Chapter 5 - Chloe’s Version
I met Chloe in Rachel’s office.
Not a café.
Not my home.
Not somewhere Daniel could appear and turn two women he had lied to into another scene he could control.
Rachel insisted on cameras in the conference room.
Chloe agreed.
She arrived ten minutes early.
Seven months pregnant.
Dark hair pulled into a loose knot.
No makeup.
No dramatic entrance.
She looked exhausted.
For months, I had imagined her as something larger than life.
The irresistible former girlfriend.
The woman worth risking a marriage for.
The woman Daniel was willing to drain our daughter’s savings to support.
Instead, she looked like someone who had been lied to almost as efficiently as I had.
Almost.
I did not forget that she knew Daniel was married.
She sat across from me.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
Her eyes dropped.
Rachel spoke.
“We’re not here to discuss morality.”
“We need documents.”
Chloe opened her bag.
She removed a tablet.
A folder.
And a small black notebook.
My pulse quickened.
“What is that?”
“Everything Daniel told me to keep track of.”
I looked at her.
“He told you to document payments?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He said his grandmother’s trust required evidence that he had supported the pregnancy.”
Rachel leaned forward.
“Did he specifically use the word trust?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“January.”
That was before I found the messages.
Daniel had been planning far earlier than I knew.
Chloe pushed the signed declaration toward us.
Rachel read silently.
Then she stopped at page three.
“Jennifer.”
She turned the paper around.
There it was.
A paragraph about me.
Daniel Collins states that his current marriage is undergoing dissolution due to concerns regarding the paternity of his spouse’s pregnancy.
I felt no surprise.
Only disgust.
Rachel continued reading.
The document claimed Daniel intended to pursue independent testing after Lily’s birth.
He had already begun building a paper trail suggesting I had been unfaithful.
Chloe stared at me.
“He told me there had been someone from your office.”
“There wasn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Because yesterday I called Caroline.”
Daniel’s sister.
“What did she say?”
“That Daniel had accused two previous girlfriends of cheating when he wanted to end things.”
Rachel stopped writing.
“Two?”
Chloe nodded.
“He creates a story before he leaves.”
That sounded exactly like him.
I looked down at the papers.
“What happened after the prenatal test excluded him?”
Chloe swallowed.
“He was furious.”
“With you?”
“At first.”
“He accused me of lying about dates.”
“Then he disappeared for two days.”
“When he came back, he said it didn’t matter.”
Rachel and I exchanged a look.
“Why wouldn’t it matter?” I asked.
“He said the test wasn’t legally admissible for what he needed.”
“What did he need?”
“He wouldn’t explain.”
“Chloe.”
She began crying.
“I thought he loved me.”
I felt nothing when she said it.
Maybe I was cruel.
Maybe simply empty.
“He told me he was going to raise my son.”
“Even though he wasn’t the father?”
“Yes.”
Rachel stopped.
“That’s important.”
“Why?”
She looked at me.
“Because the trust may depend on legal parentage rather than biology.”
I understood.
“If Daniel voluntarily acknowledged Chloe’s child…”
“He might create a competing legal heir.”
Chloe stared at us.
“That’s what this is about?”
“Probably.”
Her face collapsed.
“Oh my God.”
I leaned back.
All those months of jealousy.
Pain.
Humiliation.
I had thought Daniel chose Chloe over me.
The truth was uglier.
He had been using both of us.
“He didn’t want her baby,” I said.
Rachel nodded.
“He wanted an eligible baby.”
Chloe covered her mouth.
“My son.”
I almost corrected her.
Then stopped.
Whatever she had done to me, she was still a mother being forced to realize a man had attached a dollar amount to her unborn child.
Rachel turned another page.
“This declaration was drafted by Wexler, Crane & Moss.”
“The same firm Daniel paid with the fraudulent loan,” I said.
Chloe looked confused.
“What loan?”
I told her.
By the time I finished, she looked sick.
“I didn’t know.”
“You accepted fifteen thousand dollars.”
“I thought it was his.”
“He told me we were comfortable.”
“We were.”
“That doesn’t make it his.”
“I know.”
For the first time, anger entered her voice.
“I know.”
I stared at her.
She continued.
“You think I don’t understand what I did?”
“I slept with a married man.”
“I believed every convenient lie because I wanted to.”
“I let him tell me you were cold.”
“That you had trapped him.”
“That Lily might not be his.”
“I let myself believe it because it made me feel less disgusting.”
She wiped her face.
“But I did not know he stole your money.”
Silence.
Then she pushed the black notebook toward me.
“Take it.”
I opened it.
Dates.
Amounts.
Daniel’s promises.
Names.
Appointments.
At the back, several pages contained numbers I did not recognize.
One heading caught my attention.
M.C. REQUIREMENTS.
Underneath:
Recognition before birth? No.
Voluntary acknowledgment after delivery.
Marriage issue must be resolved first.
Contest priority within 90 days.
Then:
D.C. Holdings → 17k.
I looked at Rachel.
“The same company.”
She nodded.
Chloe pointed.
“He told me D.C. Holdings was his private investment account.”
“It isn’t?”
“We don’t know.”
I turned the page.
One sentence had been written twice.
Robert cannot know until filing.
I looked up.
“Daniel was hiding this from his father?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Robert recognize Hawthorne?”
Chloe frowned.
“I don’t know.”
Neither did I.
And suddenly, I remembered something.
At the baptism, Robert had recognized the Hawthorne payment immediately.
Too immediately.
He had known what they were.
He had known about the trust.
He had admitted Daniel approached him months earlier.
Maybe Robert had told me the truth.
Maybe not all of it.
I closed the notebook.
Rachel noticed.
“What are you thinking?”
“That Daniel isn’t the only Collins man keeping secrets.”
That afternoon, Robert called me.
I nearly let it go to voicemail.
Rachel told me to answer.
“Jennifer.”
His voice sounded strained.
“I need to speak with you privately.”
“About what?”
“Daniel.”
“That doesn’t narrow it down.”
A pause.
“About D.C. Holdings.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“You know what it is?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
He exhaled.
“A company Daniel was never supposed to discover.”
The answer made no sense.
“Who owns it?”
Another silence.
Then Robert said:
“My daughter.”
I frowned.
“Caroline?”
“No.”
My blood went cold.
Daniel had only one sister as far as I knew.
Robert continued.
May you like
“My other daughter.”
And with that single sentence, Daniel’s family became larger, stranger and far more dangerous than I had ever imagined.
