Chapter 3 - The Unfamiliar Woman
By midnight, the backyard had been cleared of the festive pink decorations, replaced by a heavy, oppressive stillness. My sister had taken the remaining guests home hours ago, leaving only Chloe resting upstairs in the guest bedroom and me sitting at the kitchen island, staring down at the medical file and the business card the baker had handed me along with the security footage flash drive.
The card belonged to a firm downtown: Vance & Sterling Corporate Law.
The name of the woman on the security footage—the one standing beside Spencer at the bakery counter—was written on the back of the card in the baker's hurried handwriting: Victoria Vance.
I plugged the flash drive into my old laptop. The video file opened immediately. The timestamp in the corner read 8:14 AM, just a few hours before the party.
I watched the footage on a continuous loop. Spencer walked into the bakery with an air of practiced urgency. But it was Victoria Vance who caught my eye. She wasn't dressed like a paralegal. She wore an expensive, tailored charcoal suit, her dark hair pulled back into a severe, immaculate bun. She didn't look like an administrative assistant; she looked like an executive partner.
More importantly, she looked at Spencer not with the professional detachment of a coworker, but with an intimate, effortless familiarity. She touched his elbow as they walked up to the counter. She whispered something in his ear that made him smile—a genuine, relaxed smile I hadn't seen him direct at Chloe in over a year.
My phone buzzed on the kitchen counter, startling me out of my thoughts.
It was an unknown number, coming in via text message.
“If you want to know why Spencer was really so desperate to guarantee a male heir, meet me at the Harbor Cafe tomorrow at 10:00 AM. Come alone. Don't tell Chloe.”
The sender ID was blank, but attached to the message was a single thumbnail image: a close-up photo of a signed legal document, showing a birth certificate from five years ago, bearing Spencer’s name in the father’s box—and a mother’s name I had never heard before.
My breath caught in my throat.
Spencer didn't just have a financial motive for wanting a boy. He had a history I knew nothing about.
The next morning, I told Chloe I was running to the local pharmacy to pick up her prenatal refills. Instead, I drove down to the fog-drenched waterfront where the Harbor Cafe sat overlooking the grey expanse of the bay. The morning air was biting, but the adrenaline pumping through my veins kept the chill at bay.
I pushed open the heavy glass door of the diner. The smell of stale coffee and fried bacon hung thick in the air. Sitting in a corner booth near the window, wrapped in a high-end cashmere coat that looked entirely out of place in the diner, was Victoria Vance.
She was stirring a black coffee, her eyes fixed on the entrance. When she saw me walk in, she didn't look surprised. She simply raised a slim hand and motioned for me to approach.
I walked over, pulling out the opposite vinyl booth seat and sitting down without taking off my coat.
"You've got a lot of nerve contacting me after helping my son-in-law commit fraud," I said, keeping my voice low, steady, and razor-sharp.
Victoria took a slow sip of her coffee, set the ceramic mug down with a soft click, and looked at me with cold, analytical green eyes.
"I didn't help him commit fraud out of charity, Mrs. Evans," she said, her voice smooth and crisp. "I helped him because my interests are tied to his. Or, more accurately, to what he owns."
"Who are you to him?" I demanded. "An associate? A mistress?"
Victoria offered a thin, humorless smile. "Try fiancée."
May you like
The word hit me like a physical blow. I stared at her, my mind scrambling to connect the pieces. "Fiancée? He’s married to my daughter. Chloe is six months pregnant with his child!"
"And legally, their marriage hasn't been valid for nearly eighteen months," Victoria replied calmly, pulling a sleek leather portfolio from her lap and sliding it across the table toward me. "Spencer didn't tell you that part, did he?"
