“I will not let my family be humiliated by a bitter, unfaithful woman.”
“Before you call security,” I said, “you may want to see what your son has been funding. Unless you enjoy paying for Amber’s fake pregnancy accessories.”
Amber lunged for the envelope.
I slammed my hand on top of it.
“Touch it,” I whispered, “and I’ll read every page aloud.”
She recoiled.
I pulled out the first receipt and slid it toward Margaret.
“That is from Silver Ridge Aesthetics Center. A custom medical-grade saline belly prosthetic. Purchased by Amber three days ago.”
Gasps moved around the table.
Margaret picked up the receipt. Her face went pale.
“Amber,” she whispered. “What is this?”
“It’s fake!” Amber screamed. “She forged it! She’s obsessed!”
“Oh, right,” I said. “The baby.”
I pulled out the ultrasound photos from Dr. Meredith’s clinic.
“These are real,” I said. “Twelve-week ultrasounds. Twins. Conceived before Nathan’s vasectomy. Verified yesterday morning.”
Nathan buried his face in his hands.
He knew the truth.
Margaret stared at the photos, then at Amber’s stomach.
“You lied to me,” Margaret said, her voice shaking. “You sat in my home and told me you were carrying my grandchild.”
“I needed time!” Amber cried. “I love Nathan. I was going to get pregnant. I just needed to secure my place—”
“You wanted to secure his bank accounts!” Margaret roared.
“Speaking of bank accounts,” I said, pulling out the final document. “Nathan, check your phone. The emergency injunction was approved at five. Your accounts, offshore transfers, and investment portfolios are frozen by a federal judge pending divorce proceedings.”
Nathan looked up, eyes red.
“Rachel, I was manipulated. She got in my head.”
“No,” I said. “You believed exactly what you wanted to believe. You never asked me. You never trusted me. You used a lie to clear your conscience.”
I turned to leave.
But after three steps, pain tore through my abdomen.
I gasped and grabbed a side table. A candlestick crashed to the floor.
“Rachel!” Nathan shouted.
Another wave hit.
I looked down.
Blood.
Nathan reached for me.
“Don’t touch me,” I whispered.
Then the room disappeared.
When I woke, the first sound I heard was a heart monitor.
My hands flew to my stomach.
“They’re okay,” a soft voice said.
My mother sat beside the bed, her eyes swollen from crying.
“The babies?” I rasped.
“Both heartbeats are strong,” she said. “It was a subchorionic hemorrhage. The doctor says stress caused it. You’re on strict bed rest now.”
I closed my eyes.
Relief hurt.
“Where is he?”
“Outside,” she said coldly. “He’s been pacing for two days. Clara had security remove him and filed the restraining order while you were unconscious.”
The next three months became a test of endurance.
My bedroom became my world. My body became a fortress for two tiny lives.
I worked from bed. My mother managed the house.
Nathan became a ghost outside my life.
Without money, Amber left him within three weeks. The fake pregnancy scandal destroyed his reputation. His behavior cost him his position at the firm.
He left voicemails I never answered.
He dropped groceries on the porch that my mother silently carried inside.
