Chapter 10 - MY MOTHER’S CONFESSION
My mother returned to the hospital alone.
She looked as though she had aged ten years in one night.
Dad remained with his attorney.
Rachel had stopped answering calls.
David claimed he did not know where she was.
Mom asked to speak privately.
I refused to leave Emma’s room.
“Anything you say can be said beside her.”
Emma was sleeping.
My mother sat near the door.
She admitted arranging Rachel’s donation seven years earlier.
Rachel had agreed at first.
She wanted to help me after my miscarriages.
She also needed money.
My parents paid off her student loans in exchange for the donation.
After the successful transfer, Rachel changed her mind.
She became emotionally attached to the idea of a genetic child.
The fertility clinic had not properly explained how she might feel afterward.
My parents pressured her to sign additional confidentiality agreements.
Dad warned that telling me could destroy my pregnancy.
Rachel remained silent.
“She watched my stomach grow,” I said.
Mom nodded.
“She came to my baby shower.”
“Yes.”
“She held Emma after I gave birth.”
“She cried for hours afterward.”
I remembered that day.
Rachel said she was emotional because she loved me.
I had believed her.
Mom said the resentment disappeared for several years.
Rachel married David and planned to have children of her own.
Then medical complications made another pregnancy unlikely.
After Grandma Evelyn died, Rachel learned about the trust amendment.
Old grief became obsession.
“Did you help her make a custody case?” I asked.
“No.”
“Did you know she contacted lawyers?”
“Not at first.”
“Did you send the anonymous message to Mark?”
Mom’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
She had found the laboratory report inside Mark’s briefcase after the secret family meeting.
She feared he would accuse Rachel publicly.
She sent the warning to stop him.
“You threatened him with Emma’s identity.”
“I was trying to keep the family together.”
“You helped someone continue poisoning my child.”
“I didn’t know Rachel had done it.”
“You knew it was possible.”
Mom began sobbing.
I felt no desire to comfort her.
“What did you do with Rachel’s prescription bottle?”
“I never had it.”
“You told the police you found it.”
“Your father told me to say that.”
“Why?”
May you like
She looked toward Emma.
“Because the bottle was his.”
