“Now you do,” I said.

I turned to descend the stairs, but his next words stopped me cold.

“She didn’t just forge the papers, Clara,” Garrett said, his voice trembling with a new, terrifying realization. “She paid off the medical clinic to falsify your records too.”

I turned slowly back to face him.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He held up his phone, showing an old email exchange that had just loaded on his screen, dated from the month of our split.

“She didn’t just hide the pregnancy from me,” Garrett said. “She tried to make sure you would never be able to prove they were mine.”

I stared at the screen, my heart freezing as the true depth of Vivian’s cruelty began to unravel.

Behind him, Vivian herself appeared at the top of the stairs, her face twisted in desperation as she saw us speaking.

“Garrett, get away from her!” she screamed.

But Garrett didn’t move; he kept his eyes locked on mine, waiting for my reaction.

My phone rang in my hand, the caller ID showing the private line to the boys’ nanny.