Emily Price had not moved to Seattle.<\/p>\n
She lived in Portland.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
That fact alone made Claire curious.<\/p>\n
The interview happened remotely the next afternoon.<\/p>\n
Claire was not permitted to participate, but Emily later gave permission for Cole to share portions relevant to Claire's civil case.<\/p>\n
Angela received the transcript first.<\/p>\n
She called Claire.<\/p>\n
"Come over."<\/p>\n
Claire arrived forty minutes later.<\/p>\n
Angela handed her the transcript without preamble.<\/p>\n
"Page four."<\/p>\n
Claire sat.<\/p>\n
Emily's first answers were ordinary.<\/p>\n
She had worked for Ryan for four years.<\/p>\n
She knew Patricia and Thomas.<\/p>\n
She had met Claire several times.<\/p>\n
Then Cole asked about fertility.<\/p>\n
Emily's answer changed everything.<\/p>\n
Ryan approached me about being a gestational carrier.<\/p>\n
Claire read the sentence twice.<\/p>\n
Date?<\/p>\n
Approximately three years before his divorce.<\/p>\n
Claire kept reading.<\/p>\n
Had Claire participated in this discussion?<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
Did Ryan say Claire knew?<\/p>\n
Initially, yes.<\/p>\n
Initially.<\/p>\n
The word had become poison.<\/p>\n
Emily explained that Ryan presented the idea as something he and Claire were exploring after fertility treatments became stressful.<\/p>\n
But Claire had barely begun treatment then.<\/p>\n
Emily agreed to receive information.<\/p>\n
Not to carry a pregnancy.<\/p>\n
Ryan arranged for her to speak with Marissa.<\/p>\n
Claire stopped reading.<\/p>\n
"Marissa again."<\/p>\n
Angela nodded.<\/p>\n
Claire continued.<\/p>\n
Emily met Marissa at a coffee shop rather than Westbridge.<\/p>\n
Marissa explained screening, compensation, and transfer procedures.<\/p>\n
Emily became uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
She asked why Claire was not involved.<\/p>\n
Marissa said Ryan wanted to understand feasibility before upsetting her.<\/p>\n
The pattern was already there.<\/p>\n
Protect Claire from information.<\/p>\n
Make decisions first.<\/p>\n
Present them later.<\/p>\n
Emily eventually confronted Ryan directly.<\/p>\n
His response was recorded in the transcript.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Claire stared at the words.<\/p>\n
She remembered Ryan telling her the opposite during treatment.<\/p>\n
He had said he would support whatever she wanted.<\/p>\n
He had held her hand during appointments.<\/p>\n
He had told her that if IVF failed, they would find another path together.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile he had apparently been interviewing that path without her.<\/p>\n
Emily refused.<\/p>\n
Cole asked why.<\/p>\n
Because I realized Claire didn't know.<\/p>\n
Claire's throat tightened.<\/p>\n
Emily then described the final conversation with Ryan.<\/p>\n
She told him she would speak to Claire directly if he continued.<\/p>\n
Ryan became angry.<\/p>\n
He said the embryos were half his and he should not need Claire's permission to investigate options.<\/p>\n
Claire closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
There it was again.<\/p>\n
The belief underneath everything.<\/p>\n
Half his.<\/p>\n
Therefore potentially his to use.<\/p>\n
Angela waited until Claire resumed reading.<\/p>\n
Emily resigned from Parker Development two months later.<\/p>\n
Not because of the carrier proposal alone.<\/p>\n
Because Ryan began excluding her from meetings, criticizing her performance, and documenting minor mistakes after she refused.<\/p>\n
"Retaliation," Claire said.<\/p>\n
"That's Emily's interpretation."<\/p>\n
"Do you disagree?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Claire turned the page.<\/p>\n
There was one final detail.<\/p>\n
Emily had kept an email.<\/p>\n
Ryan wrote it after their argument.<\/p>\n
Emily,<\/p>\n
Forget the carrier conversation. Claire isn't ready and there is no point forcing the issue right now.<\/p>\n
Right now.<\/p>\n
Claire stared at those words.<\/p>\n
Not never.<\/p>\n
Not I was wrong.<\/p>\n
Right now.<\/p>\n
Below Ryan's email was Emily's response.<\/p>\n
Do not involve me in any future plans concerning Claire's embryos unless Claire herself contacts me.<\/p>\n
Claire looked up.<\/p>\n
"She understood better than my husband did."<\/p>\n
Angela said nothing.<\/p>\n
Claire read the date.<\/p>\n
Then she realized something.<\/p>\n
"Wait."<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"This was before the embryos were created."<\/p>\n
Angela checked.<\/p>\n
"Three weeks before the retrieval that produced them."<\/p>\n
Claire felt cold.<\/p>\n
Ryan had been planning how to use embryos that did not yet exist.<\/p>\n
"FP started four months after treatment began."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"But Emily says he approached her before retrieval."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"So FP didn't begin with Patricia."<\/p>\n
Angela's eyes narrowed.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"It began with Ryan."<\/p>\n
They called Cole.<\/p>\n
He had reached the same conclusion.<\/p>\n
"The earliest event we can document so far is Ryan approaching Emily," he said.<\/p>\n
"Before Patricia created the FP record."<\/p>\n
"Correct."<\/p>\n
Claire stood beside Angela's desk.<\/p>\n
"So Ryan started it."<\/p>\n
"Started what?"<\/p>\n
"The idea of using someone else without telling me."<\/p>\n
"Based on the current evidence, yes."<\/p>\n
Claire felt strangely relieved.<\/p>\n
Not because the truth was better.<\/p>\n
Because the shifting responsibility had finally found an anchor.<\/p>\n
Ryan.<\/p>\n
Patricia had expanded it.<\/p>\n
Thomas had enabled it.<\/p>\n
Marissa had operationalized it.<\/p>\n
Megan had eventually participated.<\/p>\n
But Ryan had approached Emily first.<\/p>\n
"What did Ryan say when you confronted him with Emily's statement?"<\/p>\n
Cole paused.<\/p>\n
"We haven't yet."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"We wanted documents first."<\/p>\n
Claire understood.<\/p>\n
"Did Emily know about FP?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Patricia?"<\/p>\n
"She says Ryan told her his mother supported using a carrier."<\/p>\n
"So Patricia knew something."<\/p>\n
"Probably."<\/p>\n
The next development came from an unexpected place.<\/p>\n
Thomas called Angela.<\/p>\n
He wanted to correct his statement.<\/p>\n
Claire almost refused another meeting.<\/p>\n
Then Angela told her what he wanted to correct.<\/p>\n
"When Ryan first consulted Reeves."<\/p>\n
Claire agreed immediately.<\/p>\n
Thomas appeared by video this time.<\/p>\n
His attorney sat beside him.<\/p>\n
Thomas looked worse than before.<\/p>\n
"I gave you the wrong timeline."<\/p>\n
Claire folded her arms.<\/p>\n
"I noticed."<\/p>\n
Thomas flinched.<\/p>\n
"I introduced Ryan to Reeves earlier."<\/p>\n
"How much earlier?"<\/p>\n
"About eighteen months earlier than I said."<\/p>\n
Claire stared.<\/p>\n
"Why did you lie?"<\/p>\n
"I was protecting him."<\/p>\n
"Ryan?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"From what?"<\/p>\n
"From looking like he was planning the divorce."<\/p>\n
Claire's stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
"Was he?"<\/p>\n
Thomas shook his head.<\/p>\n
"Not exactly."<\/p>\n
"That's not an answer."<\/p>\n
"He was planning contingencies."<\/p>\n
Claire almost laughed.<\/p>\n
"Your family loves gentle words."<\/p>\n
Thomas looked ashamed.<\/p>\n
"What contingency?"<\/p>\n
"If you couldn't have children."<\/p>\n
"I could have children."<\/p>\n
"You know what I mean."<\/p>\n
"No, Thomas. That's exactly the problem. Everyone decided what my body meant for me."<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
"You're right."<\/p>\n
Claire waited.<\/p>\n
Thomas continued.<\/p>\n
"Ryan worried that if treatment failed, the marriage wouldn't survive."<\/p>\n
"Did he tell you that?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"And rather than work on the marriage, he consulted a lawyer about embryos."<\/p>\n
Thomas looked down.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Claire asked the question that had been bothering her.<\/p>\n
"Did Ryan love me?"<\/p>\n
Angela glanced toward her.<\/p>\n
It was not a legal question.<\/p>\n
Thomas's face changed.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Then explain this."<\/p>\n
"I can't."<\/p>\n
"Try."<\/p>\n
Thomas took a long breath.<\/p>\n
"Ryan has always been terrified of losing things."<\/p>\n
Claire almost interrupted.<\/p>\n
Thomas raised a hand.<\/p>\n
"Not emotionally. Control. Property. Options. His grandfather built the company and taught him that you never surrender leverage."<\/p>\n
Claire stared.<\/p>\n
"I'm not property."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"Embryos aren't leverage."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"Did Ryan?"<\/p>\n
Thomas hesitated.<\/p>\n
"Not enough."<\/p>\n
Claire looked away.<\/p>\n
That answer felt closer to truth than anything else Thomas had said.<\/p>\n
Ryan might have loved her.<\/p>\n
He had simply believed love did not require surrendering control.<\/p>\n
Thomas continued.<\/p>\n
"When fertility treatment became uncertain, Ryan started treating the embryos as insurance."<\/p>\n
Claire turned back.<\/p>\n
"Insurance against what?"<\/p>\n
"A life without biological children."<\/p>\n
"And against me."<\/p>\n
Thomas said nothing.<\/p>\n
Claire understood.<\/p>\n
Ryan wanted both possibilities preserved.<\/p>\n
Stay married if things worked.<\/p>\n
Keep the embryos if they did not.<\/p>\n
Never face a future where Claire's decision could close the door.<\/p>\n
"Did Patricia encourage that?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Did you?"<\/p>\n
Thomas closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
The meeting ended shortly afterward.<\/p>\n
Claire went home exhausted.<\/p>\n
At nine, Megan sent a photograph.<\/p>\n
Lily asleep in her crib.<\/p>\n
Claire stared at it longer than she intended.<\/p>\n
Then another message appeared.<\/p>\n
She said "da" today. Ryan says it counts as Dada. I think he's cheating.<\/p>\n
Claire laughed before she could stop herself.<\/p>\n
Then guilt followed.<\/p>\n
Was she allowed to share something light with Megan?<\/p>\n
The answer came unexpectedly.<\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
A laugh did not erase betrayal.<\/p>\n
Human beings did not have to occupy only one moral category at a time.<\/p>\n
Claire replied.<\/p>\n
Tell him "da" is not legally binding.<\/p>\n
Megan sent a laughing emoji.<\/p>\n
Then nothing.<\/p>\n
Claire placed the phone down.<\/p>\n
At eleven seventeen, someone knocked on her door.<\/p>\n
She froze.<\/p>\n
Nobody should have been visiting.<\/p>\n
She looked through the peephole.<\/p>\n
Ryan.<\/p>\n
Claire did not open it.<\/p>\n
"What do you want?"<\/p>\n
His voice came through the door.<\/p>\n
"I know you talked to Emily."<\/p>\n
Claire's pulse accelerated.<\/p>\n
"Leave."<\/p>\n
"Claire, please."<\/p>\n
That word from Ryan was rare.<\/p>\n
"Go through Angela."<\/p>\n
"This isn't about the lawsuit."<\/p>\n
"Everything is about the lawsuit now."<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Then Ryan said, "Emily doesn't know the whole story."<\/p>\n
Claire almost laughed.<\/p>\n
"Everybody says that."<\/p>\n
"I was trying to protect our chance to have children."<\/p>\n
"By asking another woman to carry embryos before they existed?"<\/p>\n
Ryan did not answer.<\/p>\n
Claire remained behind the locked door.<\/p>\n
"You knew I had to consent."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
The admission surprised her.<\/p>\n
No argument this time.<\/p>\n
"You knew from the beginning."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Then why?"<\/p>\n
Ryan's voice dropped.<\/p>\n
"Because I knew you might eventually say no."<\/p>\n
Claire closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
Not confusion.<\/p>\n
Fear of her answer.<\/p>\n
"You thought wanting something badly enough gave you the right to prevent me from refusing."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"That's exactly what happened."<\/p>\n
Ryan leaned against the other side of the door. She could hear his coat move against the wood.<\/p>\n
"I never planned for Lily to happen this way."<\/p>\n
"But you planned for someone."<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
"Emily."<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
"Nicole."<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
"Megan."<\/p>\n
Ryan finally spoke.<\/p>\n
"My mother turned it into something else."<\/p>\n
Claire felt anger sharpen.<\/p>\n
"Stop hiding behind Patricia."<\/p>\n
"You don't understand her."<\/p>\n
"I understand enough."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
His voice changed.<\/p>\n
Claire heard genuine fear.<\/p>\n
"Claire, FP wasn't just about embryos."<\/p>\n
She became still.<\/p>\n
"What was it about?"<\/p>\n
Ryan said nothing.<\/p>\n
"Ryan."<\/p>\n
A long pause.<\/p>\n
Then he whispered.<\/p>\n
"Money."<\/p>\n
Claire frowned.<\/p>\n
"What money?"<\/p>\n
Another pause.<\/p>\n
"The trust."<\/p>\n
Claire felt the first flicker of a new danger.<\/p>\n
"What trust?"<\/p>\n
Ryan stepped away from the door.<\/p>\n
"Ask my father."<\/p>\n
His footsteps moved down the hall.<\/p>\n
Claire unlocked the door only after the elevator closed.<\/p>\n
Ryan was gone.<\/p>\n
But the word remained.<\/p>\n
Trust.<\/p>\n
And suddenly Claire understood there might have been something Patricia and Thomas wanted from Lily besides a grandchild.<\/p>\n
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 … <\/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-27803","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\/27803","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=27803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27838,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27803\/revisions\/27838"}],"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=27803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}