Chapter 235
“Where are we going?” Skye asked.
“To verify a tip,” Julian said. “About Belarus.”
The private jet sat on the tarmac at Teterboro, engines whining. It was a Vance jet.
“I can’t leave the country,” Skye said. “My bail conditions.”
“We’re not leaving the country,” Julian said. “We’re going to D.C. The Belarusian embassy.”
“Why?”
“Because my investigators confirmed your suspicion,” Julian said, handing her a tablet. “We found her. The girl you suspected was the surrogate. Her name is Oksana.”
Skye looked at the photo on the screen: a young girl, maybe eighteen, looking scared.
“She’s in D.C.?”
“She’s trying to get a visa,” Julian said. “She wants her baby back. Seraphina promised her money and a green card, but stopped paying once she got the ultrasound photos.”
“God,” Skye whispered. “She’s trafficking a child and stiffing the mother.”
“If we get Oksana’s testimony,” Julian said, “Seraphina goes to prison for twenty years. And Liam… Liam is implicated as the beneficiary.”
“Let’s go,” Skye said.
The meeting took place in a park near the embassy. Oksana was terrified. She spoke broken English.
“She take baby?” Oksana asked, crying. “Lady say… rich life. But no money come. No visa.”
“We will help you,” Skye promised. “We will get your baby back. But you have to tell the truth. To a camera.”
Oksana nodded.
Julian’s team set up a camera in the back of the van. Oksana told her story: how Seraphina contacted her online, how she sent money for the insemination, how the plan was to fly Oksana to New York, induce labor, and pretend it was Seraphina’s birth.
But Oksana had refused to give up the baby at the last minute, so Seraphina’s people had snatched the child and smuggled him into the U.S.
It was damning.
“We have it,” Julian said when the recording stopped. “This is the nuclear option.”
“When do we use it?” Skye asked.
𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺
“Not yet,” Julian said. “We wait for the birth. We let Seraphina commit the final act of fraud. Then we catch her red-handed.”
They flew back to New York.
Skye’s phone buzzed. It was Alistair.
She hadn’t spoken to him in two days. She stared at the screen.
“Answer it,” Julian said. “He’s probably tearing the city apart looking for you.”
Skye answered. “Alistair.”
“Where are you?” Alistair’s voice was a growl. “I went to the precinct. They said you made bail. Why didn’t you call me?”
“I’m with Julian,” Skye said. “I didn’t want to compromise your position. If you’re seen with me right now, while I’m under federal investigation, Interpol might pull you off the case.”
“I don’t care about the case,” Alistair sounded incredulous. “Skye, he’s playing you. Get away from him.”
“He saved me, Alistair,” Skye said. “He paid the fifty million.”
Silence on the line. Fifty million was a lot, even for Alistair, to liquidate instantly.
“I’m coming to get you,” Alistair said.
“No,” Skye said. “I need to handle this. My way. Alistair… keep tracking the money trail from the construction site. I need you to find where Liam hid the funds he saved on the steel. That’s the only way to clear my name.