I read the message twice.<\/p>\n
Then I handed the phone to Felix.<\/p>\n
He looked at it.<\/p>\n
His face changed slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed once.<\/p>\n
Not because anything was funny.<\/p>\n
Because I had reached the point where every horror came wrapped in another question.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy embryos were never meant to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
That word again.<\/p>\n
Everyone had spent the night saying no to facts that did not care whether we accepted them.<\/p>\n
I looked at Caroline\u2019s phone number on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cFind everything with NWB.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m already searching.\u201d<\/p>\n
We heard drawers opening.<\/p>\n
Laura talking in the background.<\/p>\n
Pages shifting.<\/p>\n
Then Caroline said, \u201cThere are multiple references.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mouth went dry.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least nine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix sat down.<\/p>\n
\u201cNine?\u201d<\/p>\n
I knew exactly what that number meant.<\/p>\n
Nine retrieval cycles.<\/p>\n
Not every cycle had produced viable eggs.<\/p>\n
Not every egg had fertilized.<\/p>\n
Not every embryo had survived.<\/p>\n
But nine was too specific.<\/p>\n
Nine was my history.<\/p>\n
\u201cRead them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caroline hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cNora\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRead them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice became clinical.<\/p>\n
\u201cCycle one. Oocyte reserve transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTransfer to where?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPrivate storage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhose authorization?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCode MV.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin Voss.<\/p>\n
Felix whispered, \u201cHe had access?\u201d<\/p>\n
I ignored him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCycle two. Same.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNext.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCycle three. Two embryos marked nonviable in patient-facing record.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach twisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd internal?\u201d<\/p>\n
A pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransferred.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo where?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPrivate research holding.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cResearch?\u201d<\/p>\n
Caroline said, \u201cThat may be a label, not actual use.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cycle four.<\/p>\n
Cycle five.<\/p>\n
Cycle six.<\/p>\n
The pattern changed.<\/p>\n
Some embryos were reported to me as arrested.<\/p>\n
Internally, they were moved.<\/p>\n
Some eggs were listed as poor quality.<\/p>\n
Internally, they were stored.<\/p>\n
One cycle I remembered particularly well.<\/p>\n
The doctor had called and said none of the embryos reached the stage required for transfer.<\/p>\n
I had sat on the kitchen floor after hanging up.<\/p>\n
Felix had come home early.<\/p>\n
He had held me while I cried into his shirt.<\/p>\n
Now Caroline read:<\/p>\n
\u201cCycle seven. Three blastocysts cryopreserved under secondary identifier.\u201d<\/p>\n
My throat closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Felix.<\/p>\n
He had gone white.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had three.\u201d<\/p>\n
He remembered.<\/p>\n
Of course he remembered.<\/p>\n
That was the cycle that nearly broke us.<\/p>\n
We had been told there were none.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat secondary identifier?\u201d<\/p>\n
Caroline\u2019s voice tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cNWB-L.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does L mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix whispered, \u201cLegacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody had to ask why he thought that.<\/p>\n
The trust.<\/p>\n
The Blake legacy.<\/p>\n
Everything came back to inheritance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWere any used?\u201d<\/p>\n
Caroline searched.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne.\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFour years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix looked at me.<\/p>\n
Four years.<\/p>\n
Before Elise returned.<\/p>\n
Before this pregnancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking.\u201d<\/p>\n
We waited.<\/p>\n
The room felt smaller with every second.<\/p>\n
Then Caroline said, \u201cThere\u2019s an implantation record.\u201d<\/p>\n
I gripped the edge of the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cInto whom?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaroline.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have the patient name yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFind it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She kept searching.<\/p>\n
Laura spoke softly in the background.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about code AB-22?\u201d<\/p>\n
Caroline went quiet.<\/p>\n
Then:<\/p>\n
\u201cNora, there\u2019s a second file.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEmbryo transfer, four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRecipient?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAB-22.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold made a sound.<\/p>\n
Small.<\/p>\n
Involuntary.<\/p>\n
I turned toward him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked shattered.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ingrid stared at him too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is AB?\u201d<\/p>\n
He sat down.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I walked toward him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is AB?\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice was barely audible.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlice Blake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabine stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ingrid stared at her husband.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have another daughter?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold\u2019s face crumpled.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot with Lydia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen who?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at Margaret\u2019s empty seat, as if the dead and living ghosts in this family were multiplying faster than any of us could track.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour aunt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix looked furious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat aunt?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabine whispered, \u201cDad, you don\u2019t have a sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words chilled me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer name was Alice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ingrid stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father erased her.\u201d<\/p>\n
That phrase again.<\/p>\n
Erased.<\/p>\n
Like Margaret.<\/p>\n
Like Daniel.<\/p>\n
Like Anna Weber.<\/p>\n
Like anyone inconvenient to the Blake structure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to her?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was institutionalized when she was nineteen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor what?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold\u2019s jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cPregnancy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer made no sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cPregnancy isn\u2019t an illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my father\u2019s world, unmarried pregnancy was disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret\u2019s husband.<\/p>\n
The trust creator.<\/p>\n
Bloodline.<\/p>\n
Reputation.<\/p>\n
Obedience.<\/p>\n
He had built those values into contracts because he had already used them as weapons against his own children.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to Alice\u2019s baby?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold\u2019s voice dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cStillborn, supposedly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSupposedly?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI never saw a body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course not.<\/p>\n
Nothing in this family involving death came with a body.<\/p>\n
Sabine looked sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Alice?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe stayed in care facilities for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs she alive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe died five years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBody?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least one death was real.<\/p>\n
I returned to the code.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would an embryo created from me be transferred to Alice?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe died five years ago. The transfer was four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caroline spoke through the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen AB-22 may not be Alice herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Harold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat else uses her name?\u201d<\/p>\n
His face changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat foundation?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlice Blake Women\u2019s Health Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabine stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never heard of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s private.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho runs it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold looked down.<\/p>\n
\u201cMartin.\u201d<\/p>\n
There it was again.<\/p>\n
Caroline said, \u201cThen AB-22 could be a program code.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sat down.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a person.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you trace the embryo?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying.\u201d<\/p>\n
More pages.<\/p>\n
Computer keys.<\/p>\n
Then she stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
Every time Caroline said that, my life got worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a birth record linked to the transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart slammed against my ribs.<\/p>\n
\u201cA birth?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThirty-nine months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
A child.<\/p>\n
My child.<\/p>\n
Possibly.<\/p>\n
Alive.<\/p>\n
My hands went numb.<\/p>\n
\u201cSex?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMale.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix\u2019s face collapsed.<\/p>\n
I could not breathe.<\/p>\n
A boy.<\/p>\n
Three years old.<\/p>\n
Somewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRecipient file is sealed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNora\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. Open it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura said something I could not hear.<\/p>\n
Then Caroline answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe birth certificate is not under a Blake name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHold on.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood so fast the chair fell behind me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat name?\u201d<\/p>\n
Caroline\u2019s voice softened.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvan Weber.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everything stopped.<\/p>\n
Weber.<\/p>\n
Caroline.<\/p>\n
Anna.<\/p>\n
I looked toward the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaroline.\u201d<\/p>\n
She did not answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaroline, who is Evan Weber?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Then I heard her crying.<\/p>\n
Not loudly.<\/p>\n
One broken breath.<\/p>\n
Another.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy nephew.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room went still.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour sister died twelve years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen whose child is Evan?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he belonged to my cousin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou thought?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy cousin Claire used Anna\u2019s surname after her divorce.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCaroline.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI swear to you, I didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice was shaking now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew Evan came through a private fertility arrangement. Claire said the parents had relinquished custody.\u201d<\/p>\n
My knees weakened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow old is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere does he live?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Claire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
Caroline stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNora, I need to verify.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me where my son lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word came out before I could stop it.<\/p>\n
My son.<\/p>\n
Everyone heard it.<\/p>\n
Felix sat down.<\/p>\n
He covered his face.<\/p>\n
Elise was crying silently.<\/p>\n
Sabine stared at the table.<\/p>\n
No one corrected me.<\/p>\n
Because if the records were true, there was a three-year-old boy somewhere who had been created from one of my embryos.<\/p>\n
One I had been told never existed.<\/p>\n
Caroline gave me the address.<\/p>\n
Two towns away.<\/p>\n
Twenty-eight minutes.<\/p>\n
I grabbed my coat.<\/p>\n
Felix stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNora.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he\u2019s mine too\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
I stopped.<\/p>\n
The thought had not occurred to me.<\/p>\n
The embryo.<\/p>\n
My egg.<\/p>\n
Whose sperm?<\/p>\n
Felix went white.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaroline.\u201d<\/p>\n
She understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m checking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Then keys.<\/p>\n
Then:<\/p>\n
\u201cPaternal source code FB-01.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix Blake.<\/p>\n
The room broke.<\/p>\n
He sat again.<\/p>\n
I gripped the table.<\/p>\n
My child.<\/p>\n
Our child.<\/p>\n
A son we had been told never existed.<\/p>\n
Born from an embryo stolen from us.<\/p>\n
Raised by strangers.<\/p>\n
And for four years, Felix had grieved beside me without knowing.<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
For the first time since this began, I saw a betrayal that had been committed against both of us equally.<\/p>\n
He looked back.<\/p>\n
Tears ran down his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a son.\u201d<\/p>\n
I could not answer.<\/p>\n
Not yet.<\/p>\n
We had a biological child.<\/p>\n
That did not mean he was ours to take.<\/p>\n
He had a home.<\/p>\n
A life.<\/p>\n
A person he called mother.<\/p>\n
The truth did not give us ownership over him.<\/p>\n
But it gave us the right to know what had been done.<\/p>\n
I took my coat.<\/p>\n
Felix said, \u201cPlease.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can follow in another car.\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
It was the closest thing to trust I could give.<\/p>\n
We drove through nearly empty streets.<\/p>\n
Caroline stayed on the phone.<\/p>\n
Claire Weber\u2019s house was small.<\/p>\n
Blue siding.<\/p>\n
Porch light on.<\/p>\n
A bicycle lay beside the steps.<\/p>\n
A plastic dinosaur rested near a flowerpot.<\/p>\n
I parked across the street.<\/p>\n
Felix stopped behind me.<\/p>\n
Neither of us moved.<\/p>\n
Then the front door opened.<\/p>\n
A woman stepped outside.<\/p>\n
Mid-forties.<\/p>\n
Dark hair like Caroline\u2019s.<\/p>\n
She carried a laundry basket.<\/p>\n
Behind her, a little boy ran onto the porch.<\/p>\n
Bare feet.<\/p>\n
Blue pajamas.<\/p>\n
He laughed because she told him something.<\/p>\n
The sound crossed the street.<\/p>\n
Felix made a broken sound beside me.<\/p>\n
The boy had his eyes.<\/p>\n
My chin.<\/p>\n
I knew those details proved nothing by themselves.<\/p>\n
But my body recognized him before reason could intervene.<\/p>\n
Claire noticed our cars.<\/p>\n
She stopped.<\/p>\n
The boy looked toward us.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n
The word hit me with unexpected force.<\/p>\n
Mom.<\/p>\n
Not me.<\/p>\n
Claire was his mother.<\/p>\n
Whatever had been stolen from me had been given to this child as an entire life.<\/p>\n
I stepped out slowly.<\/p>\n
Felix did the same.<\/p>\n
Claire stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cNora?\u201d<\/p>\n
She knew me.<\/p>\n
Of course she did.<\/p>\n
Everybody knew me before I knew them.<\/p>\n
I stopped at the edge of the walkway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that Evan?\u201d<\/p>\n
Her face collapsed.<\/p>\n
She pulled the boy behind her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho told you?\u201d<\/p>\n
That answered everything.<\/p>\n
Felix covered his mouth.<\/p>\n
Claire began crying.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was told you knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt the world narrow to that sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnew what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat you had donated the embryo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire whispered, \u201cOh God.\u201d<\/p>\n
The boy peeked around her legs.<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
Curious.<\/p>\n
Unafraid.<\/p>\n
I forced myself not to move toward him.<\/p>\n
This moment did not belong to my grief.<\/p>\n
He was three.<\/p>\n
He deserved safety before truth.<\/p>\n
I looked at Claire.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho told you we donated him?\u201d<\/p>\n
She swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMartin Voss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix whispered something vicious under his breath.<\/p>\n
Claire continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said you and Felix had chosen anonymous placement after treatment failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her face crumpled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe you.\u201d<\/p>\n
I meant it.<\/p>\n
For once, I did.<\/p>\n
A child\u2019s life was too important to turn another deceived person into an enemy.<\/p>\n
My phone buzzed.<\/p>\n
Unknown number.<\/p>\n
I looked.<\/p>\n
One message.<\/p>\n
EVAN WAS THE SUCCESSION CHILD.<\/p>\n
Another.<\/p>\n
THEY NEVER NEEDED ELISE\u2019S BABY.<\/p>\n
I stared at the words.<\/p>\n
Then the final message arrived.<\/p>\n
THEY NEEDED ELISE BECAUSE SOMEONE FOUND OUT EVAN WAS ALIVE.<\/p>\n
I read the message twice. Then I handed the phone to Felix. He looked at it. His face changed slowly. \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d I laughed once. Not because anything … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25407,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25372\/revisions\/25407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}