Chapter 4 - Madeline’s Secret Ledger
With Luke sleeping and Brandon completely shut off, I knew I had to act. If Madeline had manipulated the hospital records, she must have had help, and she must have left a paper trail.
I called my sister, Sarah, who was an IT specialist and a fiercely protective aunt. Within an hour, she arrived at the hospital, bringing a laptop and a determined scowl.
"She did what to Luke's cake?" Sarah hissed when I filled her in outside the ICU doors. "That miserable, cruel monster. And now she's trying to frame you for infidelity? Oh, we are burning her empire to the ground, Chloe."
We sat in the hospital cafeteria. Sarah logged into the hospital’s public donor database and began tracing Madeline’s recent financial transactions. Because Madeline’s family foundation was a public non-profit, certain financial disclosures and donor-directed funding records were legally accessible if you knew where to look.
"Look at this," Sarah pointed to the screen. "Three weeks ago, the Madeline Carter Foundation made a 'special research grant' of fifty thousand dollars directly to the pathology and hematology lab at Vanderbilt. And look who the lead administrator of that lab is."
I squinted at the name. "Dr. Julian Vance? Wait, the cardiologist who saw us is Dr. Aaron Vance. Are they related?"
"They are brothers," Sarah said, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "And guess who also serves on the board of Madeline's country club? Dr. Julian Vance's wife. Chloe, this blood work wasn't just an accident. They falsified Luke's lab reports. They swapped his blood type in the system to make it look like he couldn't be Brandon's son!"
A wave of relief, followed by intense anger, washed over me. "But why? Why go to such extreme lengths just to make Brandon think Luke isn't his?"
"Because of the trust fund," a voice spoke from behind us.
We spun around. Brandon was standing there. He had followed us down to the cafeteria. He looked pale, but the empty, doubtful look in his eyes had been replaced by something else: shock.
"What trust fund?" I asked.
Brandon walked over and sat down slowly. "My grandfather’s will. I was never supposed to know the details until I turned thirty-five, which is next month. He left sixty percent of the Carter estate directly to my firstborn biological child, bypassing my mother entirely. If I don't have a biological heir, the entire estate—the houses, the land, the millions in offshore accounts—reverts completely to my mother's sole control."
The puzzle pieces fell into place with a sickening clack.
"She didn't just want to get rid of me," I whispered, the horror of it settling in. "She wanted to strip Luke of his birthright. She wanted to ensure she kept all the money. She was willing to destroy our marriage, traumatize a four-year-old boy, and manipulate medical records just for her greed."
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Brandon looked at his hands, tears of shame finally spilling over. "I doubted you. Chloe, I am so sorry. I was so blind. I let her poison my mind because I was terrified."
I reached out and took his hands, squeezing them tight. "We don't have time for apologies yet, Brandon. We have a battle to win. Let's wait for the independent DNA test results. When they come, we are going to expose her in front of everyone."
