Chapter 5 - Red Canyon.
The name Red Canyon meant nothing to Khloe until Adrian showed her a photograph of the facility.
She stared at the image on his tablet from her hospital bed.
The building looked nothing like a hospital.
It sat behind high beige walls in the Arizona desert, surrounded by manicured trees and a private access road.
There was no public emergency entrance.
No visible sign except a small brushed-metal plaque beside the gate.
RED CANYON WOMEN'S WELLNESS INSTITUTE.
Khloe read the words twice.
"I've never heard of it."
"Two point four million dollars from your trust paid this facility over the last five months."
"For what?"
"That's what we're trying to learn."
"And they say I approved it?"
"Through your electronic signature."
Khloe looked at Adrian.
"I didn't."
"I know."
Her expression tightened.
"What kind of women's wellness institute needs two point four million dollars from me?"
Adrian had been asking himself the same question all night.
Mara's preliminary research showed Red Canyon was privately owned and marketed to wealthy clients seeking reproductive medicine, high-risk pregnancy care, fertility services, and confidential long-term recovery.
It did not accept ordinary insurance.
Its patient list was sealed behind unusually aggressive privacy protections.
"There is another connection."
Adrian showed Khloe the rental house Bianca had leased nearby.
Khloe stared at the address.
"Bianca was going to Arizona?"
"Looks that way."
"With Harrison?"
"Possibly."
Khloe leaned back against the pillow.
"Maybe they planned to leave after the divorce."
"Then why use your trust to pay a medical facility?"
She did not answer.
Her hand moved unconsciously over her belly.
The monitor continued its steady rhythm.
Their son had remained stable overnight.
Dr. Ross believed Khloe could avoid early delivery if the contractions stayed controlled.
For the first time since the fall, she had been allowed to eat something more substantial than ice chips.
The normality of a hospital breakfast felt almost insulting beside the things Adrian was telling her.
"I need to ask you something uncomfortable."
Khloe looked at him.
"At this point, just ask."
"Did Harrison ever pressure you about fertility treatment?"
Her brow furrowed.
"Before I got pregnant?"
"Yes."
"We tried for almost two years."
"I remember."
"We went to Bellamy Reproductive Center."
Adrian nodded.
"Did Harrison ever handle appointments without you?"
Khloe thought.
"He handled the insurance paperwork."
"Anything else?"
"He picked up medication once or twice."
She paused.
"Why?"
Adrian had not wanted to raise the possibility until Mara confirmed more.
"Red Canyon acquired Bellamy's embryo-storage division last year."
Khloe's face changed.
"Our embryos?"
"You had embryos stored?"
"Three."
"After this pregnancy?"
"Yes."
She sat more upright despite the discomfort.
"Adrian, where are they?"
"We're checking."
"No."
Her voice sharpened.
"Where are my embryos?"
"Khloe, breathe."
"Do not tell me to breathe."
Adrian nodded once.
"Fair."
She pressed the call button for the nurse, then changed her mind and released it.
"Harrison told me the storage fees were being paid automatically."
"From which account?"
"Our household account."
"They weren't."
Khloe stared at him.
"What do you mean?"
"Bellamy's records show the embryos were transferred six months ago."
"Transferred where?"
Adrian turned the tablet around.
The destination field read RED CANYON WOMEN'S WELLNESS INSTITUTE.
Khloe went completely still.
"I never approved that."
"The transfer authorization has your electronic signature."
"Then it is forged."
"That is my assumption."
Her voice dropped.
"Why would Harrison move our embryos to Arizona?"
Before Adrian could answer, his phone rang.
Mara.
He stepped toward the window.
"Tell me."
"We got Bellamy's transfer packet."
"And?"
"It wasn't just an embryo transfer."
Adrian looked at Khloe.
"What was it?"
Mara inhaled.
"One embryo was released for implantation."
Adrian's grip tightened around the phone.
"Into whom?"
"The recipient name is masked under a gestational carrier agreement."
"Can you identify the attorney who drafted it?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
"Malcolm Price."
Adrian closed his eyes briefly.
Harrison's divorce attorney.
Khloe watched his face.
"What?"
Adrian ended the call and walked back to the bed.
There was no gentle version of what he needed to say.
"One of the embryos you created with Harrison was transferred out of storage."
Khloe stared at him.
"Transferred where?"
"For implantation into a gestational carrier."
Her lips parted.
"Without me?"
"Without any authorization we believe is genuine."
Khloe looked down at her pregnant stomach as if suddenly unsure of her own body.
"He used our embryo to make another baby?"
"We don't know whether implantation succeeded."
"Who was the carrier?"
"The record is sealed."
Khloe's eyes shifted toward the photograph of the Arizona rental house.
Then something from the courthouse returned to her.
Bianca's posture.
The way she had kept one hand near her own abdomen beneath the yellow dress.
The way Harrison had been unusually protective of Bianca for weeks.
A rumor from one of Harrison's employees that Bianca had stopped drinking wine.
Khloe looked at Adrian.
"She's pregnant."
Adrian did not speak.
"Bianca is pregnant."
"We have no medical confirmation."
"Harrison told me she was sick from stress."
Khloe's face slowly drained of color.
"What if she's carrying my embryo?"
Adrian's phone rang again.
This time it was Mara on video.
Behind her was a scanned legal document.
"I found the carrier agreement."
Adrian switched to speaker.
"Name?"
Mara's expression was grim.
"Bianca Mercer."
Khloe made a sound that was almost a laugh and almost a sob.
Mara continued.
"There is something worse."
Adrian looked at the screen.
"What?"
"The agreement says the intended legal parents are Harrison Cole and Bianca Mercer."
Khloe stared at nothing.
Mara's voice softened.
"They used Khloe's genetic embryo and filed paperwork claiming Bianca was the intended mother."
Adrian felt anger settle into something clean and precise.
Fraud could be prosecuted.
Forgery could be proven.
But this was more than money now.
Harrison had tried to erase Khloe from the legal identity of her own genetic child before that child was even born.
Khloe turned her face toward the window.
Her voice was nearly silent.
"He didn't just replace me."
She touched her stomach.
"He tried to copy my family and give it to her."
Then the fetal monitor alarm sounded.
A nurse rushed into the room.
Khloe's face tightened with sudden pain.
Dr. Ross appeared seconds later.
"Khloe, I need you to stay still."
"What's happening?"
"The baby's heart rate just dropped."
Adrian backed toward the wall as the medical team moved around his sister.
The room filled with clipped instructions.
Khloe reached for him.
"Adrian."
He grabbed her hand.
"I'm here."
Dr. Ross looked at the monitor and made a decision.
"We're moving her to the operating room."
Khloe's eyes widened.
"Now?"
"Now."
The bed began moving.
Adrian walked beside it until the surgical doors stopped him.
Khloe held his hand until their fingers were forced apart.
The doors closed between them.
His phone vibrated again.
A photograph had arrived from Mara.
It showed Bianca Mercer leaving a private clinic three weeks earlier.
Her yellow coat was open.
Her pregnancy was unmistakable.
The attached medical scheduling record placed her at thirty-two weeks.
Two weeks behind Khloe.
Two women were carrying Harrison Cole's children.
One child had grown inside Khloe while Harrison quietly built a case to take him away.
May you like
The other was growing inside Bianca from an embryo transferred without Khloe's consent.
And Adrian finally understood why Harrison had spent months making his wife look unreliable before either baby was born.
