Chapter 5 - The Contract That Never Existed
Rebecca obtained a copy of the confidential filing request before it reached a judge.
Attached to it was a surrogacy agreement.
The document stated that Valerie Stone had carried Leo for Marco and Andrea five years earlier.
It claimed Andrea had later refused to honor the agreement and used her family’s influence to place her own name on the birth certificate.
Andrea stared at the forged signature at the bottom.
The room blurred.
“I have never seen this document.”
Rebecca examined it.
“The signature is convincing.”
“I carried Leo.”
“I know.”
“I was in labor for sixteen hours. I had an emergency C-section.”
Rebecca reached across the table.
“We will prove it.”
The contract included a payment receipt from a fertility agency that no longer existed.
It also contained a notarized statement supposedly signed by Andrea.
The notary’s commission number appeared legitimate.
Rebecca discovered the notary had reported her seal stolen six years earlier.
Someone had saved it for exactly this type of fraud.
The accompanying medical summary named Valerie as the patient who delivered Leo.
The hospital logo was slightly outdated.
Andrea noticed because her father’s company had financed the hospital’s renovated maternity wing one month before Leo was born.
The new logo had appeared on every official form after the renovation.
Whoever forged the summary knew personal details about Leo’s birth.
But they had not known the logo changed.
Andrea wanted to confront Marco immediately.
Rebecca stopped her.
“If he knows we have this, he will destroy whatever connects him to it.”
“He’s telling people another woman is Leo’s mother.”
“Then we need more than your outrage. We need the source of the documents.”
Andrea agreed to remain silent.
At home, she pretended not to know.
Marco became unusually affectionate.
He brought her flowers.
He prepared dinner.
He told her the birthday would remind everyone what a strong family they were.
Andrea watched him lie without blinking.
That night, she found Valerie’s red lipstick on the collar of his white shirt.
It was not the first sign of the affair.
It was simply the first one Andrea could no longer explain away.
She placed the shirt inside a sealed bag.
Then she opened Marco’s desk.
Beneath a stack of company reports was a photograph of Valerie holding a newborn baby.
The infant wore a hospital bracelet.
May you like
The date printed on the photograph was Leo’s birthday.
👉 The photograph appeared to support Valerie’s claim—until Andrea recognized the blanket wrapped around the baby.
