Chapter 7 - Selina’s Backup Phone
The backup phone changed Selina from Flynn’s shield into a witness with her own exposure.
She did not become my friend.
I never needed that.
Her first formal interview lasted seven hours.
Phoebe received portions later through trust litigation.
Selina admitted the affair began while she was still technically an intern.
Flynn waited until after her internship ended to put Brooks Family Services on contract, but the personal relationship had started months earlier.
She became pregnant.
Flynn told her he would “handle everything.”
He paid for the apartment.
Medical care.
Travel.
Eventually the company reimbursements.
Selina asked why Vance Meridian was paying.
Flynn said her consulting arrangement was legitimate and compensation could include benefits.
She knew the numbers were inflated.
She signed anyway.
Then Miles.
When he was born, Selina demanded legal security.
Not romance.
Paper.
Flynn gave her the fake $20 million trust.
She asked whether I signed.
His message:
She will have.
Selina:
What does that mean?
Flynn:
Administrative timing.
Another message:
If she ever asks, she forgot signing during pregnancy.
Selina replied:
That’s horrible.
Then nothing.
She did not report.
Why?
Because the document protected Miles.
Or seemed to.
Self-interest.
Then Grace’s sex.
The hidden medical report appeared in the messages.
Flynn:
Girl confirmed.
Selina:
You actually checked?
Flynn:
Needed to.
Selina:
Does she know you know?
Flynn:
No.
Selina:
This is getting sick.
Flynn:
This is succession.
Then delivery-room plan.
Flynn:
When she goes in, I’ll tell you.
Selina:
I’m not walking into labor with Miles.
Flynn:
He needs to be seen.
Selina:
Not like that.
Flynn:
If you want him acknowledged, stop hiding.
That was the lever.
Selina hated that Miles was secret.
Flynn made participation feel like motherhood.
Then:
Selina:
What if Mabel screams at me?
Flynn:
Let her.
Selina:
There will be nurses.
Flynn:
Exactly.
The word sat on the screen.
Exactly.
He wanted witnesses.
Then one later message:
If she makes threats, don’t argue. Let staff hear.
Selina stared at investigators when they showed it.
“I thought he wanted proof she was hateful.”
“Why did he need proof?”
“I thought for divorce.”
Not trustee removal.
She claimed she knew nothing about MATERNAL CAPACITY.
Device evidence supported that Flynn never sent it to her.
Then the most important message.
Morning before labor:
Selina:
You said if it’s a girl you can fix everything. What are you actually fixing?
Flynn:
Mabel.
That single word made me nauseous.
Not marriage.
Not trust.
Me.
Then Selina admitted her delivery-room line.
“She risked her life for a daughter nobody asked for.”
Investigators asked why.
Selina cried.
Not gracefully.
“I wanted to hurt her.”
Good.
No rewriting.
“Did Flynn tell you to say it?”
“No.”
Her cruelty belonged to her.
Then she turned over a voice note Flynn had sent months earlier after I questioned a trust-related expense.
Mabel thinks being trustee makes her powerful.
Pause.
She forgets I know how to make her look conflicted.
That became important later.
Then the corporate audit.
Natalie Cross, Flynn’s chief of staff, also began cooperating.
She produced a calendar series:
Postpartum governance.
Trust transition.
Miles recognition.
Media preparation.
Media.
That word surprised Phoebe.
“What media preparation?”
Natalie said Flynn had consulted a reputation-management firm.
He told them a “family succession dispute” might become public after my delivery.
The firm had drafted talking points.
Mabel emotionally contests recognition of Flynn’s male child following birth of daughter.
I had never contested Miles.
Never even known he existed.
Flynn was preparing a public narrative before the event he planned to provoke.
Then the reputation firm produced one email.
Schedule release only if trustee dispute becomes visible.
Draft headline pitch:
Vance Succession Crisis Deepens as New Mother Blocks Recognized Male Heir.
I stared at the words.
The press outside my hospital had not appeared because journalists somehow sensed scandal.
Someone had tipped them.
The firm said it sent nothing.
But an anonymous email containing similar language reached a financial reporter the morning after Grace’s birth.
Investigators traced the originating account.
Created from a device connected to Flynn’s Manhattan townhouse Wi-Fi.
May you like
He had not merely planned to break me privately.
He had prepared to sell the story publicly if I resisted.
