Ryan Parker arrived twenty minutes later already angry.<\/p>\n
Claire heard his voice before she saw him.<\/p>\n
"Where is she?"<\/p>\n
A second later he came through the clinic doors in a charcoal-gray suit, moving with the quick, aggressive stride Claire remembered from arguments he believed he could win by sheer momentum.<\/p>\n
Megan followed.<\/p>\n
She wore dark sunglasses despite being indoors and carried a diaper bag over one shoulder.<\/p>\n
Claire's attention fixed on the bag.<\/p>\n
Lily.<\/p>\n
For one irrational second Claire expected the baby to be with them.<\/p>\n
She wasn't.<\/p>\n
Patricia hurried toward Ryan before he reached the conference room.<\/p>\n
She whispered rapidly.<\/p>\n
Claire watched his expression change.<\/p>\n
Annoyance first.<\/p>\n
Then disbelief.<\/p>\n
Then something much closer to fear.<\/p>\n
Megan noticed Detective Cole.<\/p>\n
She stopped walking.<\/p>\n
That tiny hesitation told Claire more than anything Megan might have said.<\/p>\n
Ryan entered the conference room.<\/p>\n
"What the hell is going on?"<\/p>\n
Dr. Reed shut the door.<\/p>\n
Cole stood near the wall while Patricia sat rigidly at the end of the table. Claire remained beside a speakerphone connected to a video screen.<\/p>\n
Angela Morris appeared on it from her office.<\/p>\n
Claire's attorney had been waiting for this meeting since the clinic released its first batch of records.<\/p>\n
Angela adjusted her glasses.<\/p>\n
"Mr. Parker, I strongly recommend that you contact counsel before making any statements."<\/p>\n
Ryan looked at the screen.<\/p>\n
"Who are you?"<\/p>\n
"Claire's attorney."<\/p>\n
He turned toward Claire.<\/p>\n
"You brought a lawyer into this?"<\/p>\n
Claire almost smiled at the absurdity.<\/p>\n
"You used one of our embryos without my permission."<\/p>\n
"Our embryos."<\/p>\n
"Correct."<\/p>\n
That answer surprised him.<\/p>\n
Claire continued.<\/p>\n
"Ours. Which means neither of us had unilateral authority to use one."<\/p>\n
Ryan's nostrils flared.<\/p>\n
"You abandoned them."<\/p>\n
Angela immediately spoke.<\/p>\n
"That is factually inconsistent with the storage agreement."<\/p>\n
Ryan glanced toward her.<\/p>\n
"The contract requires written authorization from both genetic parents before transfer to a gestational recipient."<\/p>\n
"I had written authorization."<\/p>\n
"No," Claire said. "You had a forgery."<\/p>\n
Megan removed her sunglasses.<\/p>\n
Her eyes were red.<\/p>\n
Whether from crying, exhaustion, or fear, Claire could not tell.<\/p>\n
Ryan pointed toward Claire.<\/p>\n
"You said you were done."<\/p>\n
Claire stared at him.<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
"After the miscarriage."<\/p>\n
The memory arrived with painful clarity.<\/p>\n
Claire lying in bed with the curtains closed.<\/p>\n
Ryan sitting on the edge of the mattress.<\/p>\n
Claire saying, I can't do this again.<\/p>\n
Not never.<\/p>\n
Not destroy them.<\/p>\n
Not give one to my best friend.<\/p>\n
Just not again.<\/p>\n
Not then.<\/p>\n
"I said I couldn't survive another transfer right away."<\/p>\n
"You wanted to stop."<\/p>\n
"I wanted time to grieve."<\/p>\n
"You pushed me away."<\/p>\n
Claire's hands went still.<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
The old argument.<\/p>\n
Her grief had inconvenienced him, therefore everything afterward became understandable.<\/p>\n
Megan finally spoke.<\/p>\n
"Ryan told me you had agreed."<\/p>\n
Everyone looked at her.<\/p>\n
Ryan's face changed.<\/p>\n
"Megan."<\/p>\n
She ignored him.<\/p>\n
"He told me you didn't want the embryos anymore."<\/p>\n
Claire felt something almost like disbelief.<\/p>\n
"You believed him?"<\/p>\n
Megan's eyes filled.<\/p>\n
"He showed me paperwork."<\/p>\n
"You were my best friend."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"You knew how many years we spent trying."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"You sat in my kitchen after the miscarriage."<\/p>\n
Megan lowered her eyes.<\/p>\n
Claire could see that kitchen.<\/p>\n
Megan washing mugs because Claire had been too tired to stand.<\/p>\n
Megan saying Ryan simply grieved differently.<\/p>\n
Megan telling Claire not to assume the worst when Ryan began staying out late.<\/p>\n
Claire's voice remained controlled.<\/p>\n
"You knew exactly what those embryos meant to me."<\/p>\n
"I thought you'd agreed."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Megan wiped beneath one eye.<\/p>\n
"I swear to you, Claire, he said you had."<\/p>\n
Ryan pushed his chair backward.<\/p>\n
"Stop talking."<\/p>\n
Cole straightened.<\/p>\n
Ryan realized how that sounded.<\/p>\n
He looked toward the detective.<\/p>\n
"This is insane."<\/p>\n
Angela's voice came from the screen.<\/p>\n
"Then perhaps you can explain who signed Claire's authorization."<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
"You submitted it."<\/p>\n
"The clinic handled the paperwork."<\/p>\n
Dr. Reed spoke for the first time.<\/p>\n
"That is not accurate."<\/p>\n
Ryan looked at him.<\/p>\n
Dr. Reed placed a record on the table.<\/p>\n
"The authorization was uploaded through the patient portal associated with your credentials."<\/p>\n
Ryan stared at the paper.<\/p>\n
Claire hadn't known that detail.<\/p>\n
She looked toward Angela on the screen.<\/p>\n
Angela's expression revealed nothing.<\/p>\n
"Which credentials?" Claire asked.<\/p>\n
"Ryan's."<\/p>\n
Ryan stood.<\/p>\n
"I want a lawyer."<\/p>\n
Cole nodded.<\/p>\n
"That's probably wise."<\/p>\n
The ease with which he said it seemed to unsettle Ryan.<\/p>\n
Megan remained seated.<\/p>\n
Patricia leaned toward her.<\/p>\n
"Don't say another word."<\/p>\n
Megan looked at Patricia.<\/p>\n
Claire noticed the dynamic immediately.<\/p>\n
Patricia wasn't comforting her.<\/p>\n
She was controlling her.<\/p>\n
Megan noticed too.<\/p>\n
"You told me it was legal."<\/p>\n
Patricia froze.<\/p>\n
Ryan whispered, "Megan."<\/p>\n
But it was too late.<\/p>\n
Claire turned slowly toward her former friend.<\/p>\n
"What did Patricia tell you?"<\/p>\n
Megan pressed both hands against her forehead.<\/p>\n
Patricia stood.<\/p>\n
"She's upset. She doesn't know what she's saying."<\/p>\n
"What did she tell you?" Claire repeated.<\/p>\n
Megan looked at Claire.<\/p>\n
"That because Ryan was your husband when the embryos were created, he could authorize the transfer."<\/p>\n
Angela leaned toward her camera.<\/p>\n
"Who specifically told you that?"<\/p>\n
Megan hesitated.<\/p>\n
Then she looked toward Patricia.<\/p>\n
Nobody needed the answer spoken aloud.<\/p>\n
Patricia's chair scraped against the floor.<\/p>\n
"This meeting is over."<\/p>\n
Cole moved toward the door before she reached it.<\/p>\n
"I'm not detaining you."<\/p>\n
"Then move."<\/p>\n
He did.<\/p>\n
Patricia grabbed her handbag.<\/p>\n
Before leaving, she turned toward Claire.<\/p>\n
"You have no idea what you're about to do to that child."<\/p>\n
Claire rose.<\/p>\n
"No, Patricia."<\/p>\n
Her voice was quiet enough that everyone listened.<\/p>\n
"I know exactly why I have to be careful."<\/p>\n
Patricia stared at her.<\/p>\n
Claire continued.<\/p>\n
"Lily isn't evidence. She isn't a prize. And she isn't a weapon."<\/p>\n
Megan began crying.<\/p>\n
Claire looked at her.<\/p>\n
"She's a little girl."<\/p>\n
The anger inside Claire shifted.<\/p>\n
That was the truth she had been struggling to articulate since learning what happened.<\/p>\n
She wanted consequences.<\/p>\n
She wanted the forgery investigated.<\/p>\n
She wanted Ryan exposed.<\/p>\n
But Lily could not become collateral damage in the process.<\/p>\n
Angela seemed to understand what Claire was thinking.<\/p>\n
"Claire."<\/p>\n
She looked toward the screen.<\/p>\n
"We should discuss the parentage petition."<\/p>\n
Ryan turned.<\/p>\n
"The what?"<\/p>\n
Angela folded her hands.<\/p>\n
"A petition to establish Claire's legal relationship to Lily."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Ryan said it instantly.<\/p>\n
Claire looked at him.<\/p>\n
"You don't get to decide that by yourself either."<\/p>\n
Ryan's face reddened.<\/p>\n
"She's my daughter."<\/p>\n
Claire's throat tightened.<\/p>\n
"She's mine too."<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
Saying it aloud changed something.<\/p>\n
Until that moment, Lily had existed in Claire's mind as an impossible combination of concepts\u2014Megan's baby, Ryan's daughter, stolen embryo, medical evidence.<\/p>\n
Now there was only one fact Claire could not escape.<\/p>\n
Her daughter was nine months old.<\/p>\n
And she had never met her.<\/p>\n
Ryan Parker arrived twenty minutes later already angry. Claire heard his voice before she saw him. "Where is she?" A second later he came through the clinic doors in a … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27792","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\/27792","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=27792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27827,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27792\/revisions\/27827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}