Chapter 3 - The Second Woman in Red
The hospital placed me inside a private labor room under police protection.
My contractions continued, but the baby’s heart rate remained stable. The obstetrician said the bleeding suggested a partial placental separation.
Stress could have contributed.
So could medication.
Toxicology would take time.
Julian arrived under guard.
He was not permitted inside my room, but I heard him arguing in the hallway.
“I have the right to see my wife.”
Diana answered.
“You threatened her and obstructed medical care.”
“She is lying because she wants leverage in the divorce.”
I had never mentioned divorce.
Julian had already imagined the next battle.
The Sterling family attorney arrived within an hour. He argued that the ballroom arrests were based on financial evidence collected through an unlawful marital search.
Julian claimed I accessed his private records only because we were married.
That was false.
I had been assigned to Sterling Ridge before Julian proposed.
The marriage complicated the investigation, but it did not create it.
I met him at a state development hearing where I was reviewing vineyard subsidies. He introduced himself after the session and pretended not to recognize my name from the audit requests.
For months, I believed our relationship developed naturally.
Now I wondered whether he had selected me.
Diana entered with the wedding photograph.
“The message came through a private relay used by the Sterling family office.”
“Who is the other woman?”
“We are identifying every pregnant guest.”
The photograph showed me drinking tea near the bridal mirror.
Behind me stood a woman wearing a dark red dress similar to mine. Her face was hidden by the floral arrangement.
She held one hand over a visible pregnancy.
The timestamp was twenty minutes before the ceremony.
I remembered seeing her in the ballroom.
She sat near Malcolm Sterling’s table and left before the first dance.
“Julian spoke to her,” I said.
“When?”
“Near the vineyard doors. I thought she was a client.”
Diana showed me the guest list.
No pregnant woman in red had been registered.
A camera near the service entrance captured her entering with a vendor badge issued to Bellmont Floral.
The badge belonged to a florist who called in sick that morning.
The woman used the name Leah Bennett.
No valid identification matched it.
Diana opened another file.
“For nine months, we have tracked payments from Sterling Ridge to a clinic called Bennett Maternal Services.”
“I never saw that company.”
“It appeared as agricultural worker health care.”
The clinic existed only through billing records. No licensed medical office operated at the listed address.
Every month, Sterling Ridge paid between eighty and one hundred thousand dollars into the account.
The money then moved to a private trust.
Trust beneficiary: Unborn Sterling Heir.
My baby was not named.
Neither was the mother.
“Julian created another trust?”
“His father authorized it. Julian signed two payments.”
I looked toward the hallway.
He had been preparing a financial structure for another unborn child while telling me we could not afford a nursery renovation without selling my apartment.
“Is the woman carrying Julian’s baby?”
“We do not know.”
The secure message said the wrong woman went into labor.
That meant someone expected the other woman to experience a medical event during the wedding.
Perhaps the syringe was intended for her.
Perhaps the tea cups were switched.
Or perhaps I had been targeted and the message was designed to create confusion.
Diana sat beside the bed.
“There is something else.”
She opened the sealed list.
Nine names appeared.
Julian.
Malcolm.
Celeste.
Seraphina.
Three Sterling executives.
Dr. Martin Vale, my obstetrician.
And Leah Bennett.
My own doctor had been part of the financial investigation before the wedding.
“Why did you not tell me?”
“The clinic payments appeared yesterday. We could not confirm whether Vale was participating or being used.”
Dr. Vale had supervised my pregnancy from the beginning.
He reassured me when Julian insisted on attending every appointment.
He encouraged me to sign broad family information releases.
He told me Celeste could collect records if I was unavailable.
My medical privacy had been dismantled slowly and politely.
The door opened.
A nurse entered carrying a chart.
“Dr. Vale is here for the emergency delivery.”
Diana stood.
“He is not authorized.”
The nurse looked confused.
“He approved the admission himself.”
A hospital alert appeared on the monitor.
My medical record had been changed.
The chart now stated that I had consented to an immediate cesarean section.
May you like
I had signed nothing.
Continue to the next part: Audrey discovers her doctor scheduled surgery before she ever went into labor.
