Chapter 10 - THE THIRD CHILD“Another woman?”
Lauren nodded.
“Who?”
“We don't know yet.”
I stared at the screen.
My own DNA.
My father's DNA.
Three embryos.
Two became my daughters.
One went somewhere else.
“Find her.”
Lauren immediately began searching.
The clinic records were incomplete.
Someone had deleted names.
But there was a billing code.
And an insurance number.
It led to a woman named Samantha Hale.
Forty-one years old.
Married.
Living three states away.
She had a daughter.
Age six.
I felt sick.
“What are the chances?”
Lauren looked at the numbers.
“High.”
Brandon asked:
“What do we do?”
I answered before Lauren could.
“We find her.”
Three days later, I was standing across the street from Samantha's house.
A little girl ran through the front yard.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
A familiar smile.
I knew before the DNA test.
The test only confirmed it.
She was genetically my daughter.
Her name was Ava.
I sat in my car crying.
Not because I wanted another child.
Because someone had stolen six years from us.
Samantha agreed to meet.
She told us she had used donor treatment years ago.
She had never been told the donor's identity.
Daniel Reeves had arranged it.
But Samantha knew something else.
“The clinic called me six months ago.”
“For what?”
“They wanted to confirm Ava's medical information.”
“Why?”
“They said there was a concern about an inherited condition.”
My heart stopped.
“Did they mention Daniel?”
“No.”
“Did they mention my name?”
Samantha hesitated.
“Yes.”
I froze.
“What exactly did they say?”
“They said your family had been involved in a genetic study.”
I looked at Brandon.
“What study?”
Samantha shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Then she handed me a folder.
“Daniel gave this to me years ago.”
I opened it.
There were photographs.
Doctors.
Lab equipment.
Embryos.
And me.
Pregnant.
Taken without my knowledge.
My hands shook.
“How long had he been watching me?”
Samantha pointed to the dates.
Years.
He had tracked my medical history since I was twenty-one.
Then I saw one photograph that made everything clear.
Daniel wasn't alone.
Standing beside him was Megan.
Brandon's sister.
Megan had known for years.
She had helped him.
But why?
We drove back that night.
Margaret was waiting.
She looked at the folder.
Then whispered,
“Megan was never protecting Daniel.”
“What was she doing?”
Margaret looked toward Brandon.
“She was protecting herself.”
“From what?”
Margaret sat down.
“Daniel wasn't the only person conducting the experiment.”
“Who else?”
She looked directly at me.
“Brandon.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“He knew about the study before you got pregnant.”
I turned to my husband.
“No.”
He looked broken.
“I swear I didn't know what it was.”
“You knew something.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
He swallowed.
“I knew the clinic was using experimental genetic screening.”
“You knew?”
“I thought it was harmless.”
“You knew.”
“I thought they were trying to help people!”
“You let them use me.”
“No.”
“You let them use our children.”
“No.”
I stepped backward.
“I trusted you.”
He started crying.
Then Margaret said the sentence that silenced all of us.
“There is still one person alive who knows exactly what happened.”
“Who?”
Margaret looked at the folder.
“The doctor who implanted the embryos.”
I stared at her.
“Where is he?”
May you like
She whispered,
“In prison.”
