Chapter 9
Vanessa asked to meet Cesare alone.
He refused.
Julian attended.
So did Cesare’s attorney.
Vanessa arrived without Ethan.
She looked different without the maternity gowns.
Smaller.
Younger.
Almost ordinary.
Julian watched her enter.
Five months of his life had been built around a body that had never existed.
Vanessa sat down.
“I want to tell you why I did it.”
Julian said nothing.
She admitted she had purchased the first ultrasound image online.
She created appointment excuses.
She padded her clothing in the beginning.
Then Diane offered something more convincing.
The custom prosthetics.
Cesare looked at her.
“Diane offered?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Before or after Ethan submitted his contract?”
Vanessa’s eyes moved toward the attorney.
“After.”
Cesare did not believe her.
Julian finally spoke.
“Did Ethan know from the beginning?”
Vanessa started crying.
“My brother knew I wasn’t pregnant.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“He found out.”
“When?”
“A few weeks later.”
“And instead of telling me?”
“He said I had gone too far to stop.”
Julian looked away.
Vanessa reached toward him.
He moved his hand.
She stopped.
“I did love you.”
Julian’s response came quietly.
“That makes it worse.”
Vanessa admitted Ethan began using the pregnancy whenever Julian resisted the security contract.
Diane did the same with marriage.
But Vanessa continued insisting the original deception was hers alone.
Cesare listened.
Something still did not fit.
Vanessa had been dating Julian only a few months.
She was afraid he would not marry her.
So she invented a pregnancy.
Possible.
Then Diane somehow immediately knew how to purchase professional prosthetics through the museum.
Ethan somehow transformed the lie into business leverage.
Diane somehow transformed it into emotional pressure.
Everyone adapted remarkably quickly.
Too quickly.
When the meeting ended, Vanessa walked toward the door.
Cesare spoke.
“Why did Diane order two stomach pieces?”
Vanessa stopped.
Her shoulders tightened.
Julian saw it.
Cesare waited.
Vanessa slowly turned.
“I don’t know.”
It was the same answer Diane had given.
Word for word.
Cesare leaned back.
Vanessa left.
Julian looked at his father.
“They rehearsed that answer.”
Cesare nodded.
For nine parts of the truth, Vanessa had admitted almost everything.
May you like
Except the one question Cesare now believed mattered most.
Why had there always been two?
