Chapter 11 - THE EMPTY WAREHOUSE
The blood belonged to Evan.
Not enough to prove he was badly injured.
Enough to make everyone stop assuming he had simply run.
Security footage showed Evan meeting a woman at the warehouse after midnight.
Vivian recognized her.
Leah Moreno.
Ryan exploded.
"She set us up."
I told him to shut up.
Leah came voluntarily to police.
She had met Evan because he contacted her about the fertility clinic.
Evan claimed Ryan's construction company had renovated one of the clinic's storage facilities.
Ryan stared at him through the interview-room glass.
"That's impossible."
Then he remembered.
Five years earlier, his company had subcontracted electrical work there.
The failing refrigeration circuit.
The clinic scandal and Ryan's business were connected.
Not through conspiracy.
Through sloppy work.
The subcontractor had installed a breaker below specification.
Ryan's project manager signed off.
Ryan never inspected it personally.
"Was that your responsibility?" I asked.
He rubbed both hands over his face.
"Ultimately? Yes."
There was no satisfying villain in that sentence.
Just layers of people assuming someone else had checked.
Evan had discovered the old records and tried to sell them to the clinic's insurer.
He wanted money.
Leah refused to participate.
They argued.
Evan left alive.
Police later found him at a motel with a cut forehead.
He had staged the bloody car to buy time.
Ryan laughed when he heard.
Then he stopped.
Because Evan had also taken the missing company funds.
He was arrested.
The warehouse buyer withdrew.
Ryan's business entered restructuring.
I could have saved it.
I had the money.
Ryan asked once.
"Will you?"
I looked at him.
"No."
He nodded.
No shouting.
That almost made it harder.
Then Naomi received the clinic's engineering report.
The electrical defect had caused temperature instability during the exact hour our embryos and Leah's were being handled.
Ryan stared at the page.
His company had not caused our children's identities to change.
But its negligence may have contributed to Leah losing her embryos.
He whispered, "How do I live with that?"
Leah, standing behind us, answered.
May you like
"You don't get to ask me to make that easier."
