Chapter 13 - The Second Child
I felt the floor disappear beneath me.
“What are you saying?”
Margaret lowered the flash drive.
“At Bellhaven, three viable embryos were created during your cycle.”
I knew that.
Two had been transferred.
One had supposedly failed.
The third had been listed as nonviable.
At least that was what I had been told.
Margaret smiled.
“It wasn't destroyed.”
I couldn't speak.
“Where is it?”
Nathan stepped toward her.
“Margaret, don't.”
She laughed.
“Still protecting everyone, Nathan?”
I grabbed his sleeve.
“What happened to the embryo?”
Nathan looked ashamed.
“It was transferred.”
“To who?”
He closed his eyes.
“Another patient.”
The chapel went silent.
I could hear my own heartbeat.
“My biological child is somewhere else?”
Nathan nodded.
“Potentially.”
“Boy or girl?”
“I don't know.”
“Age?”
“Approximately Sophie's age.”
Margaret interrupted.
“Oh, Nathan.”
“You know perfectly well.”
She looked at me.
“A boy.”
My knees weakened.
A son.
Genetically connected to me.
Potentially created from the same unauthorized Charles specimen.
“Where is he?”
Margaret gave me the cruelest smile I had ever seen.
“You've already met him.”
I lunged toward her.
Detective Morales caught me.
“Claire.”
“WHO?”
Margaret did not answer.
Police handcuffed her.
She remained silent as they led her outside.
She knew silence was more powerful than explanation.
Nathan eventually gave us access to the database.
Records showed a second embryo transferred two days after my procedure.
Recipient code: B-1187.
Identity redacted.
Only Margaret possessed the encryption key.
But Diane recognized the code.
She had worked in embryology records.
“B-series means surrogate arrangement.”
I stared.
“Who hired the surrogate?”
She searched old billing archives.
The payment came from Whitmore Holdings.
Authorized by Charles Whitmore.
Charles stared at the signature.
“I never signed this.”
Another forgery.
The boy had been created using Claire Bennett's egg and Charles Whitmore's genetic material.
Biologically, he would be Sophie's full brother.
The gestational carrier had delivered him somewhere in Maryland.
Then he disappeared into private adoption records.
We spent three days tracing payments.
Then we found a current school enrollment attached to one of the shell companies funding his care.
Child: Lucas Hale.
Age five.
Guardian: Gloria Kemp.
Margaret's personal assistant.
Everything stopped.
Gloria had claimed she knew nothing.
Police returned to her Richmond location.
She was gone.
Again.
This time, a surveillance camera captured her leaving with a small boy.
We obtained the image.
Lucas had dark hair.
Blue-gray eyes.
Sophie's eyes.
Charles's eyes.
My heart broke for a child I had never known existed.
Evan saw the photograph.
His face crumpled.
“That's Sophie's brother.”
“Yes.”
“Your son.”
I looked at him.
“My biological son.”
He nodded slowly.
“And my…”
He couldn't finish.
Not biologically.
But the embryo had been created during our marriage.
During our fertility treatment.
Using genetic material he had consented to replacing without telling me.
There were no clean labels.
Only children surrounded by adult crimes.
The FBI joined the investigation because Gloria crossed state lines and Bellhaven involved multiple jurisdictions.
Two days later, Gloria called me directly.
“I didn't kidnap him.”
“Where is Lucas?”
“He's safe.”
“Bring him back.”
“You don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
Gloria cried.
“Margaret wasn't the only one looking for him.”
“Who else?”
“Nathan.”
I looked across the room.
Nathan was sitting twenty feet away with detectives.
“He's here.”
Gloria went silent.
Then whispered, “That isn't Nathan Vale.”
I stared at the man.
“What?”
“The man police rescued from the lodge isn't Nathan.”
My blood ran cold.
“Then who is he?”
Gloria answered.
“His twin brother.”
I looked at him.
May you like
He was already watching me.
And slowly, the man we had trusted for days began to smile.
