“No.”
Vanessa looked down.
For the first time since she arrived, she seemed ashamed.
Then she pulled her phone from her bag.
“I came here because I found something else. Something Spencer didn’t tell me.”
She opened a message thread and handed the phone to Chloe.
I watched my daughter’s eyes move across the screen.
The messages were between Spencer and his father, Richard.
One was dated two months earlier.
Richard: If the child is a boy, the trust remains under your control until he turns twenty-five. If it’s a girl, I will reconsider the succession arrangement.
Spencer: Then we’ll make sure it’s a boy.
Richard: Don’t embarrass this family.
The next message was even more disturbing.
Spencer: If the results don’t cooperate, I’ll find another way. Chloe trusts me completely.
Chloe’s face crumpled.
She had trusted him completely.
That was the worst part.
