Helen immediately requested the documents.

Three hours later, Claudia arrived at the hospital with her lawyer.

She looked exhausted.

She didn’t resemble the confident woman Alejandro had described.

“He gave me money,” she admitted.

“How much?”

“Two hundred thousand dollars.”

“For what?”

“To tell everyone the baby was his.”

I stared at her.

“Who’s the father?”

She shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I was seeing someone else at the time.”

Helen leaned forward.

“Why did Mr. Vance want you to identify the child as his?”

Claudia began crying.

“Because he needed an heir.”

I felt a chill.

“An heir to what?”

She looked directly at me.

“Your father’s company.”

I frowned.

“The company isn’t his.”

“That’s what he thought.”

She handed Helen a folder.

Inside were copies of emails.

Alejandro had been telling investors that once I died, he would inherit control over several of my father’s commercial properties.

He had even prepared a presentation titled:

VANCE HOLDINGS — POST-CAMILA TRANSITION

My name appeared nowhere in it.

Helen looked up.

“He expected you to die.”

I felt strangely calm.

“Apparently.”

Then Claudia revealed the final piece.

“He told me the surgery was his last chance.”

“What does that mean?”

“He said if you survived, he wouldn’t be able to access your assets.”

My stomach tightened.

“Why?”

“Because of the trust.”

Helen and I looked at each other.

Alejandro knew about it.

Or at least he suspected it existed.

But there was something he didn’t know.

The trust had a successor clause.

And he was explicitly excluded.

PART 5 — THE DIVORCE PAPERS

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