Chapter 48 THE SUBSTITUTION

Chapter 48 THE VIDEO CALL
The screen flickered to life and I saw Dalton's face for the first time in weeks.

He looked like death. His cheeks were hollow and his skin had a gray tint that made him look ten years older. His eyes were sunken and when they met mine through the camera I saw something I had never seen in Dalton before.

Fear.

"Tehila," he said and his voice cracked on my name.

I sat in the small room they had given me for the call with Laurent standing behind me and a guard by the door. 

"Dalton." I kept my voice flat because I did not know what to feel. 

He swallowed hard. "I am so sorry. For everything. I destroyed us for a woman who was planning to kill me."

That sorry did not bring back the trust we had lost or the time we had wasted.

But I was tired of being angry.

"You did," I said simply. "You destroyed everything we had."

He flinched like I had hit him. "I know. I know and there is no excuse for what I did. I was a fool and a coward and I let her manipulate me because it was easier than admitting I was wrong."

"Why are you telling me this now?" I asked. "Because you almost died? Because you finally see what everyone else saw months ago?"

"Because you deserve to hear it," Dalton said. "Because you tried to save me even after everything I did to you and I repaid you by making you look like the villain when the real villain was sleeping in my bed every night."

I looked away from the screen because seeing him like this hurt more than I expected. Part of me still remembered the man I fell in love with. The man who made me laugh and held me when I cried and promised me forever.

That man was gone.

Maybe he had never existed at all.

"Laurent said you remembered something," I said. "Something about Sienna."

Dalton nodded and leaned closer to the camera. "About three weeks ago, Sienna received a phone call that upset her. It was late at night and she thought I was asleep but I was awake because the insulin was making me sick."

"What kind of call?"

"She was speaking in French," he continued. "I do not speak French well but I understood enough to know she was arguing with someone about money. About a payment that was supposed to be delivered."

Laurent moved closer. "Did she mention any names?"

"Yes," Dalton said. "Julien Marchand. She said the name multiple times and each time she sounded angrier."

I wrote the name down on the pad Laurent had given me. "Who is he?"

"I looked him up afterward because I was curious," Dalton said. "Julien Marchand is a private investigator based in Paris. He specializes in helping wealthy clients disappear and create new identities."

The room went cold.

"Why would Sienna need someone like that?" I asked even though I already knew the answer.

Dalton's face went pale. "Because she was planning to kill me and vanish. She was setting everything up so that when I died it would look natural and she could take my money and disappear before anyone started asking questions."

Laurent pulled out his phone and started typing. "This is good. This gives us another lead to follow."

"There is more," Dalton said and his voice dropped so low I almost could not hear him. "I heard her mention someone else on that call. Someone named Anton."

My blood turned to ice. "Anton who?"

"I do not know," Dalton admitted. "But whoever he is, Sienna was worried about him. She kept saying that Anton was getting impatient and that she needed more time."

I thought about the men Sienna had married before. The husbands who had died under suspicious circumstances. Had any of them been named Anton?

"Did she say anything else?" Laurent asked.

Dalton closed his eyes like he was trying to remember. "She said something about the timeline being moved up. That she needed to accelerate things because Anton was threatening to pull out of the deal."

"What deal?"

"I do not know," Dalton said. "But whatever it was, it involved a lot of money. She mentioned a figure. Two million euros."

Laurent's eyes went sharp. "Two million for what?"

"I could not hear that part," Dalton said. "She moved into the bathroom and closed the door. When she came back out she was calm again. Like the conversation never happened."

I stared at Dalton's face on the screen and tried to piece together what Sienna had been planning. A private investigator who specialized in creating new identities. A man named Anton who was part of some deal. Two million euros.

"She was going to fake her own death," I said slowly. "After you died, she was going to disappear with your money and start over somewhere else."

"That is what I think too," Dalton said. "But there is something else. Something that does not make sense."

"What?"

He looked directly at me and the fear in his eyes doubled. "When I was really sick, right before I collapsed, Sienna was on the phone again. I was in bed and I heard her in the hallway talking to someone. She said the pregnancy was proceeding as planned."

My hand went to my stomach without thinking. "What pregnancy?"

"Yours," Dalton said. "She was talking about your baby. About how the timeline worked out perfectly and that the buyer would be pleased."

The word buyer hit me like a physical blow.

"What are you saying?" I asked even though I knew. Even though the truth was sitting right there in front of me like a snake coiled and ready to strike.

"Sienna was not planning to take your child with her when she disappeared," Dalton said. "I think she was planning to sell them."

The room spun.

Sell them.

Sell my baby.

Laurent grabbed my shoulder to steady me. "Are you certain about this?"

"No," Dalton admitted. "But it is the only thing that makes sense. Why else would she forge that custody video? Why else would she be so interested in getting control of the child?"

"Because she is insane," I said. "Because she wanted to hurt me."

"Maybe," Dalton said. "But Sienna does not do anything without a financial motive. Everything she does is calculated and planned. If she wanted your baby it was because someone was paying her to get it."

I thought about the forged video. About Sienna's insistence that she would be the best mother for my child. About the way she talked about the baby like it was a thing instead of a person.

"Who would pay for a baby?" I asked.

Laurent's face went grim. "There is a black market for newborns, especially healthy infants from wealthy families. People who cannot adopt through legal channels sometimes turn to private brokers who arrange illegal adoptions."

"You think Sienna is working with someone like that?"

"I think it is possible," Laurent said. "Especially if this Anton person is involved. We need to find out who he is and what his connection to Sienna is."

Dalton leaned forward on the screen. "There is one more thing. When I woke up in the hospital, Cole told me that Sienna had left the country. That she was hiding in Switzerland."

"She is," I confirmed. "Or she was. I do not know where she is now."

"Before she left," Dalton continued, "she came to see me in the hospital. I was barely conscious but I remember her leaning over my bed and whispering something."

"What did she say?"

His hands were shaking. "She said that I was always too weak to do what needed to be done. That she had given me everything and I had wasted it. And then she said something that I did not understand at the time but I understand now."

"What?"

"She said that at least the child would bring a good price and make all of this worth it."

My vision blurred. The walls of the small room pressed in from all sides and I could not breathe. Could not think. Could not process what I was hearing.

Sienna was not just trying to destroy me.

She was trying to sell my baby.

"We need to find Anton," Laurent said. "We need to find out who he is and what his connection to Sienna is before she has a chance to complete whatever deal they made."

Dalton nodded. "I will help however I can. I will give you everything I know. Every conversation I overheard. Every detail I can remember."

I looked at him through the screen and saw the man I used to love buried somewhere under the guilt and fear. He was broken now. Maybe beyond repair.

But he was trying.

"Thank you," I said. "For telling me this."

"It is not enough," Dalton said. "It will never be enough to make up for what I did. But I am going to spend the rest of my life trying."

Laurent checked his watch. "We need to end the call. The guards will be back soon."

I nodded and reached for the button to disconnect.

"Wait," Dalton said. "There is one more thing. Something I just remembered."

"What?"

His face went white. "The night Sienna got that phone call from Julien Marchand, I heard her mention a location. A place where the exchange was supposed to happen."

"Where?"

"Geneva," he said. "She said the exchange would happen in Geneva in two weeks and that Anton needed to have the money ready by then."

I looked at Laurent and saw my own panic reflected in his eyes.

Two weeks.

Sienna had two weeks to complete her deal and if what Dalton said was true then in two weeks my baby would be sold to the highest bidder.

"When was this phone call?" Laurent asked.

Dalton swallowed hard. "Three weeks ago."

The number hit me like a freight train.

Three weeks ago meant Sienna had been planning this for at least a month. Three weeks ago meant the exchange was supposed to happen one week from now.

We had seven days.

Seven days to find Anton. Seven days to stop Sienna. Seven days to save my baby from being sold like property to someone I would never find.

"We need to move fast," Laurent said.