Chapter 5 - THE COMPANY HER FATHER OWNED
Imogen’s father was named Malcolm Carlisle.
Dead four years.
Stellan had met him once before the funeral.
Polished.
Quiet.
Retired corporate-security executive.
Imogen described him as “boring.”
He was not.
Adrian Imogen Holdings had been his company.
The name came from Malcolm’s two middle names:
Adrian Imogen Carlisle.
Imogen had been named after him.
That solved the coincidence.
It created something worse.
Her father’s company had been embedded around Stellan’s security during Elena’s pregnancy.
Did Imogen know?
She said no.
Through attorneys.
“I had no involvement in my father’s business at twenty-three.”
Stellan checked.
True.
She had been in graduate school in London.
No employment records.
No payments.
Nothing placing her near Chicago during Dulcie and Maeve’s birth.
Good.
Then why did she find Maeve now?
Her father’s estate.
When Malcolm died four years earlier, Imogen inherited archived business drives.
She discovered AIH’s Corsaro files.
Inside:
Hospital schedules.
Security maps.
The Twin Provision.
Reports about Baby B.
Threat correspondence.
Not necessarily written by Malcolm.
But possessed by him.
Imogen began investigating.
Three years ago.
Stellan met her eighteen months ago.
Timeline changed everything.
She knew he had another daughter before their first date.
Stellan sat in Grace’s office.
“She targeted me.”
Grace said:
“Possibly.”
“She knew who I was.”
“Definitely.”
“She knew Maeve existed.”
“Yes.”
“She started seeing me anyway.”
“Yes.”
“Possibly because of trust access.”
“Evidence is leaning that way.”
Stellan laughed once.
Not amused.
Then Grace showed him payments.
Imogen hired private investigator Marcus Hale.
No relation to Maeve’s guardians.
She spent $180,000 tracing Claire Hale and Maeve.
She found them ten months earlier.
Why not tell Stellan?
Because she had her own legal analysis.
If Stellan acknowledged Maeve before marriage, Twin Provision divided the descendant trust into equal independent branches.
Neither branch would grant a future spouse automatic temporary management.
If Stellan married first, then became incapacitated before acknowledgment, the spousal guardian provisions could give Imogen limited interim authority over Dulcie’s consolidated branch.
Money.
Power.
Not permanent perhaps.
Enough.
She needed Maeve hidden until after wedding.
Then she could decide when disclosure helped.
That explained:
Throw me out, and you’ll never find the other girl.
Leverage.
It also explained why she had begun pushing Dulcie emotionally away from Stellan’s late wife.
If Imogen became the central maternal figure—
guardian arguments became easier.
Then something still bothered Stellan.
The kennel.
Too extreme.
Too reckless.
Grace agreed.
“Plans like this usually fail when personal resentment overtakes strategy.”
Imogen had resented Dulcie.
Messages confirmed.
To a friend:
Everything in this house revolves around an eight-year-old and a dead wife.
Another:
Stellan will never make room for me while Dulcie keeps Elena alive.
Another:
Sometimes I think sending that child to boarding school would solve half my problems.
Not criminal.
Ugly.
Then the worst:
If Maeve ever appears, I’ll be raising two reminders of a woman I never met.
Stellan read it twice.
She viewed children as reminders.
Obstacles.
Trust variables.
No.
He called off every wedding contract.
Publicly.
No explanation beyond:
The engagement has ended.
Imogen responded through counsel with a threat of civil action over reputation damage.
Grace smiled.
“Let her.”
Then Stellan asked:
“Did her father create the original threats?”
Not proven.
The AIH archive contained copies.
No authorship.
Malcolm could have been monitoring them.
Or facilitating them.
The difference mattered.
They found Malcolm’s old deputy:
Grant Felton.
Seventy.
Arizona.
Felton agreed to speak under counsel.
His answer:
“Malcolm was paid to identify vulnerabilities.”
“By whom?”
Felton hesitated.
“A Corsaro.”
Stellan’s body tightened.
“Name.”
“Renato Corsaro.”
Stellan stared.
His uncle Renato.
Shot six years after the twins were born.
Dead.
Why would Renato want the twins separated?
Felton said:
“He thought two heirs fractured the family trust.”
There it was.
Old power.
Again.
But according to Felton, Malcolm refused any plan involving harming children.
He did, however, provide information.
Too much.
Renato’s people created threats to scare Elena into keeping the second twin hidden.
The objective:
Maintain one visible heir.
One controllable branch.
Renato believed unity protected the family.
Then he died before correcting any of it.
Imogen inherited the archive and saw opportunity.
Different generations.
May you like
Same dangerous idea.
One child easier to control than two.
