Chapter 17 - BloodlineRichard’s final weapon was not money.
It was blood.
The motion landed like a grenade on every news desk in the country.
RICHARD WHITMORE CLAIMS SON IS NOT BIOLOGICAL HEIR. BILLIONAIRE PATRIARCH SEEKS CONTROL FROM CUSTODY.
Alexander read the headline outside the NICU and laughed softly.
It was not amusement.
It was exhaustion sharpening into rage.
Harlan Pierce warned him, “This is strategic. He wants to destabilize you before the board vote.”
Alexander looked through the glass at Clara.
“Can he?”
“If the company bylaws are interpreted narrowly, bloodline matters for certain founder shares.”
“My daughter is his bloodline whether he likes it or not.”
“Only if the embryo records prove what Eleanor says.”
The original records were missing.
Vanessa claimed Cynthia had them.
Cynthia claimed Richard had them.
Richard claimed no such embryos existed and accused Eleanor of fabricating the pregnancy under trauma.
It was obscene.
But legal obscenity still wears a suit.
Eleanor listened from her bed, face pale but eyes burning.
“They took my body,” she said. “Now they want my child’s name.”
Alexander sat beside her.
“I will fix this.”
“No,” she said.
He looked up.
“We will.”
That one word changed the air between them.
Not forgiveness.
Partnership.
Detective Ellis found the trail through Briar Glen Clinic’s archived billing system. Someone had paid for cryogenic storage under a shell account called Blue Orchard Holdings.
Sophie heard the name while coloring in the waiting room.
“Blue Orchard?” she said.
I looked down. “What about it?”
She pointed to her drawing.
“The lady in the dressing room had blue apples on her phone case.”
I remembered Cynthia’s clutch. Silver. Expensive. Plain.
But Vanessa’s phone case?
Blue apples.
Detective Ellis pulled Vanessa’s belongings.
Inside the phone was a hidden photo album.
Pictures of documents.
Embryo storage receipts.
Consent forms.
And one video Vanessa had apparently recorded as insurance.
It showed Richard Whitmore in his wheelchair, speaking clearly.
“The Eleanor embryo will solve everything. If Alexander questions paternity, we destroy him. If he accepts the child, we control him through guardianship.”
Harlan watched the video twice.
Then he smiled for the first time.
Richard had tried to use blood as a weapon.
Instead, he had proven Clara was Alexander and Eleanor’s child.
The board vote was in two days.
May you like
And Alexander was done defending himself.
Now he was going to attack.
