Chapter 4 - CHLOE’S EMPTY FUTUREChloe requested protection before she agreed to speak.
She was transferred from the mansion to a federal interview suite inside the hospital. Her attorney remained present, but Maya allowed Clara to watch through a secure monitor.
Without Julian and Beatrice beside her, Chloe looked younger.
The confidence from the ballroom had disappeared.
“Are you pregnant?” Maya asked.
Chloe looked at her lawyer.
“No.”
“Have you ever been pregnant with Julian’s child?”
“No.”
Clara’s jaw tightened.
Chloe had smiled over her injured body and claimed she carried Julian’s future while knowing there was no baby.
Maya placed the false hospital bracelet on the table.
“Where did you get this?”
“Beatrice gave it to me.”
“What were you instructed to do?”
“Attend the shower. Tell Clara I was pregnant. Allow Julian to announce that my child would be the family heir.”
“Why?”
Chloe swallowed.
“They needed Clara to lose control in front of witnesses.”
“And if she didn’t?”
“I was supposed to slap her.”
Clara stared at the screen.
The family expected violence either way.
If Clara defended herself, they would call her unstable.
If she remained calm, Chloe would provoke a physical incident.
No one had planned for Julian to attack first.
“Did Julian know you were not pregnant?” Maya asked.
“Yes.”
“Were you his mistress?”
Chloe hesitated.
“We had a relationship.”
“For how long?”
“Six months.”
Julian had not merely participated in a staged appearance. He had chosen an actual affair with the woman hired to help discredit his wife.
Chloe described how Beatrice approached her through a luxury public-relations agency. She was promised two million dollars, an apartment, and a senior position at Blackwell Meridian.
Her task began with photographing private dinners with Julian.
Then came the pregnancy story.
Beatrice arranged clinic records, test results, and social-media rumors.
Arthur approved the payments through a foundation called New Legacy Families.
Maya opened the foundation’s accounts.
Money flowed through clinics, law firms, maternity residences, and child-custody consultants.
Several payments carried labels such as:
Maternal Replacement.
Paternity Override.
Founder Continuity.
Chloe’s role formed part of something larger than one divorce.
“Did you know Clara could be physically harmed?” Maya asked.
“No.”
“You stood beside the man who struck her.”
“I was frightened.”
“You smiled.”
Chloe looked toward the camera she knew connected to Clara.
“I wanted her to feel defeated.”
The honesty was ugly.
It was also more useful than another excuse.
“Why?” Clara asked through the speaker.
Chloe flinched at her voice.
“Julian told me you treated everyone beneath you.”
“I had met you once.”
“He said you controlled his money, his parents, and his career.”
“Did I control his fist?”
Chloe lowered her eyes.
“No.”
Maya produced financial records showing payments into Chloe’s account.
The source appeared to be Clara Arden Blackwell.
Clara had never authorized them.
Someone created a mirror account using her tax identification number, digital signature, and old passport.
If the scheme became public, Clara would appear to have hired Chloe herself.
The family could claim she created the affair and pregnancy scandal as part of a financial manipulation.
“Who had access to your identity records?” Maya asked.
“Julian. Arthur’s family office. Blackwell Reproductive Health.”
“And your father’s attorney?”
“Possibly.”
The forged account contained one transfer Clara did not recognize.
Five million dollars had been sent to Nathan Arden twelve days after his legal death.
Recipient bank: Helix Private Trust, Geneva.
Maya requested international preservation.
The bank responded that Nathan Arden remained an active client.
His identity had been verified in person six months earlier.
Clara stared at the confirmation.
Either her father was alive—
or someone had spent three years using his face, fingerprints, and private codes.
Chloe’s attorney suddenly ended the interview.
Before leaving, Chloe turned toward the camera.
“There’s something else.”
Her attorney grabbed her arm.
Chloe pulled away.
“Beatrice didn’t create the future birth bracelet. Arthur did.”
“Why?” Maya asked.
“Because there is a real baby.”
Clara’s breathing changed.
“Where?”
“Inside the clinic beneath the Blackwell Foundation building.”
The infant was not Chloe’s.
May you like
It had been prepared to replace Clara’s child in the founder records if her pregnancy ended before birth.
👉 Chloe admitted the pregnancy was fake, but revealed a real infant was already waiting inside a Blackwell clinic to assume Clara’s baby’s legal identity.
