Emily Price had not moved to Seattle.
She lived in Portland.
Cole found her within hours through employment records, and unlike almost everyone else connected with the case, Emily agreed to speak without hiring a lawyer first.
That fact alone made Claire curious.
The interview happened remotely the next afternoon.
Claire was not permitted to participate, but Emily later gave permission for Cole to share portions relevant to Claire's civil case.
Angela received the transcript first.
She called Claire.
"Come over."
Claire arrived forty minutes later.
Angela handed her the transcript without preamble.
"Page four."
Claire sat.
Emily's first answers were ordinary.
She had worked for Ryan for four years.
She knew Patricia and Thomas.
She had met Claire several times.
Then Cole asked about fertility.
Emily's answer changed everything.
Ryan approached me about being a gestational carrier.
Claire read the sentence twice.
Date?
Approximately three years before his divorce.
Claire kept reading.
Had Claire participated in this discussion?
No.
Did Ryan say Claire knew?
Initially, yes.
Initially.
The word had become poison.
Emily explained that Ryan presented the idea as something he and Claire were exploring after fertility treatments became stressful.
But Claire had barely begun treatment then.
Emily agreed to receive information.
Not to carry a pregnancy.
Ryan arranged for her to speak with Marissa.
Claire stopped reading.
"Marissa again."
Angela nodded.
Claire continued.
Emily met Marissa at a coffee shop rather than Westbridge.
Marissa explained screening, compensation, and transfer procedures.
Emily became uncomfortable.
She asked why Claire was not involved.
Marissa said Ryan wanted to understand feasibility before upsetting her.
The pattern was already there.
Protect Claire from information.
Make decisions first.
Present them later.
Emily eventually confronted Ryan directly.
His response was recorded in the transcript.
He told me Claire was too emotionally invested in pregnancy itself and might reject a carrier even if it was the only way they could have children.
Claire stared at the words.
She remembered Ryan telling her the opposite during treatment.
He had said he would support whatever she wanted.
He had held her hand during appointments.
He had told her that if IVF failed, they would find another path together.
Meanwhile he had apparently been interviewing that path without her.
Emily refused.
Cole asked why.
Because I realized Claire didn't know.
Claire's throat tightened.
Emily then described the final conversation with Ryan.
She told him she would speak to Claire directly if he continued.
Ryan became angry.
He said the embryos were half his and he should not need Claire's permission to investigate options.
Claire closed her eyes.
There it was again.
The belief underneath everything.
Half his.
Therefore potentially his to use.
Angela waited until Claire resumed reading.
Emily resigned from Parker Development two months later.
Not because of the carrier proposal alone.
Because Ryan began excluding her from meetings, criticizing her performance, and documenting minor mistakes after she refused.
"Retaliation," Claire said.
"That's Emily's interpretation."
"Do you disagree?"
"No."
Claire turned the page.
There was one final detail.
Emily had kept an email.
Ryan wrote it after their argument.
Emily,
Forget the carrier conversation. Claire isn't ready and there is no point forcing the issue right now.
Right now.
Claire stared at those words.
Not never.
Not I was wrong.
Right now.
Below Ryan's email was Emily's response.
Do not involve me in any future plans concerning Claire's embryos unless Claire herself contacts me.
Claire looked up.
"She understood better than my husband did."
Angela said nothing.
Claire read the date.
Then she realized something.
"Wait."
"What?"
"This was before the embryos were created."
Angela checked.
"Three weeks before the retrieval that produced them."
Claire felt cold.
Ryan had been planning how to use embryos that did not yet exist.
"FP started four months after treatment began."
"Yes."
"But Emily says he approached her before retrieval."
"Yes."
"So FP didn't begin with Patricia."
Angela's eyes narrowed.
"No."
"It began with Ryan."
They called Cole.
He had reached the same conclusion.
"The earliest event we can document so far is Ryan approaching Emily," he said.
"Before Patricia created the FP record."
"Correct."
Claire stood beside Angela's desk.
"So Ryan started it."
"Started what?"
"The idea of using someone else without telling me."
"Based on the current evidence, yes."
Claire felt strangely relieved.
Not because the truth was better.
Because the shifting responsibility had finally found an anchor.
Ryan.
Patricia had expanded it.
Thomas had enabled it.
Marissa had operationalized it.
Megan had eventually participated.
But Ryan had approached Emily first.
"What did Ryan say when you confronted him with Emily's statement?"
Cole paused.
"We haven't yet."
"Why?"
"We wanted documents first."
Claire understood.
"Did Emily know about FP?"
"No."
"Patricia?"
"She says Ryan told her his mother supported using a carrier."
"So Patricia knew something."
"Probably."
The next development came from an unexpected place.
Thomas called Angela.
He wanted to correct his statement.
Claire almost refused another meeting.
Then Angela told her what he wanted to correct.
"When Ryan first consulted Reeves."
Claire agreed immediately.
Thomas appeared by video this time.
His attorney sat beside him.
Thomas looked worse than before.
"I gave you the wrong timeline."
Claire folded her arms.
"I noticed."
Thomas flinched.
"I introduced Ryan to Reeves earlier."
"How much earlier?"
"About eighteen months earlier than I said."
Claire stared.
"Why did you lie?"
"I was protecting him."
"Ryan?"
"Yes."
"From what?"
"From looking like he was planning the divorce."
Claire's stomach tightened.
"Was he?"
Thomas shook his head.
"Not exactly."
"That's not an answer."
"He was planning contingencies."
Claire almost laughed.
"Your family loves gentle words."
Thomas looked ashamed.
"What contingency?"
"If you couldn't have children."
"I could have children."
"You know what I mean."
"No, Thomas. That's exactly the problem. Everyone decided what my body meant for me."
He nodded.
"You're right."
Claire waited.
Thomas continued.
"Ryan worried that if treatment failed, the marriage wouldn't survive."
"Did he tell you that?"
"Yes."
"And rather than work on the marriage, he consulted a lawyer about embryos."
Thomas looked down.
"Yes."
Claire asked the question that had been bothering her.
"Did Ryan love me?"
Angela glanced toward her.
It was not a legal question.
Thomas's face changed.
"Yes."
"Then explain this."
"I can't."
"Try."
Thomas took a long breath.
"Ryan has always been terrified of losing things."
Claire almost interrupted.
Thomas raised a hand.
"Not emotionally. Control. Property. Options. His grandfather built the company and taught him that you never surrender leverage."
Claire stared.
"I'm not property."
"I know."
"Embryos aren't leverage."
"I know."
"Did Ryan?"
Thomas hesitated.
"Not enough."
Claire looked away.
That answer felt closer to truth than anything else Thomas had said.
Ryan might have loved her.
He had simply believed love did not require surrendering control.
Thomas continued.
"When fertility treatment became uncertain, Ryan started treating the embryos as insurance."
Claire turned back.
"Insurance against what?"
"A life without biological children."
"And against me."
Thomas said nothing.
Claire understood.
Ryan wanted both possibilities preserved.
Stay married if things worked.
Keep the embryos if they did not.
Never face a future where Claire's decision could close the door.
"Did Patricia encourage that?"
"Yes."
"Did you?"
Thomas closed his eyes.
"Yes."
The meeting ended shortly afterward.
Claire went home exhausted.
At nine, Megan sent a photograph.
Lily asleep in her crib.
Claire stared at it longer than she intended.
Then another message appeared.
She said "da" today. Ryan says it counts as Dada. I think he's cheating.
Claire laughed before she could stop herself.
Then guilt followed.
Was she allowed to share something light with Megan?
The answer came unexpectedly.
Yes.
A laugh did not erase betrayal.
Human beings did not have to occupy only one moral category at a time.
Claire replied.
Tell him "da" is not legally binding.
Megan sent a laughing emoji.
Then nothing.
Claire placed the phone down.
At eleven seventeen, someone knocked on her door.
She froze.
Nobody should have been visiting.
She looked through the peephole.
Ryan.
Claire did not open it.
"What do you want?"
His voice came through the door.
"I know you talked to Emily."
Claire's pulse accelerated.
"Leave."
"Claire, please."
That word from Ryan was rare.
"Go through Angela."
"This isn't about the lawsuit."
"Everything is about the lawsuit now."
Silence.
Then Ryan said, "Emily doesn't know the whole story."
Claire almost laughed.
"Everybody says that."
"I was trying to protect our chance to have children."
"By asking another woman to carry embryos before they existed?"
Ryan did not answer.
Claire remained behind the locked door.
"You knew I had to consent."
"Yes."
The admission surprised her.
No argument this time.
"You knew from the beginning."
"Yes."
"Then why?"
Ryan's voice dropped.
"Because I knew you might eventually say no."
Claire closed her eyes.
There it was.
Not confusion.
Fear of her answer.
"You thought wanting something badly enough gave you the right to prevent me from refusing."
"No."
"That's exactly what happened."
Ryan leaned against the other side of the door. She could hear his coat move against the wood.
"I never planned for Lily to happen this way."
"But you planned for someone."
Silence.
"Emily."
Silence.
"Nicole."
Silence.
"Megan."
Ryan finally spoke.
"My mother turned it into something else."
Claire felt anger sharpen.
"Stop hiding behind Patricia."
"You don't understand her."
"I understand enough."
"No."
His voice changed.
Claire heard genuine fear.
"Claire, FP wasn't just about embryos."
She became still.
"What was it about?"
Ryan said nothing.
"Ryan."
A long pause.
Then he whispered.
"Money."
Claire frowned.
"What money?"
Another pause.
"The trust."
Claire felt the first flicker of a new danger.
"What trust?"
Ryan stepped away from the door.
"Ask my father."
His footsteps moved down the hall.
Claire unlocked the door only after the elevator closed.
Ryan was gone.
But the word remained.
Trust.
And suddenly Claire understood there might have been something Patricia and Thomas wanted from Lily besides a grandchild.
Click here to continue reading: PART 15: A Family Trust Tied to Ryan’s Children Reveals the Financial Pressure Behind FP, but Patricia’s Motive Proves More Personal Than Money
The Last Person Claire Expected to See at the Fertility Clinic Was the Woman Who Had Celebrated Her Divorce
Part 14 of 35
