Chapter 2 - There Is No Pregnancy
Julian’s first instinct was denial.
“That’s impossible.”
Dr. Lena Brooks stood beside the ultrasound monitor with the stillness of someone accustomed to delivering facts that powerful people did not wish to hear.
“It is not impossible, Mr. Whitmore.”
Bianca sat rigidly on the examination table.
Her fingers gripped the paper sheet beneath her.
Victoria stepped forward.
“She has been pregnant for nearly thirteen weeks.”
Dr. Brooks looked at Bianca rather than Victoria.
“Who told you that?”
Bianca’s lips parted.
No sound came.
Julian felt a strange pressure behind his eyes.
“Bianca?”
“I took tests.”
“What tests?”
“At home.”
“You showed me an ultrasound.”
Dr. Brooks turned slightly.
“What ultrasound?”
Bianca’s face drained further.
Victoria looked between them.
“The photograph. At dinner.”
Julian remembered it perfectly.
A grainy black-and-white image.
Bianca had placed it beside his wineglass.
Victoria had cried.
Charles had shaken Julian’s hand.
Julian had texted Claire that same night.
Stop pretending the marriage can be fixed. Bianca is carrying my child.
Now Dr. Brooks spoke carefully.
“If you have that image, I would like to see it.”
Julian pulled out his phone.
His hands were shaking.
He found the photograph and held it toward her.
Dr. Brooks studied it for several seconds.
“This image did not come from this clinic.”
Bianca suddenly stood.
“I need air.”
Julian blocked her path.
“No.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Dr. Brooks stepped between them.
“Mr. Whitmore, you will not restrain my patient.”
Julian backed away immediately.
Bianca’s eyes flashed with humiliation.
Victoria snapped, “Then perhaps your patient should explain why she convinced my son to destroy his marriage.”
Aunt Beatrice whispered, “Victoria.”
“No.”
The matriarch turned on Bianca.
“You told us it was a boy.”
Bianca’s composure cracked.
“I said the early test suggested—”
“There was no test,” Julian said.
Bianca looked at him.
His anger frightened her more than Victoria’s shouting.
Not because Julian had ever struck her.
He had not.
But she had built her entire future around his certainty.
And now certainty had turned against her.
Charles finally spoke.
“Everyone leave except Julian and Bianca.”
Dr. Brooks looked at him.
“This is my examination room.”
Charles’s jaw tightened.
Grandmother Eleanor gave a dry, humorless laugh.
“Still thinks he owns every room he enters.”
Charles ignored her.
Adrian and Marcus exchanged uneasy glances.
Evelyn reached for her grandmother.
“Come on.”
Eleanor refused to move.
“I’ve waited months to hear someone in this family tell the truth. I’m staying.”
At Boston International Airport, Claire walked toward a quiet corner near the windows while Lily and Noah watched cartoons beside the gate attendant.
Mara answered immediately.
“What happened?”
Claire kept her voice low.
“There was no pregnancy.”
For a moment, airport noise seemed to vanish.
“What?”
“Bianca isn’t pregnant.”
Claire closed her eyes.
She expected satisfaction.
Instead, she felt nausea.
Julian had ended their marriage for a lie.
But that was not the worst part.
He had been willing to end it even if the pregnancy had been real.
“Are you sure?”
“My source is sure.”
“What source?”
“I’m not putting a name in a call yet.”
“Mara.”
“Claire, listen. Bianca apparently presented an ultrasound image that didn’t originate at the clinic.”
Claire stared through the glass at an aircraft taxiing under brilliant daylight.
“What does that have to do with the transfers?”
“That’s why I called.”
Mara paused.
“The clinic’s billing office contacted Julian’s counsel three weeks ago because someone had submitted reimbursement claims using the clinic’s name.”
Claire turned away from the children.
“What kind of claims?”
“Prenatal imaging. Genetic screening. Private physician retainers.”
“How much?”
“Just under eight hundred thousand dollars.”
Claire almost spoke too loudly.
“For prenatal care?”
“Exactly.”
“Who paid them?”
“Whitmore Family Services.”
Claire knew the entity.
It handled executive benefits, private security, travel, household staff, and selected medical reimbursements for the family.
Mara continued.
“The clinic says it never issued those invoices.”
Claire’s pulse quickened.
“Do we know where the reimbursement money went?”
“No.”
“I do.”
Silence.
Mara’s voice changed.
“Claire.”
“The routing information on two of the transfer exhibits matches the reimbursement metadata.”
“Are you looking at them now?”
“Yes.”
“Do not forward anything from airport Wi-Fi.”
“I know.”
“Tell me the destination.”
“Aster Bridge Holdings.”
Mara inhaled sharply.
“That’s the entity Julian swore he had no interest in.”
“And Charles.”
“And Charles.”
Claire looked toward Lily and Noah.
Lily was laughing at something on the tablet.
Noah had placed his rocket backpack under his head like a pillow.
The normality of them made everything worse.
Mara asked, “Did Julian know?”
Claire answered slowly.
“I don’t know.”
It was the first honest thing she had said about him all day.
At the clinic, Charles pulled Julian into the hallway.
“This stays private.”
Julian stared at his father.
“My marriage ended because of this.”
“Your marriage ended because you wanted it to.”
Julian recoiled.
Charles lowered his voice.
“Do not rewrite your mistakes because your mistress lied.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“Why are you calm?”
“I’m not.”
“You look calm.”
“I have spent forty years cleaning up other people’s stupidity.”
Behind the examination-room door, Bianca was crying.
Victoria’s voice cut through the wall.
“You humiliated us.”
Then Julian noticed something.
His father was not looking toward the room.
He was looking at his phone.
A legal notification had appeared across the screen.
Julian caught only three words before Charles turned it away.
SWORN STATEMENTS UNDER REVIEW.
Julian’s own phone vibrated a second later.
Same notice.
Sent by Mara Bennett’s office.
Julian opened it.
It referenced preservation demands involving financial disclosures from the divorce.
His mouth went dry.
“What is Claire doing?”
Charles answered too quickly.
“Nothing she can prove.”
Julian looked up.
He had not asked whether Claire could prove anything.
And in that instant, another fear replaced his rage at Bianca.
“What did you put in my divorce papers?”
Charles’s expression changed.
May you like
![92 The Girl They Called Broke Was a Billionaire’s Daughter—But Her Father’s Arrival Exposed a Secret Powerful People Had Buried for Years]](https://cdn.treeiq.biz/site_590/2026/11/clone-0-0915d882-53d7-4d17-b43a-a010ca1a1068.webp)
Only slightly.
But Julian saw it.
