CHAPTER 3 – The Pregnancy That Was Too Perfect
Stella didn't sleep.
She spent the entire night staring at Chloe's newest post.
Everyone else saw a carefully staged photograph.
She saw mistakes.
Tiny ones.
The kind liars never notice because they believe everyone is looking at the obvious.
Stella enlarged the image until it became grainy.
The gold pendant reflected a folded ultrasound.
A champagne flute.
A man's white shirt.
And in the corner...
A hotel room lamp.
Not Adrian's apartment.
Not Blackwood Manor.
The Whitcomb Hotel.
Room 603.
The same room where Adrian had ignored her calls.
She quietly saved the photo.
Then another.
Then every post Chloe had uploaded during the last eleven months.
She wasn't collecting memories anymore.
She was building a case.
By eight o'clock the next morning, social media had already done what Chloe intended.
Comments flooded beneath the picture.
"That necklace is gorgeous!"
"You look so happy lately!"
"Someone's glowing..."
"Is there a wedding coming?"
Then came the comment that made Stella's stomach tighten.
Evelyn Blackwood—Adrian's mother—had left a single heart emoji.
Nothing more.
No words.
Just ❤️
To everyone else, it meant nothing.
To Stella, it felt like betrayal.
Did Evelyn know?
Or had Chloe slowly manipulated everyone the same way she had manipulated Adrian?
Adrian returned home that evening unusually cheerful.
He carried expensive takeout from Stella's favorite Italian restaurant.
The same restaurant he had canceled on three times in the past month.
"You deserve a nice dinner," he smiled.
She nodded.
"That's sweet."
Halfway through the meal, Adrian casually reached into his jacket pocket.
"I've been thinking..."
He placed a folder on the table.
"The wedding."
Stella opened it.
A new contract.
New venue.
New invitations.
New date.
Instead of six months away...
The ceremony had been moved to just three weeks later.
She slowly looked up.
"Three weeks?"
"The sooner the better."
"Why?"
He laughed too quickly.
"I don't want to wait anymore."
Another lie.
She could hear it now.
Every lie had its own rhythm.
Too smooth.
Too rehearsed.
Too fast.
That night, while Adrian showered, Stella quietly photographed every page of the contract.
Then she noticed something unusual.
A handwritten note stuck inside the folder.
Finalize before announcement.
Legal team waiting.
Legal?
Why would lawyers be involved in moving a wedding date?
Unless the wedding wasn't about love anymore.
Unless it was about paperwork.
The next morning Stella visited someone she hadn't spoken to in years.
Maya Brooks.
A former investigative journalist.
Now a private intelligence consultant.
They had met in college before Stella's life became charity galas and Blackwood family dinners.
Maya listened without interrupting.
The affair.
The necklace.
The hotel.
The medical invoice.
The rushed wedding.
When Stella finished, Maya leaned back.
"Do you want revenge?"
Stella shook her head.
"No."
"I want the truth."
Maya smiled slightly.
"Good."
"Revenge makes people careless."
"The truth destroys people permanently."
Within forty-eight hours Maya returned with the first report.
It wasn't what Stella expected.
"There are no hospital records confirming Chloe's pregnancy."
Stella frowned.
"What?"
"The invoice is real."
"The appointment happened."
"But..."
She slid another document across the table.
"...no blood tests."
"No ultrasound billing."
"No follow-up appointments."
"No prenatal prescriptions."
"Nothing."
Stella stared at the papers.
"Could she have gone somewhere else?"
"Of course."
"But here's the interesting part."
Maya opened another folder.
"Chloe has visited three different obstetric clinics."
"Each exactly once."
"No follow-up."
"No returning patient records."
Almost as if...
She only needed paperwork.
Not medical care.
Three days later, Stella finally saw Chloe in person again.
This time at Blackwood Holdings' annual charity planning meeting.
Every executive was present.
Board members.
Investors.
Family friends.
Reporters.
Chloe entered wearing a cream-colored dress.
One hand rested gently across her stomach.
Almost unconsciously.
Almost perfectly.
People noticed immediately.
Several women smiled knowingly.
One investor whispered,
"Is she expecting?"
Chloe lowered her eyes shyly.
"Oh..."
"It's still early."
"I shouldn't really say anything."
Exactly loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.
Stella watched the performance unfold.
Every gesture.
Every pause.
Every carefully timed smile.
It wasn't spontaneous.
It was rehearsed.
Then something unexpected happened.
One of the elderly board members approached Chloe.
Margaret Ellis.
Former head of Blackwood Foundation.
A woman famous for saying exactly what everyone else avoided.
Margaret smiled kindly.
"Congratulations."
Chloe blushed.
"Thank you."
"When are you due?"
There it was.
A simple question.
An honest question.
For less than a second...
Chloe froze.
Barely noticeable.
Then she answered,
"February."
Margaret nodded politely and walked away.
But Stella immediately calculated the dates.
The medical invoice Charles had found estimated...
Nine weeks pregnant.
Nine weeks didn't match February.
Not even close.
It was the first mistake.
A small one.
But liars rarely stop after making their first mistake.
That evening, Stella received another anonymous message.
No caller ID.
Only a text.
Stop looking at Chloe.
Look at Adrian's lawyer.
Attached was a blurry photograph.
Adrian leaving the office of family attorney Leonard Grayson.
Date stamp...
Three months ago.
Exactly one week before Adrian proposed.
Stella's breathing slowed.
He had visited his lawyer...
Before asking her to marry him.
Why?
Maya answered the question the next morning.
"I dug into Leonard Grayson's recent filings."
She handed Stella another folder.
"There was a confidential trust amendment."
Stella frowned.
"What kind of amendment?"
"The Blackwood Family Legacy Trust."
"The clause says..."
Maya looked directly into Stella's eyes.
"...any legal spouse of Adrian Blackwood automatically gains temporary control over a charitable inheritance worth nearly twenty-eight million dollars if Adrian becomes medically incapacitated."
Stella blinked.
"What?"
"But..."
Maya continued.
"The trust also transfers administrative authority to the spouse immediately after marriage."
Immediately.
Not years later.
Not eventually.
The moment the wedding certificate was signed.
Suddenly everything fit together.
The rushed wedding.
The fake romance.
The lies.
The pregnancy.
The necklace.
None of them were the real objective.
Someone desperately needed Stella to become Adrian's legal wife...
Before something happened to Adrian.
Or...
Before something happened to her.
As Stella tried to process the revelation, Maya's encrypted phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then her face turned pale.
She slowly lowered the phone.
"What is it?" Stella asked.
Maya looked at her with visible alarm.
"Our source inside Blackwood Holdings just sent security footage from Adrian's office."
"What did it show?"
Maya swallowed hard.
"It shows Chloe opening Adrian's private safe."
Stella's heart pounded.
"The necklace?"
Maya shook her head.
"No..."
"There was something else inside."
She pushed a still frame across the table.
Inside the open safe, beside the empty jewelry box...
Was a thick envelope stamped in red.
LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
May you like
And Chloe had secretly photographed every single page.
End of Chapter 3...
