Chapter 5 - The Truth Behind the Lost Years
I did not show Lucas the message immediately.
That was my first mistake.
Old habits are difficult to break.
For years, fear had taught me to protect myself by withholding information until I understood it.
But secrets had already destroyed enough of our lives.
So the following morning, before I could change my mind, I called him.
He answered on the first ring.
“Nia?”
“There was a message.”
His tone changed instantly.
“What message?”
I read it aloud.
Silence.
Then Lucas asked, “What number?”
“Blocked.”
“Screenshot it and send it to me.”
“Lucas, what happened the night you decided to divorce me?”
Another silence.
Too long.
My stomach tightened.
“Lucas.”
“Not over the phone.”
“You're doing it again.”
“What?”
“Deciding what information I can handle.”
He exhaled.
“You're right.”
That surprised me.
Then he said, “Victor came to see me that night.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“What did he say?”
“He told me you'd spoken privately with Dr. Hale.”
“I spoke privately with every doctor we had.”
“I know.”
“What else?”
“He said Hale believed you had known for months that the infertility issue was yours and that you were hiding it because you were afraid I'd leave.”
My breath stopped.
“That never happened.”
“I know.”
“You believed him?”
“I believed enough of it.”
Pain cut through me.
Lucas continued.
“Victor also showed me paperwork.”
“What paperwork?”
“A supposed specialist report.”
I remembered every document in my medical history.
“There wasn't one.”
“No. There wasn't.”
My eyes closed.
“And you divorced me the same night.”
“I had already been thinking our marriage was failing.”
“Because Victor was poisoning it.”
“Because I allowed it to be poisoned.”
At least he wasn't hiding behind excuses.
“Send me the report.”
“I will.”
An hour later, it arrived.
I stared at the document.
My name.
My date of birth.
A physician's signature.
A fabricated conclusion implying a condition that had never been diagnosed.
I felt physically sick.
Seven years of guilt.
Years of loneliness.
Twins growing up without their father.
All because someone had created a document and Lucas had chosen to trust it instead of me.
Maya found me sitting at the kitchen table.
She read the report.
“Who does something like this?”
“Someone who wanted Lucas unattached.”
“Victor?”
“Maybe.”
“No. Why would an executive care enough about his boss's marriage to fake medical records?”
That was the question.
By noon, Lucas's investigator had identified the anonymous number as a disposable line purchased near one of Victor's former properties.
Then Lucas called again.
“We need to meet.”
“Why?”
“Because I found something worse.”
We met at my office.
Lucas arrived without security.
He carried a folder.
Inside were financial records dating back almost nine years.
Payments from Victor-controlled shell companies.
Transfers to Dr. Hale's brother.
Private investigative invoices.
And photographs.
Photographs of me.
Leaving fertility appointments.
Meeting Maya.
Buying groceries.
Entering a pharmacy.
Someone had followed me.
My skin crawled.
“How long?”
“Nearly a year.”
“Why?”
Lucas turned a page.
The answer was there.
A board memorandum.
Morgan Global had been on the verge of accepting a massive foreign investment from Halcyon Capital.
The agreement required Lucas to relocate overseas for extended periods and personally oversee expansion.
Lucas had initially refused.
Why?
A handwritten note from Victor explained it.
L.M. unwilling to commit due to family planning priorities.
I stared at it.
“He thought I was standing between him and the deal.”
Lucas nodded.
“Halcyon had promised Victor a significant executive bonus if the expansion went through.”
“How significant?”
“Twenty-eight million dollars.”
I laughed once.
Not because it was funny.
“My marriage was worth twenty-eight million dollars.”
“No.”
Lucas's voice was sharp.
“Victor's betrayal was about money. Our marriage ended because I failed to trust you.”
I looked at him.
That distinction mattered.
Because Victor could manipulate.
But Lucas had still chosen.
“I called Hale this morning,” Lucas said.
“You found him?”
“He lives in Arizona.”
“What did he say?”
“At first, nothing. Then I told him the FBI might become interested in fraudulent medical documentation connected to interstate financial transactions.”
“You threatened him.”
“I explained possible consequences.”
That sounded more like Lucas.
“He admitted Victor paid him.”
My hands went numb.
“For what?”
“To create ambiguity.”
“Ambiguity?”
“He claims he never intended for us to divorce.”
“That's convenient.”
“He said Victor wanted to delay our attempts to have children long enough for me to accept the international expansion.”
“How?”
“By convincing us conception was unlikely.”
The horror became clearer.
Victor didn't need permanent infertility.
He needed time.
Time for Morgan Global to sign the deal.
Time for Lucas to become absorbed in work.
Time for our marriage to weaken.
And once suspicion entered, we had destroyed the rest ourselves.
“Why didn't we get pregnant before that?” I asked.
Lucas looked down.
“Stress. Timing. Chance. Hale says there was never evidence either of us was infertile.”
Years.
Years of unnecessary grief.
I covered my face.
Lucas moved toward me instinctively.
Then stopped.
He didn't touch me.
That restraint meant more than an apology.
I lowered my hands.
“What about the anonymous message?”
“I think Hale sent it.”
“Why?”
“He's scared Victor will blame everything on him.”
“So there's more.”
“Yes.”
Lucas opened another document.
It was an email.
From Victor.
Dated two days before our divorce.
Subject: Morgan personal situation.
The message contained one line that made my blood freeze.
Once the marriage is resolved, Lucas will have no reason to reject Halcyon's schedule.
I looked up.
“He knew.”
Lucas nodded.
“He expected us to split.”
A knock sounded at my office door.
My assistant entered.
“Nia? There's a woman asking to see you.”
“Who?”
She hesitated.
“Evelyn Morgan.”
Lucas stood.
I stared at him.
“Did you ask her here?”
“No.”
Evelyn entered before either of us could decide what to do.
She looked immaculate.
But her eyes were swollen.
She placed a folder on my desk.
“I think both of you need to see this.”
Lucas frowned.
“Evelyn.”
“No.”
Her voice trembled.
“You've both been investigating Victor. I've been investigating someone else.”
“Who?”
“Lucas.”
He stared at her.
She opened the folder.
Inside were copies of fertility tests.
Recent ones.
Her tests.
Lucas looked confused.
“Why are you showing us this?”
“Because the doctors told us the problem wasn't you.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn looked at me.
“They also told me there was no significant problem with me.”
I frowned.
“Then why haven't you conceived?”
“That is what I wanted to know.”
She pulled out another report.
“I went to a different clinic without telling Lucas.”
Lucas's face tightened.
“And?”
Evelyn swallowed.
“I discovered that the medication I've been taking for almost two years wasn't what I thought it was.”
The room went silent.
“What medication?” I asked.
“Supplements prescribed through our private wellness physician.”
Lucas looked suddenly dangerous.
“Who recommended that physician?”
Evelyn laughed bitterly.
“You already know.”
Victor.
Even after leaving Morgan Global, Victor still served as an informal adviser to several families in their social circle.
Including Evelyn's.
“What was in the medication?” Lucas asked.
“Something that interfered with ovulation.”
Lucas went pale.
Victor hadn't only sabotaged our marriage years earlier.
He had continued interfering with Lucas's chances of becoming a father.
But why?
The answer came that evening.
Federal investigators detained Victor Lang at O'Hare Airport before he boarded a flight to Switzerland.
And inside the encrypted laptop he carried was a folder labeled:
MORGAN SUCCESSION
When authorities opened it, Lucas called me.
His voice was unlike anything I'd ever heard.
“Nia.”
“What?”
“This was never only about the expansion deal.”
“What are you saying?”
“Victor wasn't trying to keep me childless temporarily.”
A long pause.
“He was trying to make sure I never had an heir.”
My blood turned cold.
May you like
And for the first time since Lucas reentered our lives, I understood that Noah and Lily weren't simply children their father had never known.
They were the heirs someone had spent nearly a decade trying to prevent from existing.
