Chapter 4 - THE BABY BEFORE CALEB
Sabrina’s pregnancy had ended eight months before mine began.
I never knew she had been pregnant.
Ryan did.
Diane did.
Grant did.
According to Sabrina, she and Ryan had been together much longer than I realized.
Almost three years.
She discovered she was pregnant during the second year of my marriage.
Ryan promised he would leave me.
Then Sabrina miscarried at eleven weeks.
She was devastated.
Ryan responded by telling her they would have another child someday.
Not together biologically, apparently.
Because Diane had another plan.
“A Mercer heir already existed,” Sabrina told me.
“Caleb.”
“He didn’t exist yet.”
“Not physically.”
I waited.
“Ryan and Diane had decided before you became pregnant that if you ever had a baby, they would take custody.”
My stomach turned.
“Why?”
“The Mercer family trust.”
That was the first time I heard its real name.
The Edwin Mercer Descendant Trust.
Ryan’s grandfather created it after his eldest son nearly destroyed the family company through gambling and divorce.
The structure was complicated.
But one provision mattered.
When the next male descendant was born, a large block of Mercer Development voting shares would transfer into a trust for that child.
Until the child reached adulthood, whoever served as court-recognized custodial trustee could exercise certain voting rights.
Ryan assumed that would be him.
But Edwin Mercer had added a condition.
If the parents separated and custody was disputed, the shares would be controlled by an independent institutional trustee until the child turned twenty-one.
Ryan would lose direct voting control.
Diane could not accept that.
Mercer Development was already experiencing an internal power struggle.
Ryan needed those shares.
Suddenly everything made sense.
The rush.
The custody papers.
The attempt to make me look unstable before Caleb’s birth.
They did not simply want my child.
They wanted the corporate votes attached to him.
Sabrina had been promised she would marry Ryan after I was removed.
She would raise Caleb publicly.
They would become the perfect Mercer family.
I asked,
“And the first nursery?”
She went quiet.
“I started decorating it after my pregnancy.”
“After you miscarried?”
“Yes.”
“Then Ryan changed the name.”
“To Caleb?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
There was something especially cruel about it.
They had prepared a replacement mother before my son took his first breath.
Sabrina began sending me messages.
Screenshots.
Emails.
Photographs.
One conversation between her and Ryan made my hands shake.
Sabrina:
What if Lauren refuses the psychiatric evaluation?
Ryan:
She won’t have a choice after delivery.
Sabrina:
What if the judge believes her?
Ryan:
Grant says judges believe records.
People lie.
Paper doesn’t.
I stared at that sentence.
People lie.
Paper doesn’t.
Ryan had accidentally explained why the red folder terrified him.
He had tried to bury me in documents.
So I had built better documents.
Sabrina agreed to meet Elena Ruiz.
But before she could give a formal statement, she disappeared.
Her apartment was empty.
Her phone disconnected.
Her car was found at O’Hare.
Ryan claimed she had fled because she lied.
Diane told reporters Sabrina was emotionally troubled.
They were doing to her exactly what they had done to me.
Creating another unstable woman.
But Sabrina left one thing behind.
A scheduled email.
It arrived in my inbox twenty-four hours after she disappeared.
Subject:
IF RYAN SAYS I RAN
Inside was a link to a cloud folder.
Hundreds of files.
Ryan’s messages.
Diane’s messages.
Grant’s legal drafts.
And one audio recording.
Ryan’s voice.
“If Lauren refuses after the birth, we go to phase two.”
Sabrina asked,
“What’s phase two?”
Ryan answered,
“Caleb gets sick.”
My entire body froze.
Sabrina laughed nervously on the recording.
“What do you mean?”
“A small incident.”
“Nothing serious.”
“Something that makes her look negligent.”
Sabrina said,
“Ryan, he’ll be a newborn.”
Ryan’s response changed everything.
“Exactly.”
I grabbed Caleb from his bassinet even though he was perfectly safe.
I held him against me.
Ryan had not simply planned to steal custody.
May you like
He had planned to create an emergency involving our newborn and blame me for it.
And Sabrina had disappeared one day before she was supposed to testify.
