Page 43 of Ransom for His Secret Son

Remi saw Brody’s shoulders go rigid.

“She isolated you,” Remi said quietly.

Allie nodded. “Yeah. The cabin was nice. Fully stocked, comfortable. But I wasn’t supposed to have much contact with anyone. Only a doctor who came to do checkups. Shelby paid for everything.”

“A doctor,” Brody repeated. “Do you have his name?”

“Arnold Wallace,” she quickly answered and then stopped and shook her head. “Don’t bother to look him up. He had a fake ID, too, but I was too stupid to realize it at the time.”

Tears shimmered in the woman’s eyes, and Remi reached over to take her hand. The dog objected to that with a low, menacing growl, so Remi settled for a look of sympathy.

“You’re not stupid,” Remi assured her. “You were taken in by someone who clearly had a plan of action.”

Allie shrugged as if she didn’t quite buy that, and she blinked back more tears before she reached for a nearby drawer. That put Brody and Remi on alert until they saw Allie wasn’t going for a weapon but rather a folded piece of paper. She took it out and handed it to Remi.

“That’s the address of the cabin,” she said. “I figured you’d want it.”

Remi unfolded the page, scanning the info. A remote area outside of Kerrville. She handed Brody the paper, and he took out his phone, no doubt to send deputies to the cabin to check it out. Remi doubted the blackmailer would take that kind of risk of still being at that location, but maybe he or she hadn’t expected Allie to come forward with the information.

“When did you find out you were carrying twins?” Remi asked.

Allie’s gaze flicked to Brody for a moment before returning to Remi. “Not until I was about five months along,” she admitted. “Everything seemed normal at first, but then the doctor detected a second heartbeat.”

Remi’s stomach tightened. That was late to find out. Usually, a twin pregnancy was detected earlier through ultrasounds.

“How did the doctor take that news?” Remi wanted to know.

Allie’s forehead bunched up. “He seemed worried. I remember he excused himself and made a call. He thought I couldn’t hear, but I caught bits and pieces of it.”

“What did he say?” Brody was quick to ask.

“I heard him whisper something about a second one and not expected. Then he said, ‘What do you want me to do?’” Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard. “I asked about it when he came back, but he brushed it off. Told me everything was fine and that carrying twins was just a bit more complicated.”

Not expected. From what Remi had read, it wasn’t unusual for a fertility doctor to implant more than one embryo in the hopes of getting one viable pregnancy. Obviously, the procedure had worked better than even the doctor had thought it would.

But who was this doctor?

Remi scrolled through more photos on her phone, and she pulled up a picture of Langley, hoping for a breakthrough. “Was this the man who helped with the surrogacy?”

Allie shook her head. “No. That’s not him.”

Remi felt a new wave of frustration slide through her, but she pushed it aside and focused on the next question.

“Okay. Let’s talk about the delivery,” Remi said. “Where and when did it happen?”

Allie’s face tightened. “Eight days ago. The doctor took me to a clinic. It was set up like a delivery room inside, but I know it wasn’t a hospital because I saw the building when we got there. It was one-story, redbrick, small. Old,” she added. “Like maybe it used to be a doctor’s office or something.”

A chill crept down Remi’s spine. The secrecy around Allie’s pregnancy was bad enough, but this…The woman should have been in a hospital.

“Do you remember where this clinic was?” Remi asked.

“Not exactly, but I’m pretty sure it was in San Antonio. Definitely not downtown. I think more on the south side.”

Remi wanted to groan. That wasn’t a small area to search, but at least they had a description and general location. Brody fired off another text, and Remi suspected his deputies would soon be working hard to find the place.

“Were there other people at the clinic?” Remi pressed, needing to get all the info she could. “Any staff?”

“There was a nurse,” Allie replied, “but she didn’t have a name tag. She just came in, checked on me, helped me with the labor, and that was it. She never said her name.”