Chapter 3 - The Woman in the Service Elevator
I handed Mia to Daniel.
“Stay with her.”
Mia gripped my wrist.
“You are coming back?”
“Yes.”
I hated how quickly she asked.
Her father had disappeared from our lives when she was four. Since then, every departure felt permanent to her.
I knelt.
“I will not leave the hotel.”
She nodded, but she did not release me until Daniel promised to stay beside her.
Alexander followed me toward the service corridor.
Franklin tried to stop him.
“You are emotionally compromised.”
“My first wife is alive.”
“That is exactly why you should remain here.”
Alexander ignored him.
Two officers joined us as we entered the service stairs.
The elevator had already reached the garage.
I opened the live camera feed on my phone.
A woman in a black coat stepped out carrying a medical cooler and a leather document case.
Her face remained hidden beneath a wide hat.
She walked toward a waiting sedan.
Alexander looked at the screen.
“Zoom in.”
The woman glanced toward the camera.
For one second, the overhead light revealed her face.
Alexander stopped on the stairs.
“Caroline.”
I studied the image.
The woman resembled the photograph from Dr. Mercer’s car, but her movements did not match someone seven months pregnant. The coat hung loose. She moved quickly and carried heavy objects without hesitation.
“She may not be pregnant either,” I said.
Alexander looked at me.
“Then who is?”
We reached the garage as the sedan accelerated toward the exit.
I activated the security barrier.
A steel gate began lowering.
The driver did not stop.
The sedan struck the barrier, shattered one headlight, and swerved toward the maintenance ramp.
Alexander ran after it.
I caught his arm.
“You cannot stop a car with your body.”
He turned on me with enough anger to frighten anyone who did not understand grief.
Then he saw Mia standing behind Daniel at the garage entrance.
She had followed.
I was furious.
Daniel looked apologetic.
“She heard the name Caroline.”
Mia pointed toward the damaged sedan.
“That is not the lady from the baby picture.”
Alexander stared at her.
“How do you know?”
“The lady in the picture has a mark near her mouth.”
I pulled up the photograph.
Caroline had a small scar beneath her lower lip.
The woman from the elevator did not.
A decoy.
The sedan escaped through a construction lane before police units reached the hotel.
We returned to the ballroom.
Vanessa looked relieved when she saw Alexander had not brought Caroline back.
He noticed.
“That woman was not Caroline.”
Vanessa’s relief disappeared.
Cynthia said, “Perhaps your little witness is mistaken.”
Mia looked directly at her.
“You were in the dressing room too.”
Cynthia’s face tightened.
“What did you see?” I asked.
Mia looked at the crowd.
She did not like speaking in front of so many people.
I guided her to a quieter side room with Alexander, Franklin, Cynthia, Vanessa, and Daniel present.
Mia explained that she had entered the dressing room searching for a bathroom. She saw Vanessa standing without the pregnancy belly while Cynthia placed it inside the garment bag.
A third woman stood near the closet.
“What did she look like?”
“She wore a nurse shirt.”
Dr. Mercer closed his eyes.
Mia continued.
“The nurse had the baby picture. Cynthia told her to put it in the red bag.”
Cynthia’s purse was red.
Cynthia said the child was confused.
Mia shook her head.
“The nurse said the real mom was bleeding.”
Alexander moved closer.
“What real mom?”
Mia tried to remember the exact words.
“She said, ‘Caroline cannot keep doing this. The real mother is bleeding again.’”
Every adult in the room became still.
Franklin spoke first.
“If Caroline is not the pregnant patient, someone may be carrying the embryo for her.”
A surrogate.
Vanessa’s fake pregnancy had distracted everyone from a real pregnancy occurring elsewhere.
Alexander looked at the ultrasound.
“The patient name was Caroline’s.”
“False records may have been created to conceal the carrier,” Franklin said.
Dr. Mercer sat down.
He looked exhausted.
Vanessa whispered, “Do not.”
The doctor laughed bitterly.
“You were going to leave me with all of it.”
He turned toward Alexander.
“Caroline is alive. She survived the boat incident.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Mercer continued.
“She found me six months ago and demanded access to the embryos.”
“Why would she hide from me?” Alexander asked.
“Because she believed you arranged her death.”
Alexander looked stunned.
“I searched for her for a year.”
“She saw evidence with your name.”
“What evidence?”
“Payments to the men who sabotaged her boat.”
Vanessa interrupted.
“He is lying.”
Mercer faced her.
“You gave her the records.”
Alexander looked at Vanessa.
She had entered his life by telling him she understood his grief.
Now it appeared she had helped convince Caroline he wanted her dead.
Mercer said Caroline refused to reveal where she was living. She communicated through a nurse named Elise Warren.
Elise arranged the embryo transfer.
But the pregnancy did not belong to Caroline.
The surrogate’s identity was hidden from even the clinic staff.
Mercer received blood samples through Elise and created records under Caroline’s name.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because Vanessa paid me.”
Vanessa stood.
“You were compensated for private medical work.”
“You paid me to certify your fake pregnancy.”
Cynthia moved toward the door.
Daniel blocked her.
Mercer looked at Alexander.
“The unborn child is real. The trust was created so Vanessa and Cynthia could control the shares when the child was delivered.”
Alexander’s hands tightened.
“Where is the surrogate?”
Mercer looked at Vanessa.
“She is the only one who knows.”
Vanessa smiled faintly.
“No. Caroline knows too.”
The ballroom screen suddenly activated.
A live video appeared.
A visibly pregnant woman sat tied to a chair in a dark room.
Her face was covered.
A voice spoke from behind the camera.
“Alexander, the child will be born tonight unless you sign the remaining transfer documents.”
The masked woman lifted her head.
A silver necklace slipped from beneath her collar.
Alexander recognized it.
May you like
It had belonged to Caroline’s mother.
Continue to the next part: The real surrogate is held hostage while someone uses Caroline’s family necklace to make Alexander believe his first wife is behind the demand.
