I read Dana's message three times.<\/p>\n
Jessica had worked at Oakfield Fertility Institute.<\/p>\n
Not recently.<\/p>\n
Years earlier.<\/p>\n
Under a different surname.<\/p>\n
Rachel came into the kitchen carrying two empty glasses.<\/p>\n
She saw my face.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
I handed her the phone.<\/p>\n
She read the message.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, God.\u201d<\/p>\n
I pulled out a chair and sat.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, details from the previous year rearranged themselves.<\/p>\n
Jessica had not entered Carter's life randomly.<\/p>\n
At least, perhaps she hadn't.<\/p>\n
I remembered the first time he mentioned her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe understands complicated corporate structures,\u201d he'd said after a dinner meeting.<\/p>\n
Jessica had been working for a consulting company that handled administrative and financial projects for Sterling Corporation.<\/p>\n
Before that, according to Dana, she had spent nearly three years at Oakfield.<\/p>\n
Two institutions.<\/p>\n
One woman.<\/p>\n
And somewhere between them sat our frozen male embryo.<\/p>\n
Rachel sat opposite me.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould she have accessed your records?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCould she have known the embryo existed?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
I hated how often I had to say that.<\/p>\n
For eleven years, I had lived inside a marriage I thought I understood.<\/p>\n
Now every hour exposed another hidden room.<\/p>\n
My phone rang again.<\/p>\n
Margaret.<\/p>\n
I let it stop.<\/p>\n
Then Richard called.<\/p>\n
Then Carter.<\/p>\n
I turned the device face down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are they all calling you?\u201d Rachel asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause something happened during Jessica's ultrasound.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctor found an old fertility record.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel's expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think the baby\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
This time, the words felt almost unbearable.<\/p>\n
Upstairs, Emma laughed.<\/p>\n
Chloe shushed her.<\/p>\n
Their voices reminded me what mattered.<\/p>\n
Whatever Carter and Jessica had done, my daughters were not going to become collateral damage.<\/p>\n
I gathered the papers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need Dana to verify the release.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel touched my wrist.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I decide what happens next.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 7:16, Dana called.<\/p>\n
Her tone told me she finally had more than suspicion.<\/p>\n
\u201cOakfield completed an emergency internal review.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did they find?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe embryo transferred eight months ago matches the identification number in your original IVF records.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
Male embryo.<\/p>\n
Ours.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecipient?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey still aren't formally releasing the patient's identity to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have enough information to say the pregnancy associated with the transfer appears to be Jessica's.\u201d<\/p>\n
My knees weakened.<\/p>\n
I sat again.<\/p>\n
Rachel remained completely still across from me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuccessful implantation?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGestational timeline?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cConsistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked toward the dark kitchen window.<\/p>\n
Rain ran down the glass.<\/p>\n
\u201cSay it plainly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dana hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cJessica appears to be carrying the male embryo you and Carter created approximately nine years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sentence was clinical.<\/p>\n
Its meaning was not.<\/p>\n
The baby growing inside the woman Carter had left me for was genetically mine.<\/p>\n
Mine and Carter's.<\/p>\n
Jessica was carrying our biological son.<\/p>\n
I pressed one hand against my mouth.<\/p>\n
Not because I felt ownership of him.<\/p>\n
Because someone had taken something created from my body and genetic material without my consent.<\/p>\n
Someone had decided that my permission did not matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cLauren?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI'm here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is more.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed once, without humor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere always is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe authorization paperwork includes your signature.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForged.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes. Oakfield now agrees there are substantial reasons to believe it was forged.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Carter's?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHis appears genuine.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stopped breathing for a moment.<\/p>\n
Not suspicion.<\/p>\n
Not inference.<\/p>\n
A genuine signature.<\/p>\n
Carter had participated.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he know which embryo?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe paperwork identifies it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Rachel.<\/p>\n
She understood from my expression.<\/p>\n
Carter had known.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho processed the transfer?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Oakfield employee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone Jessica knew?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clinic is investigating that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Jessica use her old access?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnknown. But Oakfield believes whoever arranged the release understood weaknesses in their legacy verification procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought about Carter's words outside the courthouse.<\/p>\n
I have a son coming now.<\/p>\n
He hadn't merely learned Jessica was carrying a boy.<\/p>\n
He had known exactly whose boy she was carrying.<\/p>\n
He had looked at me\u2014the child's genetic mother\u2014and told me to take our daughters away because he finally had the child he considered valuable.<\/p>\n
Something inside me became very still.<\/p>\n
\u201cDana.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPreserve everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlready happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEmails. Access logs. Signatures. Storage records. Payments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially the corporate payments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe're issuing preservation notices tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at Richard's cost center on the document.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about Sterling Corporation?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe'll follow the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood.\u201d<\/p>\n
I ended the call.<\/p>\n
Rachel moved around the table and crouched beside me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't have to figure everything out tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
But I had already begun.<\/p>\n
The next call came at 7:43.<\/p>\n
Carter.<\/p>\n
I answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Jessica know?\u201d<\/p>\n
No greeting.<\/p>\n
No accusation.<\/p>\n
Just the question.<\/p>\n
Carter hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnow what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat the embryo was ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ease of the admission stunned me.<\/p>\n
I stood and walked toward the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLauren\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n
My free hand curled against the windowsill.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knowingly authorized another woman to carry an embryo created from my egg.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought you'd agreed we were finished having children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were finished having children together. That did not give you permission to take an embryo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn't think of it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course you didn't.\u201d<\/p>\n
He exhaled.<\/p>\n
\u201cJessica said the paperwork could be handled.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy forging my name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn't know she was going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you knew I hadn't consented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
No ambiguity remained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
I already knew part of the answer.<\/p>\n
I wanted to hear him say it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father kept paying the storage fees.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout telling me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn't want the male embryo destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Male.<\/p>\n
Not the female embryo.<\/p>\n
Male.<\/p>\n
My stomach turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to the other embryo?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou'd better find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLauren, listen. Jessica told me there was a legal way to transfer the embryo if\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStop.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're trying to make this sound like a paperwork problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it wasn't handled correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHandled correctly?\u201d<\/p>\n
My voice sharpened for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou used my genetic material to create a pregnancy without my consent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted another child.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wanted a son.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
That silence answered me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou already had two children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father didn't marry me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't understand what it's like in my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand perfectly now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He breathed heavily.<\/p>\n
Then he said something revealing.<\/p>\n
\u201cJessica said this would fix everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFix what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy position with Dad. The company. The trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
I went still.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat trust?\u201d<\/p>\n
He stopped.<\/p>\n
Too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat trust, Carter?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForget I said that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn't relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you won't mind explaining it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He swore under his breath.<\/p>\n
I heard movement behind him.<\/p>\n
A door closing.<\/p>\n
When he spoke again, his voice was quieter.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandfather created a family trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCertain assets pass to the first male descendant in my generation's branch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The entire scheme sharpened.<\/p>\n
A son wasn't merely Richard's obsession.<\/p>\n
He had financial value.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMillions?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarter?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at the gray folder.<\/p>\n
Suddenly the corporate payments made sense.<\/p>\n
Richard had not kept that embryo frozen because he was sentimental.<\/p>\n
He had been protecting an asset.<\/p>\n
A potential heir.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes Jessica know about the trust?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did she learn?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMonths ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the transfer.<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
Jessica had worked at Oakfield.<\/p>\n
Later, she worked around Sterling accounts.<\/p>\n
She learned about Carter.<\/p>\n
She learned about the embryo.<\/p>\n
She learned about the trust.<\/p>\n
Then she became involved with him.<\/p>\n
That sequence bothered me.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did you meet Jessica?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho approached whom?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that matter?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnswer.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe approached me after a consulting meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she know about the embryo before you started seeing her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou'd better start wondering.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went quiet.<\/p>\n
For the first time, I heard something in his voice that had not been there before.<\/p>\n
Fear directed not at me, but at Jessica.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you saying?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI'm saying you may not be the only person who was using someone.\u201d<\/p>\n
He started to respond.<\/p>\n
Then another call appeared on my screen.<\/p>\n
Dana.<\/p>\n
I told Carter, \u201cDo not contact the girls tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLauren\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not consolation prizes because your son suddenly became complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n
I disconnected and answered Dana.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat now?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found something in the corporate records.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJessica's consulting firm had access to Sterling financial accounts before her relationship with Carter began.\u201d<\/p>\n
My pulse quickened.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the accounts she reviewed included Oakfield storage payments.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sat slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the affair?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Rachel.<\/p>\n
The picture had changed again.<\/p>\n
Carter had betrayed me.<\/p>\n
Jessica had helped him steal our embryo.<\/p>\n
But Jessica may have chosen Carter before he ever chose her.<\/p>\n
\u201cDana, what exactly are you saying?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat we need more evidence before drawing conclusions.\u201d<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
She continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the timeline suggests Jessica may have known about the male embryo\u2014and the Sterling family's financial interest in a male descendant\u2014before she became romantically involved with Carter.\u201d<\/p>\n
My phone buzzed with another message.<\/p>\n
Carter.<\/p>\n
One sentence.<\/p>\n
Lauren, Jessica is gone.<\/p>\n
Then another.<\/p>\n
She left the clinic and nobody knows where she went.<\/p>\n
I stared at the screen.<\/p>\n
Carter had believed he was finally getting the son he deserved.<\/p>\n
Jessica had believed she was carrying the key to a fortune.<\/p>\n
Richard had believed money could preserve a grandson who did not yet exist.<\/p>\n
And all three of them had built their plans around something they never had the right to use.<\/p>\n
My consent.<\/p>\n
I opened the gray folder and placed the forged destruction letter beside the storage records.<\/p>\n
Then I called Dana back.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon't just investigate the transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInvestigate everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trust?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trust. Jessica's employment. Carter's messages. Richard's payments. Every person who touched those records.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked toward the stairs, where Chloe and Emma were getting ready for bed in a house three thousand miles from their father.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd find Jessica before the Sterlings do.\u201d<\/p>\n
I read Dana's message three times. Jessica had worked at Oakfield Fertility Institute. Not recently. Years earlier. Under a different surname. Rachel came into the kitchen carrying two empty glasses. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27722","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\/27722","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=27722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27757,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27722\/revisions\/27757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}