Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Gave Him an Alibi
The photograph that destroyed Marcus's alibi was taken at a tollbooth twelve minutes before he entered our house.
Teresa brought it to my hospital room six days after Ivy's birth. The airport badge from the nursery recording had led her to Meridian Executive Air, a private terminal outside Chicago where Harrow Medical held a corporate account. A company card assigned to Bianca had paid for a private flight on May eighteenth. The passenger had been registered under a false name.
After landing, someone had rented a black SUV, reserved remotely by Bianca on another company account. Traffic cameras caught the vehicle entering the toll road at 12:29 a.m. Marcus was behind the wheel — the image clear enough to show his face. Another camera photographed him driving back toward the airport around four thirty that morning.
"He lied in a sworn statement," I said.
"And Bianca supported that lie," Teresa said. "If she keeps protecting him, she could face consequences too."
Teresa sent the photographs to Bianca's attorney. Bianca arrived at the hospital that evening, wearing a loose gray coat despite the warm weather, both hands crossed over her stomach.
"I didn't know about the second baby when I downloaded your agreement," she said.
"Why did you download it?"
"Because Marcus told me he was leaving you."
"For you?"
She lowered her eyes, then opened her coat. Her pregnancy was impossible to hide.
"I'm twenty-two weeks," she whispered.
For several seconds, I could hear only my son's heartbeat. Marcus had accused me of infidelity while his own pregnant mistress helped manufacture his alibi.
"How long?" I asked.
"Almost a year."
"And May eighteenth?"
"Marcus told the company he was staying in Chicago, but he used the corporate plane to come home. He said he needed documents from your father's safe."
"He came into my bedroom."
Her face tightened. "He told me he never saw you."
"He lied to both of us."
She sat near the window, keeping her distance from my bed. Three weeks before the ultrasound, Marcus had asked her to retrieve our postnuptial agreement. He'd planned to file for divorce after arranging enough board votes to remove me as CEO. Then the ultrasound revealed the six-week difference.
"He called me from the hospital parking lot," Bianca said. "He said your pregnancy had given him a way to take your shares without paying their real value."
"So he knew he had come home."
"Yes."
"And he knew the second baby could be his."
She nodded.
"Why did you sign his statement?"
"He promised he'd protect me and the baby. Said if I supported his timeline, we'd be a family by the end of the year."
Teresa placed the toll photograph in front of her. "You understand you may have committed perjury?"
"That's why I'm here."
Bianca took an envelope from her purse. Inside were bank records showing seven transfers made during Marcus's Chicago trip, totaling $2.8 million. The money had come from Harrow Medical, transferred into a private trust.
"Whose trust?" I asked.
Her hand moved protectively over her stomach. "He told me it was for our child."
Teresa examined the documents. "Who authorized the transfers?"
"Marcus did."
"He cannot move that amount alone."
Bianca looked at me. "The second authorization carries your electronic signature."
May you like
"I never signed any transfer."
"I know," she said. "Marcus came home on May eighteenth to steal it."
