Chapter Three

“I found him, abandoned near the company building,” Logan said. “I couldn’t just leave him there.” 

“Oh my God.” 

Lucia’s throat tightened. She had always wanted kids, but she gave it up because Logan had been diagnosed with infertility at the onset of their marriage. 

“I know we’ve never been able to have kids of our own because of my condition. With the time you have left…I thought you’d want to raise a child like you always wanted,” Logan added. 

Lucia came down and carried the baby in her arms. He was cute and little, a couple of months old. She felt love flood her heart, and she hoped she would be around longer to watch him start walking or talking.

“Thank you both,” she said softly. 

Marielle smiled halfway, but avoided her eyes. 

Logan asked, “What should we name him?” 

“Alex,” Marielle said, almost immediately. “I think Alex suits him.” 

Lucia smiled through her tears. “Alex it is.”

“Here.” Marielle held out her hands. “Let me take him upstairs.” 

“I’ll lay the cot,” Logan offered too, holding up the baby bed. 

She was about to object, when her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket. She handed Alex over to Marielle and answered the call.

“Hello?” 

“Mrs. Hale?” 

“Who is this?” 

The man’s voice was low and urgent. “I am a friend who wishes to help. Some of your documents have been forged, and you would be in danger if you were to go ahead with the IPO.” 

“What-”

“I suggest you review them carefully again.”

The line went dead. 

Lucia hurried up the stairs, her heart beating harshly in her chest. Who was the voice on the phone? What if the company files had been hacked? First, she had to deal with cancer, and now this? 

Then she heard low voices coming from the room ahead of her. She slowed down, listening carefully. 

“Not now…not yet…” 

The room was to her left now. She inched closer, peeking into the room. Logan and Marielle were standing in front of the baby bed. They were very close. Too close. 

“But we’ve come this far…” Marielle was saying, inching closer to him. 

Logan shook his head slightly. “She’s still around, you know. We’ve got to be careful.”

Lucia felt her blood run cold as she stepped back. No, she had to have misheard. Something was wrong. Everything was wrong. What was happening?

“Darling?” Logan said, suddenly stepping out of the room. “Are you alright?”

She turned and forced a smile. “Yeah, I am. Let’s go to bed.” 

---

The next morning, Lucia rushed to the office. 

She had already contacted Tobey, her IT manager, and asked if there was anything suspicious going on.

“Okay, so I checked and you haven’t been hacked,” he said over the phone. 

“Oh, thank God-”

“But…there’s been a couple of log-ins at your office,” he said over the phone. “About five in the past week alone.” 

“Are they mine?” she asked. 

“It’s uh…it’s from your husband’s system.”

“What was he searching for? Logan rarely touches my documents.”

“I don’t know. Want me to check?” Tobey asked. 

“Not yet. I’ll look into it.”  

Lucia frowned as she ended the call. Logan rarely bothered with documentation and all that, so why did he suddenly care? Could he be-?

Shaking the thought from her mind, she walked into the office. She had been so busy with finalizing the IPO, that she had forgotten Logan had his own share. 

She checked his system and was surprised to see it was locked. Why would Logan lock her out? 

She called Tobey again, asking for access to Logan’s files.

“Isn’t that, like, illegal?” he asked back. 

“Not if I’m the one asking.” 

A few minutes later, Tobey sent some files to her desktop. 

Quickly, her hands shaking slightly, she looked through them. She had seen most of them before, and she started to consider that the call had been some kind of prank….

Her name was missing. 

The realization hit her like a bomb. She slowed down, checking the spaces that listed if a person was single or married.

Logan had filled every single one as ‘Single.’

“What the fuck?” she whispered. 

She kept scrolling and opening new files. Her shares were being hidden under different names, proxy companies she had never heard of. 

And as if that wasn’t enough, she found a marriage certificate. It had his name on it, and below it….

Marielle Reed. 

Lucia stared at the screen, tears blurring her vision. 

“No, it can’t be…” 

Her mind still looked for an explanation, even when she found another document, a birth certificate. It was for Alex, and it listed Logan and Marielle as the biological parents. 

It dawned on her now. Logan was never infertile. He simply did not want a child with HER. 

Everything clicked into place like a nightmare. The years of love and sacrifice, all of it was….false? 

Lucia got to her feet. Her legs felt weak as she headed for the door. Tears were streaming out of her eyes as she repeated, “No, it can’t be….” 

Betrayal, sharper than the pain of cancer, tore through her chest. The man she loved. Her childhood friend. They had been playing her all along. Using her as a stepping stone. 

She got into her car. Dialed Logan’s number. 

“There has to be an explanation…” she kept telling herself. “There has to be…”

The line connected. 

And instead of Logan’s voice, she heard a lady moaning in the background. 

Lucia froze, one hand on the steering wheel, the other holding her phone to her ear.

“Who was it?” Marielle’s voice asked. 

“It’s Lucia,” Logan answered impatiently. “Don’t worry, I ended the call.” 

“Ugh, can she just hurry up and die already? I’ve been giving her that tea all week, how much longer will it take?” 

“Don’t worry, my love,” Logan whispered. “Everything is gonna fall into our hands very soon. Now, where were we?” 

The moaning sound resumed, followed by wet, slapping noises. 

Lucia could feel her grip slipping on the steering wheel. Her eyes clouded with tears, someone blew a horn and then there was a loud crash. 

Everything went black.