Chapter 10 - Victor Thought Daughters Were Temporary
Victor asked to speak to Julian.
Not me.
Hospital security allowed it in a monitored family room because Julian requested it.
I did not attend.
Then Julian came back fifteen minutes later and asked if I wanted to know what Victor said.
I surprised both of us.
“Yes.”
He sat.
“Dad thinks Maya put you up to all this.”
I almost laughed.
“All what?”
“Keeping me away.”
“Maya has known me for three hours.”
“I told him.”
“And?”
“He said women coordinate.”
That sounded like Victor.
“What else?”
Julian stared at the floor.
“He said Tessa ruined me.”
My chest tightened.
“How?”
“Because I let Maya use her against me.”
“Did you disagree?”
“Yes.”
That was new.
“What happened?”
“He said daughters are temporary.”
I felt cold.
“What?”
Julian looked sick.
“He said they grow up, take another man's name, join another family. Sons carry yours.”
I looked toward the maternity room where Grace slept.
“That’s what this is.”
Julian nodded slowly.
Not only sexism.
A worldview.
Children as continuity devices.
Women as temporary members.
Men as proof the family had survived.
I asked:
“Did he say this when Tessa was born?”
“Not that directly.”
“Did you believe it anyway?”
“Some.”
There.
“What did you say today?”
“That Grace is my child.”
“And?”
“That if he ever calls her a mistake, he won't see her.”
I stared.
Julian noticed.
“I know.”
“What?”
“That sounds better than I deserve.”
Good.
“Did you mean it?”
“Yes.”
“For today?”
He looked away.
“I don't know.”
At least he understood the test.
Then Marcus came in.
“Sorry.”
He wasn't.
“What?”
“Victor's donor liaison has given a statement.”
Julian's face tightened.
The hospital staff member assigned to help major donors with logistics had processed Victor's request without understanding that it involved a second infant chart.
Victor described it as a privacy duplicate.
The employee assumed the clinical team had approved it.
No secret accomplice.
A wealthy man saying something confidently to a person used to solving problems.
That was enough.
Marcus continued:
“The employee says Victor requested the profile under the name ‘Baby Boy Hayes.’”
Julian closed his eyes.
“Before birth.”
“Yes.”
“And after the birth?”
“He called.”
My stomach tightened.
“When?”
“Approximately twenty minutes after Grace was born.”
“From where?”
“Outside the maternity floor.”
“What did he ask?”
Marcus looked at Julian.
“To change the infant sex marker on the private profile from male to female.”
Julian's face went blank.
I stared.
“Why?”
Marcus continued:
“And to add him as a family contact.”
There it was.
Victor had not created the second record for a hypothetical son and abandoned it when Grace was born.
He adapted it.
He intended to keep using it.
“For what?” Julian asked.
Marcus looked at him.
“We still don't know.”
Victor's story had been:
privacy.
Then surname.
Then preparation.
None explained why he needed himself attached to a parallel newborn record after he knew Grace was a girl.
The central question shifted again.
He had wanted control over the infant record regardless of sex.
May you like
The boy obsession was real.
But it wasn't the whole plan.
