Chapter 7 - The Unraveling
"Vanessa?" Julian asked, his brow furrowing as he noticed her strange reaction. He stood up from the floor, taking a step toward her. "What's wrong with you? Aren't you going to say anything?"
Vanessa swallowed hard, her hands clutching the lace fabric of her gown so tightly her knuckles turned white. "Julian... tell her to leave," she squeaked, her voice trembling unnaturally. "She's trying to ruin our day! She fabricated those papers! She's lying!"
"Fabricated?" Arthur interjected, his voice sharp as a tack. He was staring at the official Supreme Court seal on the DNA document. "This is an official court document, Vanessa. The lab is state-certified. Evelyn didn't fake this."
Arthur turned back to look at my children. The old man’s eyes, usually cold and dead, were now blazing with a terrifying kind of greed. Four legitimate Whitmore grandchildren. Two more boys. A literal dynasty.
"Evelyn," Arthur said, his tone shifting dramatically, trying to sound reasonable and commanding. "This changes everything. If these are Julian’s legitimate children, they belong in the Whitmore family trust. We will bring them into the fold immediately. We will set up nanny teams, enroll them in elite preparatory schools—"
"They don't belong to you, Arthur," I interrupted calmly, pulling Noah and Grace slightly closer to my legs. "They carry my last name. They are Vance children. You bought my total relinquish of marital rights for twelve million dollars. You made sure the contract was airtight."
"I don't care about the contract!" Julian yelled, stepping forward, his eyes locked on me with desperate pleading. "Evelyn, please! They are my blood! My sons! My daughters!"
"Are you sure about blood, Julian?" I asked softly, letting my gaze drift slowly over to Vanessa.
The silence on the lawn returned, heavier than before.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Julian asked, confused.
"Think about it, Julian," I said, my voice echoing with quiet venom. "Three years ago, when you and I were trying for a baby, we had complete fertility panels done. Do you remember what Dr. Vance told us back then?"
Julian blinked, trying to pull memories from the past. "She... she said my motility was slightly below average, but..."
"She said you had a very low probability of fathering multiples naturally," I corrected him. "Yet, miraculously, six weeks after you started sleeping with Vanessa, she miraculously gets pregnant with identical triplet boys. A one-in-a-million natural occurrence."
Vanessa’s breath hitched so loudly that guests three rows back heard it.
"Shut up! Shut your mouth, Evelyn!" Vanessa screamed, her poise completely shattering as she rushed down the altar steps, pointing a trembling finger at me. "Julian, don't listen to her! She's insane! She's bitter because you chose me!"
"I didn't think much of it back then," I continued, ignoring her screeching entirely as I looked directly at Arthur Whitmore. "Until I remembered where Vanessa was three weeks before she announced her pregnancy to the family."
Arthur’s eyes narrowed into slits. "Where was she?"
"She wasn't in London on business with Julian," I said smoothly. "She was at an elite private fertility clinic in Barbados. I checked the travel logs of the corporate jet last week. She flew out alone, stayed four days, and flew back."
"You lying bitch!" Vanessa shrieked, lunging toward me.
Julian caught her by the arms, holding her back, but his eyes were wide with sudden, terrifying suspicion. He looked at Vanessa's panicked face, then slowly turned his head to look at his three triplet sons sitting with the nannies in the front row.
"Vanessa..." Julian said, his voice dropping into a dangerous whisper. "Why were you in Barbados?"
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"I was visiting my aunt!" Vanessa cried out, tears ruining her mascara as she pulled against his grip. "Julian, I swear to God, I was visiting my aunt!"
"You don't have an aunt in Barbados, Vanessa," I said softly. "But Barbados happens to be home to one of the premier anonymous sperm donor banks in the Caribbean."
