Chapter 23
He had known.
Or at least he had reason to suspect.
He had known there was a problem with his fertility, and he had allowed me to believe it was mine.
I placed both hands flat on the desk.
“Why did he marry me?”
Ethan did not answer immediately.
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe he thought I would never find out.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe his family needed a wife to blame.”
“That is possible.”
I laughed once, without humor.
“My mother-in-law told me Ryan needed an heir. She knew.”
“We need proof.”
“You just showed me proof.”
“Proof of a test. Not proof of who knew the results or when.”
The distinction mattered, though my heart wanted certainty.
I opened another file.
This one contained a copy of a letter from a fertility specialist addressed to Ryan.
Mr. Hart,
Based on your prior results and the absence of any documented female factor, we strongly recommend that further treatment focus on male-factor infertility. Your wife should not be held responsible for the repeated losses without additional evidence.
The letter was dated eight years earlier.
At the bottom, someone had written in blue ink:
Do not send.
My vision blurred.
I pressed the heel of my hand against my eyes.
“He received this,” I said.
Ethan’s voice was gentle.
“It appears so.”
“He knew.”
“We still need to know who wrote the note.”
“I know who.”
I did.
Ryan’s mother.
She had always kept a blue pen beside the telephone in the kitchen. She used it to write reminders, appointments, and instructions for the staff.
But suspicion was not proof.
I opened the final file.
It contained an audio transcript.
The recording itself was not included, but the words had been transcribed by an unknown person.
Ryan, you promised me the truth would stay inside this family.
I never said I would take the blame forever.
You have a wife who worships you and a mother who protects you. What happens when one of them stops cooperating?
A second voice replied:
She won’t stop cooperating. She doesn’t know enough to question anything.
The first voice was identified only as Female.
The second was identified as Male.
I recognized Ryan’s words immediately.
The female voice was not clear enough to identify.
At the bottom of the page was a date.
Three weeks ago.
Before Ryan threw me out.
Before I discovered I was pregnant.
Before the suitcase appeared on the porch.