1 Chapter One: Unexpected News

JACOB GREYSON TO DONATE NEW HEART MONITOR TO SCHOOL FOR DISABLED CHILDREN: MORE ON PAGE 6

I threw the newspaper halfway across the room. It landed on my cat who jumped and hissed, knocking over one of my small vases he’d been playing with, and toppling a glass of water onto my new hardcover book.

I groaned, “Of course Mr Greyson would begin the day by ruining my morning.”

I was so far biased against Jacob Greyson, I blamed him when my coffee had gone cold after I’d forgotten about it.

I grabbed a dishcloth from the oven, and mopped up the excess water that spilled everywhere over the coffee table that often doubled as a dining table. One bonus from living in a tiny, studio apartment was that everything was close at hand.

There was something seriously wrong going on at the Greyson Foundation, the company headed by Jacob Greyson, ever since he’d taken control, and I was going to find out.

For starters, who named a Corporate company, specialising in technology in the health sector, a Foundation? Which corporate company then behaved like a charity with their technology? Was Elon Musk just giving away Teslas? No. So why were they giving away their state of the art technology to, and get this, struggling children’s schools?

No, something was very seriously wrong. And I was going to get to the bottom of it.

I glanced to my phone ringing. Aude. Seeing her number pop up on my phone instantly brightened my mood. My friend that I’d met at my sewing class I’d taken when my mother had booked the class for me, claiming I needed help to calm my nerves.

The sewing hadn’t worked, but I’d made a friend and that had been fun. I’d known Aude for over five years now.

“Hey, Aude,” I answered the ringing phone.

Aude answered with a muffled sound between a squeal and a screech.

“You’ll never guess who just walked in to work today!” Aude said in lieu of a greeting. Aude’s voice was muffled, over the receiver. If I had to guess, Aude was probably crouched under a desk somewhere, whispering into her purse. The thought made me smile.

“Someone who wants a baby?” I asked, guessing dryly.

Aude worked at New Life, the most prestigious fertility clinic in the world. Celebrities and famous personalities were constantly walking through the door. I got a call like this at least once a week. Twice if Aude reported on the B-listers as well.

It had been interesting at first, then it got boring pretty fast. Technically, Aude was bound by a company contract to secrecy. But for me as a reporter, to make any kind of claims or statements, even unofficially, I needed a source willing to come in and state that they had given me the information. Aude would never come forward, so anything Aude told me, was basically the best kept secret.

Aude had gotten about ten shades of excited when she’d learned that little piece of information, and now she called me with all the sordid details of the little fertility clinic. I didn’t mind getting the details, celebrity gossip wasn’t my deal. And not my readers’, either. So I didn’t really feel an incredible need to share whatever Aude told me with the public.

“Damn straight!” Aude laughed, “Jacob Greyson!”

I sat up fast, banging my head against the bookshelf above my bed.

“What?” I demanded.

“Looking for a surrogate,” Aude sighed wistfully. “He’s asking about the full package, too. If only I was ten years younger.”

My reporter senses went into full gear. Even though I couldn’t report anything that Aude told me, I could use it to investigate further.

“What’s the full package?” I asked, probing gently.

“Full everything,” Aude said, still sighing. “Full privacy, full commitment, full guarantee. Some insanely lucky woman is going to get the chance to live, for at least a year, in Jacob Greyson’s private mansion.”

I held a hand to my head, my mouth dropped open. His home.

Jacob Greyson kept a skeletal staff, people so hidden away he personally had them brought in and taken home. People so loyal to him, no one even knew who they were. His house was surrounded by personal forests. The place was a fortress, better guarded than any palace. There had never been a way into it.

Except for the surrogate.

“Who?” I demanded.

If I could get the woman’s name, I could get information from her. Information no one else in the world would ever be privy to. God, I could find out the man’s bathroom times if I wanted, never mind all the company secrets he would have in his personal home office.

A surrogate would be easier to bribe or coerce than staff that’s worked for Greyson for their entire lives. They had an emotional connection to him, the surrogate wouldn’t.

I could almost imagine all the ways I could get the woman to talk.

Unfortunately, Aude chose that moment to remember her contract details of not disclosing details from her work.

“I can’t tell you that, silly,” Aude laughed. “That’s the privacy he’s buying.”

“You don’t know, do you?” I deadpanned.

“Well, I mean, not technically, no,” Aude admitted. “But no one would! The best we would be able to know is the women he interviews as possible candidates. Only he gets to choose and know. She won’t even be allowed to tell her family. Gosh, that must be awkward, imagine having to disappear for a year and tell no one.”

“Isn’t this kind of thing you guys do on the standard though?” I pushed, genuinely curious.

“Lol, no,” Aude replied again. “Almost no one takes this package. There’s way too much risk to the client. The woman gets paid upfront, and you’re basically reliant on her word to carry through with the agreement. There’s absolutely no paper trail. It’s the only way to ensure absolute secrecy. Make sure nothing is created to find in the first place.”

“Except the actual baby,” I deadpanned again.

“Well, yeah, but I mean,” Aude’s voice was clearer for a minute, like she was holding the receiver against her shoulder. “That part was always going to come out.”

“So Mr Greyson wants a baby,” I wondered aloud. “Secretly enough to pay the big bucks and take the chance of not even getting the child, rather than risk exposure. Interesting, interesting. I wonder what experiments he needs a newborn for.”

“God, Mila,” Aude’s voice came again, irritated now. “You and your theories about the man. Can’t someone just want a baby? He is twenty-five, you know. You might want to think about getting a baby for yourself, might give you something else to focus on other than this vendetta.”

Everyone that knew me, knew I had an issue with the Greyson Foundation’s newest CEO. Just like everyone that knew Aude, knew she always tried to recruit her friends to sign up to her fertility clinic’s programmes. Something about referral rewards.

As it turned out, I had been solicited by Aude no less than thirteen times. All for surrogacy. My eggs, I’d never give away. Even if I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted a child, I definitely knew I never wanted to give one away, if I did have one.

Surrogacy wouldn’t be my child, though. And I wouldn’t have to agree to anything.

“Oh!” Aude exclaimed. “I have to go, I’m going to walk him through the procedures today, and probably from next week he’ll start interviewing possible surrogates we have on the system. Oh my god, I’m so excited! This is literally the most famous person I’ve ever got to interact with. I will tell you everything later. Bye!”

I got up off my bed, and rooted through the pile of mail. The last five recruitments, Aude had just mailed to my place. I searched for the baby blue and light pink coloured pamphlet, with ‘New Life’ scrolled over the top, covered in a glass like orb.

Jacob Greyson didn’t take interviews unless he had a relationship with the reporter. Unless he could feed the reporter questions, more like. But he would be interviewing possible surrogate candidates for his child.

I glanced at the headline on the newspaper clipping I’d tossed to the side. Heart rate monitors to a school for disabled children, hey. There was no way that was all that it was. There had to be some ulterior motive.

I needed one interview with him, just to build a repertoire. And once he had met me, at New Life, no less, I knew that he would take an interview with me. And once I had him, live on air, it would only take a few damning questions to destroy him and his reputation entirely.

I just needed to meet him one time.

I waved the brochure like a fan. This would be the key to his undoing. Time to check out this place.