my father ran it.”
I knew about Lucian’s father.
Gideon Blackwood.
Brilliant.
Ruthless.
Dead for almost fifteen years.
Lucian continued.
“Daniel helped design a propulsion system that eventually became one of the company’s most valuable technologies. He had equity. Significant equity.”
“How significant?”
“Enough that today it would be worth hundreds of millions.”
I stared at him.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s documented.”
“Then where is it?”
“Hidden.”
“By whom?”
“My father.”
I felt anger rise.
“Why?”
“Because your father discovered financial corruption inside the company. Shell companies. Political payments. Unsafe testing reports being buried. He wanted out.”
“And your father tried to stop him?”
“Yes.”
Lucian’s answer came without hesitation.
“What happened the night he left?”
Lucian looked toward the door.
Then back.
“There was a test facility outside Tacoma. I was twenty-eight. I had just begun challenging my father’s management.”
He paused.
“I found evidence he was planning to destroy records.”
My skin prickled.
“Daniel was already there.”
“My father?”
“Yes.”
Lucian swallowed once.
“He had copied everything.”
“What happened?”
“There was a fire.”
My stomach turned.
“The official report said electrical failure.”
“It wasn’t.”
I stared.
“What was it?”
“Arson.”
Silence.
One of the fetal monitors beeped.
Lucian lowered his voice.
“I was trapped inside. Your father came back for me.”
My eyes filled.
“He got me out.”
“And him?”
“He suffered smoke inhalation and burns.”
“But he didn’t die in a fire.”
“No. He survived.”
I knew that.
My father had died years later in what police called a highway accident.
Lucian continued.
“After that night, Daniel disappeared from the company. My father paid people to bury the investigation. Daniel changed careers. Tried to protect you and your mother.”
“Protect us from what?”
“From anyone who wanted the records.”
“Did he keep them?”
“Yes.”
I shut my eyes.
This was too much.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because you were a child.”
“I was twenty-three when he died.”
Lucian’s voice softened.
“He may have intended to.”
My eyes opened.
“You said Nathan is connected.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“About a year after your father died, a dormant trust changed administrators.”
I frowned.
“What trust?”
“A Bennett family trust holding your father’s remaining equity claims.”
“I never knew about it.”
“Nathan did.”
My blood ran cold.
“How?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to determine.”
The door opened.
Miriam entered.
Her expression was serious.
“We have a problem.”
Lucian stood.
“What?”
“Nathan filed.”
“For what?”
“Emergency preservation of paternal rights.”
I almost laughed.
“Preservation?”
Miriam looked at me.
“He’s requesting a temporary order preventing removal of the newborns from the state after delivery, mandatory notification upon birth, and access to medical information regarding neonatal care.”
“They aren’t even born.”
“I know.”
“He threw me out today.”
“I know.”
“How can he do this?”
“He can request almost anything. Getting it is different.”
Lucian’s voice turned cold.
“What judge?”
“Ellison.”
Lucian nodded once.
“Good.”
Miriam looked at him.
“Not entirely. Nathan attached financial evidence claiming Ava is unstable.”
My mouth went dry.
“What evidence?”
“Bank statements showing almost no independent assets.”
I stared.
“He took the assets.”
Miriam nodded.
“He also attached a statement saying you voluntarily relinquished marital property.”
“I signed because—”
“I understand.”
“What else?”
She hesitated.
“Text messages.”
My chest tightened.
“What text messages?”
“Messages from your phone saying you were overwhelmed by the pregnancy and sometimes wished it had never happened.”
I stared at her.
“I never wrote that.”
Lucian’s expression changed instantly.
Miriam handed him a tablet.
He read.
His eyes became dangerous.
“These are fabricated.”
“How do you know?”
“Because one of the dates is during the Vancouver gala.”
I looked at him.
“So?”
“Your phone was stolen that night.”
I remembered.
I had misplaced it for almost four hours.
Nathan found it near the valet desk.
At least, that was what he told me.
My stomach dropped.
“Oh my God.”
Miriam nodded.
“We need forensic access to your phone and cloud backups.”
“Take everything.”
A knock sounded.
Dr. Ramos entered.
“Ms. Bennett, I need to make something clear. Stress is not helping.”
“I’m trying.”
“I know. But right now, the babies are stable. I want to keep them that way.”
Lucian immediately stepped back.
“What does she need?”
“Quiet. Rest. No confrontations.”
He nodded.
“I’ll make sure of it.”
For the next four hours, Lucian kept his promise.
No Nathan.
No attorneys.
No questions.
Only nurses.
Medicine.
Water.
The rhythmic sound of three tiny heartbeats.
By late afternoon, the contractions had almost stopped.
I finally slept.
When I woke, the room was dim.
Lucian sat in the chair near the window, reading documents on a tablet.
“You stayed.”
He looked up.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He considered the question.
“Because once, your father stayed for me.”
The answer hurt.
Not badly.
Just deeply.
I looked away.
“Do you feel guilty?”
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I have had twelve years to practice.”
A faint smile touched my mouth before I could stop it.
His expression softened.
Then my phone rang.
Nathan.
I stared at the screen.
Lucian said nothing.
I answered.
“Ava.”
Nathan sounded calm.
Too calm.
“What do you want?”
“We need to stop this before it becomes worse.”
“You filed against me.”
“I protected my rights.”
“You fabricated messages.”
Silence.
Then Nathan said, “Be careful what you accuse me of.”
“I know about the trust.”
This time, the silence was different.
Longer.
Nathan’s voice changed.
“Who told you?”
“Lucian.”
A quiet exhale.
“That was a mistake.”
“For who?”
“You don’t understand what he wants.”
“He says you used my identity.”
“Of course he does.”
“Did you?”
“Ava.”
“Yes or no?”
He didn’t answer.
My heart began pounding.
Nathan continued.
“Blackwood doesn’t care about you.”
“You threw me out pregnant.”
“That was a legal separation.”
“You left me with a few hundred dollars.”
“You signed the agreement.”
My eyes closed.
He always did this.
Turned every act of cruelty into procedure.
Every betrayal into paperwork.
“Don’t contact me again without my attorney.”
“You don’t have an attorney.”
“I do now.”
I glanced at Miriam through the glass door.
Nathan went quiet.
Then his voice dropped.
“If Blackwood is paying for your lawyers, he’s buying something.”
“Goodbye, Nathan.”
“Ava, listen to me.”
I hung up.
My hand shook.
Lucian walked closer.
“You did well.”
“I don’t feel like I did.”
“You stopped explaining yourself to him.”
That sentence stayed with me.
Maybe because I had spent years explaining.
Why I was tired.
Why I was hurt.
Why Chloe embarrassed me.
Why I wanted him home.
Why I needed kindness.
As if enough explanation could teach someone empathy.
Miriam entered.
“We have the first forensic results.”
I sat straighter.
“And?”
“The messages Nathan submitted were not sent from Ava’s current phone.”
Lucian nodded.
“Cloud mirror?”
“Likely.”
“Can you trace it?”
“We already did.”
Miriam turned the tablet toward me.
An account name appeared.
I recognized it immediately.
Drake Family Office.
I stared.
“Nathan’s company.”
“Yes.”
“There’s more,” Miriam said.
She opened another file.
“A series of trust distributions were authorized over four years.”
I looked at the numbers.
Five million.
Eight million.
Twelve million.
My chest tightened.
“Where did that money go?”
“Companies associated with Nathan.”
I looked at Lucian.
“How much total?”
Miriam hesitated.
“Forty-eight million dollars.”
I couldn’t speak.
Nathan had not just taken my apartment.
He had apparently been taking from me for years.
But Miriam wasn’t finished.
“There’s one transaction I can’t explain.”
“What?”
“Six months ago.”
The date caught my attention.
Six months.
Around the time I became pregnant.
Miriam opened the page.
“Twenty-seven million dollars moved out of the Bennett trust.”
“To Nathan?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
She looked at Lucian.
“To a private fertility and genetics company.”
My hand went instinctively to my stomach.
The room went silent.
“Why would Nathan send twenty-seven million dollars to a genetics company?”
No one answered.
Then my phone buzzed.
A new email.
Unknown sender.
Subject line:
THE TRIPLETS WERE NEVER PART OF NATHAN’S PLAN.
I opened it.
There was only one attachment.
A laboratory invoice.
May you like
And beside my name were three embryo identification numbers.
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