Chapter Sixteen The exchange

Alexander's Pov

I liquidated forty million dollars in assets within thirty-six hours, moving faster than I had for any business deal in my entire career.

David watched me sign the final transfer with a grim expression. "You realize this puts serious pressure on the company's liquidity right before the shareholder meeting."

"Let them worry about liquidity. I'm worried about Sophie getting home safely from school."

We arranged the exchange at an abandoned warehouse near the docks, per Vincent's instructions, with two undercover officers David had quietly brought in through a contact from his college roommate, now a detective with the fraud division.

Vincent arrived exactly on time, flanked by two men I didn't recognize, his smile as oily as I remembered from Lily's old stories about him.

"Mr. Hunt. Punctual. I respect that in a man."

"The money's confirmed in the account. We're done here."

"Almost done." Vincent's eyes glittered with something that made my skin crawl. "You know, I always wondered why a man like you married a nobody like Lily Morgan. Now I understand it was never really about her at all, was it? Just another Hunt family transaction."

"Watch your mouth."

"Touchy." Vincent laughed. "Cassandra always said you'd fall for her eventually. Pity you fell too late to matter."

The detectives moved in the moment the money cleared, badges flashing, and Vincent's smug expression finally cracked into something like fear. It was almost satisfying enough to make up for everything he'd put Lily's family through over the years.

Almost.

My phone rang before the arrest even finished, Rachel's name flashing across the screen with an urgency that made my stomach drop.

"Alexander, you need to get to the hospital right now."

"What happened? Is it Lily?"

"She collapsed, Alexander. I have to tell you something first, and God, I wish I didn't have to tell you like this."

"Rachel, just say it."

Her voice shook. "I found records while I was digging into Vincent's history. Alexander, James Hunt had an affair with Lily's mother, years before Robert Morgan's business failed. The dates line up. I think James Hunt might actually be Lily's biological father."

The world tilted violently beneath me. "That's not possible."

"I wish it wasn't. But if it's true, Alexander, that makes you and Lily—"

She didn't need to finish the sentence. I already understood exactly what those words meant, and I dropped the phone as the warehouse floor seemed to rush up to meet me.

**********

I don't remember the drive to the hospital. I remember David's hand steady on my shoulder in the elevator, and the sterile white lights of the maternity ward, and Rachel's tear-streaked face waiting outside a room where machines were beeping too fast.

"She went into labor the moment I told her," Rachel whispered. "The shock triggered something. They're saying it's too early, Alexander. Three months too early."

I pressed my forehead against the cold hospital wall, praying to a God I hadn't spoken to since childhood, terrified in a way nothing in my carefully controlled life had ever prepared me for.

Whatever the truth about our shared blood turned out to be, none of it mattered in that moment except one desperate, screaming thought.

Please let them both survive this.

I called my father from the hospital hallway, some desperate instinct pushing me toward the one person who might actually know the truth about Rachel's discovery.

"I need to know if you had an affair with a woman named Diane Morgan, twenty-five years ago."

The silence on the other end of the line stretched long enough that I already had my answer before he spoke.

"Where did you hear that name?"

"Answer the question."

"It was a long time ago, Alexander. Meaningless. I ended it before it became complicated." His voice held no shame, only the same clinical detachment he brought to every conversation. "Why does this matter now?"

"Because her daughter might be my wife, and my wife might be my sister, and she's currently in premature labor because of what your recklessness might have cost her." My voice shook with a fury I could barely contain. "Did you know? Did you know when you let me marry her?"

"I didn't concern myself with tracking every woman I've ever known, Alexander. That's beneath my time."

I hung up before I said something I couldn't take back, sliding down the hospital wall until I sat on the cold tile floor, my father's careless cruelty echoing in my ears louder than any of the machines beeping steadily behind Lily's door.