Chapter 7 - The Boy With My Eyes
The address Adrian gave us led to a pediatric therapy center outside Baltimore.
That made no sense.
Not at first.
Renee insisted I remain in the car while agents entered.
Dana stayed beside me.
Twenty minutes passed.
Then thirty.
At forty-two minutes, Renee emerged.
Her expression told me something had changed.
I opened the door before she reached us.
“Is he there?”
“Elena.”
“Is my son there?”
“We found a child whose date of birth matches Marcus’s notes.”
My legs weakened.
“What is his name?”
“Lucas Bennett.”
“Where are his parents?”
“Inside.”
“Are they involved?”
“We don’t know.”
“Can I see him?”
“Not yet.”
I almost shouted.
Instead I pressed both hands against the roof of the car.
“Why?”
“Because the people raising him appear to believe they participated in a lawful embryo donation program.”
I stared.
“They don’t know?”
“Not from what we can tell.”
“Who are they?”
“Thomas and Evelyn Bennett.”
“Did they pay Marcus?”
“They paid an intermediary.”
“How much?”
“Four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.”
My stomach twisted.
“For an embryo?”
“The payment was described as medical coordination, legal services, international transport, and donor compensation.”
“Donor compensation?”
Renee nodded grimly.
“They were told the genetic parents had voluntarily donated remaining embryos anonymously.”
I closed my eyes.
Another lie.
Another family built on it.
“Lucas?”
“He’s three.”
“Is he healthy?”
“Yes.”
“Why is he here?”
“Speech therapy.”
I pressed my fingers against my lips.
Three years old.
Walking.
Talking.
Loving two people he knew as Mom and Dad.
And genetically mine.
Maybe.
We still needed testing.
The Bennetts eventually agreed.
Not because they trusted me.
Because they wanted to prove I was wrong.
Evelyn Bennett came into the conference room first.
She was forty-one.
Beautiful in an exhausted way.
She looked at me with undisguised terror.
“You’re trying to take my child.”
I shook my head.
“I’m trying to learn what happened to mine.”
“He’s mine.”
Her voice cracked.
“I carried him.”
The sentence struck me.
“You carried him?”
“Yes.”
I had assumed there had been another surrogate.
Evelyn placed both hands against her chest.
“I was pregnant with Lucas.”
“I gave birth to him.”
“I have every ultrasound.”
“I have photographs.”
“I have his hospital bracelet.”
“I’m not saying you didn’t.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“That the embryo may have been created from my egg.”
“And my ex-husband’s sperm.”
Thomas Bennett entered behind her.
He looked furious.
“This is extortion.”
Renee stepped forward.
“No one has asked you for money.”
Thomas ignored her.
He looked at me.
“We used an anonymous embryo donation program.”
“I know.”
“We followed every rule.”
“I believe you.”
His anger faltered.
That was not the answer he expected.
“You believe us?”
“Yes.”
“Then leave us alone.”
“I can’t.”
Evelyn started crying.
I hated Marcus more in that moment than I had when I learned about Noah.
He had not only stolen from me.
He had planted a bomb inside another family.
One that would explode no matter what I chose.
The genetic test took two days.
I spent one of them meeting Noah.
Chloe brought him to a family visitation center.
I arrived forty minutes early.
I sat in a room filled with soft toys and books.
My hands would not stop shaking.
When the door opened, I forgot how to breathe.
Noah held Chloe’s finger while taking unsteady steps.
Ten months old.
Nearly walking.
He looked at me with serious brown eyes.
I wanted to run to him.
I stayed where I was.
The child therapist had explained the rules.
No grabbing.
No overwhelming him.
No calling myself Mommy.
Not yet.
Let him approach.
Let him feel safe.
Chloe sat on the floor.
She looked worse than she had in court.
No makeup.
Hair tied back.
No diamond pendant.
No performance.
“Noah.”
She pointed toward me.
“That’s Elena.”
He stared.
I smiled.
“Hi, Noah.”
My voice broke.
He blinked.
Then he hid behind Chloe’s shoulder.
The tiny rejection shattered me.
I reminded myself that he was a baby.
He did not know betrayal.
He knew familiarity.
Chloe was familiar.
I was not.
I picked up a wooden block.
I rolled it gently across the carpet.
Noah watched.
I rolled another.
A few minutes later, he crawled toward one.
Then another.
Then closer to me.
By the end of the hour, he had placed a red block into my palm.
It was nothing.
It was everything.
When the visit ended, Chloe hesitated.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at Noah sleeping against her shoulder.
“Don’t apologize in front of him.”
She nodded.
“I’m cooperating with investigators.”
“Why?”
Her eyes moved toward the floor.
“Because I finally understand what Marcus did.”
“You helped him.”
“Yes.”
“Understanding him doesn’t erase you.”
“I know.”
I looked at her.
“Do you?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I lied about you.”
“Yes.”
“I helped him take the shelter.”
“Yes.”
“I let people think you were unstable.”
“Yes.”
“I slept with him while you were still married.”
“Yes.”
“I carried your embryo.”
“Yes.”
Her face crumpled.
“I loved Noah.”
That sentence was different.
I looked at the baby.
“I know.”
“And I still do.”
“I know.”
“I’m terrified you’ll take him and I’ll never see him again.”
For a moment, anger urged me to say good.
Instead I looked at Noah’s hand curled against her collarbone.
He loved her.
Punishing Chloe by tearing her instantly out of his life would punish him too.
“I don’t know what will happen.”
She nodded.
“That’s fair.”
Then she whispered, “Marcus never loved him the way you think.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“He liked having a son.”
“He liked photographs.”
“He liked taking him to events.”
“But?”
“He hated the crying.”
“He hated diapers.”
“He hated interrupted sleep.”
“That sounds like Marcus.”
Chloe almost smiled.
Then it disappeared.
“He talked about having more children.”
“With the second embryo?”
“I didn’t know it existed.”
“Then how?”
She swallowed.
“He said he could buy them.”
My stomach dropped.
“Buy what?”
“Embryos.”
I stared at her.
“He said wealthy couples did it privately.”
“He called it legacy planning.”
The phrase disgusted me.
“Did he mention names?”
“One.”
“Whose?”
She hesitated.
“Adrian.”
I leaned closer.
“What about him?”
“Marcus said Adrian had introduced him to people willing to pay.”
That contradicted Adrian’s claim that he had objected.
“Did Adrian participate?”
“I don’t know.”
“He hated Marcus by the end.”
“Why?”
“Money.”
“The shelter?”
“Something bigger.”
“What?”
Chloe adjusted Noah.
“Mercer BioLegacy.”
I frowned.
“What is that?”
“I thought it was an investment company.”
“Marcus said it would make him richer than real estate ever could.”
I stared at her.
“When did he say this?”
“Two years ago.”
“Did he describe the business?”
“No.”
“Anything?”
Chloe thought.
“One sentence.”
“What?”
“He said people with money would pay anything for the right genetics.”
Cold moved through me.
I called Dana before reaching my car.
“Search Mercer BioLegacy.”
She was silent for a second.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“We already did.”
“And?”
“It isn’t an investment company.”
“What is it?”
“A holding corporation connected to three fertility agencies.”
I stopped walking.
“Where?”
“United States, Czech Republic, and Cyprus.”
My stomach tightened.
“How long has it existed?”
“Four years.”
The timeline made my skin crawl.
Marcus had turned my stolen embryos into the beginning of a business model.
The laboratory called that afternoon.
Lucas Bennett was genetically my son.
99.99 percent maternity.
Marcus was the biological father.
I sat alone when I received the result.
Three children.
Noah.
Mila.
Lucas.
Three embryos I had been told never existed.
Three children growing in homes where I did not exist.
Dana came over.
I showed her the result without speaking.
She sat beside me.
For several minutes, neither of us talked.
Then I whispered, “How do I fix this?”
“You don’t.”
I looked at her.
“That’s not acceptable.”
“You can expose what happened.”
“You can protect the children.”
“You can fight for legal recognition.”
“You can hold Marcus accountable.”
“But you cannot make the last three years disappear.”
I stared at the floor.
“I don’t want to destroy Lucas’s family.”
“That matters.”
“I don’t want to take him from Evelyn.”
“That matters too.”
“But he deserves to know who he is.”
“Yes.”
“And I deserve…”
My voice broke.
Dana finished softly.
“To know your son.”
I nodded.
Her phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen.
“What?”
I asked.
She became very still.
“Federal investigators opened the financial records of Mercer BioLegacy.”
“And?”
“They found payments from six couples.”
My chest tightened.
“For embryos?”
“They don’t know yet.”
“How much?”
“Just over two million dollars.”
I stood.
“There are more children.”
“We don’t know.”
“There could be.”
“Yes.”
I walked toward the window.
Then Dana said, “One payment is different.”
I turned.
“How?”
“It came from someone we know.”
“Who?”
She looked sick.
“Dr. Elias Thorne.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
“The transfer is real.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred fifty thousand dollars.”
“For what?”
Dana shook her head.
“We don’t know.”
I thought about the man who uncovered my altered medical records.
The man who stood beside me in the hospital corridor.
The man who helped me find Noah.
Mila.
Lucas.
“You’re saying Dr. Thorne paid Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
Around the same time my embryos disappeared.
My phone rang.
Dr. Thorne.
I stared at his name.
Dana whispered, “Don’t answer alone.”
I put it on speaker.
“Dr. Thorne.”
“Elena.”
His voice sounded strained.
“I need to speak with you.”
“About Mercer BioLegacy?”
Silence.
That was enough.
Dana’s eyes narrowed.
“You knew.”
I whispered.
“Elena, please.”
“Why did you pay Marcus two hundred fifty thousand dollars?”
His breathing stopped.
I felt something inside me break again.
Then he said the last thing I expected.
May you like
“Because I was trying to buy your embryos back.”
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