He looked at Julian as if appraising a piece of property. “He looks too much like him,” he muttered.
Adrian stepped forward. “He’s my son.” “That will never be proven.”
Amanda hadn’t come inside. She was waiting with the feds two blocks away. I needed to get a clear confession.
“My parents said you would pay two billion,” I said. Oliver smiled. “Your parents will receive compensation for resolving an uncomfortable situation.” “And what will happen to the baby?” “He will have a suitable family.” “Where?” “That is not for you to know.” “If I sign as his mother, I want guarantees.”
Olivia opened the folder. “Sign here. You declare that you conceived the child with an unknown man and that you wish to surrender him.” “And Chloe?” “She’ll come home,” Lawrence answered.
My sister lifted her head. “They’re lying. They’re going to send me to a clinic in Switzerland.”
My father slapped her. Adrian lunged at him, but two guards held him back.
Oliver lost his patience. “Enough. Sign and you will receive ten million. Your parents will keep their payout. Your sister will disappear for a while, and Adrian will go through with his marriage.” “And if I don’t sign?” “You will be charged with forging documents and kidnapping a newborn. Everything is set up to prove that you are unstable.”
My mother pushed a pen toward me. “Do it for the family.”
I looked at Olivia. “How much is your grandson worth?” “Don’t be dramatic.” “Tell me the amount.” “Two billion,” Lawrence answered. “An opportunity we will never have again.” “And how much is Chloe worth?”
My mother averted her eyes. “She will have a comfortable life.” “Locked away?”
Oliver made a signal. One of the men grabbed Chloe by the hair. Julian started to cry.
“Last chance,” Oliver said. “Sign.”
I pulled the pen out of my pocket. I dropped it.
That was the signal.
The windows shattered simultaneously. Armed tactical agents breached the side doors. The guards let go of Adrian. My mother screamed. Lawrence tried to burn the folder in the fireplace, but an agent tackled him before he could light it.
Oliver didn’t move. “You don’t know who you’re arresting,” he said.
Amanda appeared from behind the agents. “A man who just confessed to purchasing a newborn, illegally depriving a mother of her liberty, and fabricating false evidence.”
I tapped the camera on my jacket. “Everything was recorded.”
For the first time, Oliver Astor looked scared.
My mother fell to her knees. “Natalie, we’re your parents.” “No. You are the people who tried to sell a child and sacrifice your two daughters.”
Chloe was taken to a hospital. Nurse Celeste turned up three days later. She had managed to go into hiding after receiving threats. Her testimony confirmed that my parents helped pull Chloe out of the clinic and handed her over to Oliver’s men.
The DNA test proved that Adrian was Julian’s father. Oliver, Lawrence, and Olivia were charged with human trafficking, kidnapping, forgery, and conspiracy. Their connections delayed the trial, but the recording made it impossible to bury the case.
Adrian broke off his engagement and legally acknowledged the boy. However, Chloe didn’t get back together with him. “Loving someone doesn’t erase abandoning them when they were the most terrified,” she told him.
I went back to college six months later. Chloe and Julian lived with me in a small apartment near campus. Some nights, when the boy cried, my sister would freeze, paralyzed by the memories of the clinic. So I would carry him. Not because my mother had ordered me to pretend he was mine. But because saving him had also saved me.
The day Olivia asked to see me from prison, I refused. She sent a letter saying she had done everything to secure our future. I returned it unopened. My future no longer had a price tag.
Julian grew up knowing the truth: who his mother was, who his father was, and who had tried to turn his birth into a business deal. We never hid the birthmark behind his ear from him. Chloe said it was proof that he had come into the world belonging only to himself.
And every time someone asked how much they had offered for him, I always gave the same answer: “They couldn’t buy him.”
Because before dawn, my sister fled. My parents negotiated. The Astors paid. But that baby ended up in the only place none of them had foreseen: In the arms of two women who, for the very first time, decided not to obey
