Chapter 10 - The sample that should not have existed
Adrian Vance had died in a motorcycle accident.
But before his death, he had undergone cancer treatment.
He had preserved reproductive material.
Margaret admitted it.
Marco stared at her.
“You told me it was destroyed.”
“I thought it was.”
“Thought?”
Margaret began crying.
Adrian’s stored samples had been maintained at the same fertility network.
Different facility.
Same parent company.
That connection changed everything.
Could a catastrophic laboratory error have occurred?
Possibly.
Could someone have intentionally interfered?
Also possibly.
We had proof of neither.
Not yet.
Then Margaret remembered something else.
After Adrian died, she could not bring herself to authorize destruction of the stored material.
She extended storage privately.
Marco never knew.
Years later, the fertility company consolidated facilities.
Adrian’s material was transferred.
The timing overlapped our IVF cycle.
My stomach twisted.
I looked at Leo’s photograph.
Whatever biology revealed, he was still my son.
But someone had concealed critical information.
The investigation expanded.
Then a former clinic employee agreed to speak.
Her name was Rachel Kim.
Our gestational carrier.
I hadn’t spoken to her in years.
She joined a video call with attorneys present.
“Andrea.”
“Rachel.”
She started crying immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
My heart stopped.
“For what?”
“The clinic told me never to contact you.”
“Why?”
“Because after Leo was born, they discovered something.”
“What?”
She shook her head.
“I never knew exactly. They asked me to sign a confidentiality agreement.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They said it was a clerical mistake that had no medical consequence.”
Then Rachel said:
“But Valerie visited me.”
Marco leaned toward the screen.
“When?”
“About two weeks after Leo was born.”
Valerie went white.
Rachel continued.
“She offered me money.”
“For what?”
“To say, if anyone ever asked, that she had been the surrogate.”
Silence.
Five years before Valerie became my secretary.
Five years before Marco’s affair with her.
Valerie’s connection to my family had begun long before any of us realized.
I turned toward her.
“Why?”
Valerie shook her head.
“No.”
“Why did you approach Rachel?”
“You can’t prove that.”
Rachel answered from the screen.
“I kept the envelope.”
Valerie stopped breathing.
Rachel held up an old envelope.
Inside was a cashier’s check.
The purchaser’s name was not Valerie.
May you like
It was someone else.
Margaret Vance.
