Chapter 4 - The Copied Signature
Document examiner confirmed Sarah’s intended-parent authorization contained digital reproduction of Ethan’s signature.
It had been lifted from Claire’s legitimate embryo-transfer consent.
Claire’s signature had been copied too.
So somebody created false authorization using real Bennett paperwork.
That established crime.
But still not embryo identity.
St. Catherine suspended transfers and allowed independent forensic review.
Dr. Martin Keene insisted he had never authorized Sarah's pregnancy.
System record showed approval under his credentials.
He denied.
Again credentials were not person.
Access log originated from embryology workstation.
User:
M.GRANT.
Melissa Grant.
The technician who warned Eleanor.
Ethan immediately assumed Melissa responsible.
Detective Hannah Brooks cautioned him.
“People who expose a problem sometimes touched the system because they discovered it.”
They located Melissa.
She had not disappeared.
She was staying with sister in North Carolina after receiving threats from unknown caller.
Melissa voluntarily returned.
Her story changed entire case.
She discovered duplicate transfer eight months earlier.
Sarah’s embryo had already been implanted.
She tried stop it but pregnancy established.
She reported to Keene.
Keene told her investigate quietly before contacting families because embryo identity uncertain.
Melissa believed delay unethical.
She copied records.
Then she discovered something worse.
The embryo transferred to Sarah was not supposed to be “discarded.”
It had originally been designated:
4471-B — HOLD FOR CONFIRMATION.
Someone later changed status to discard.
Why?
Because after Claire’s first failed transfer, lab inventory showed three Bennett embryos where there should have been two.
An extra embryo appeared.
Impossible biologically?
No.
Embryology record showed one early blastocyst had divided during culture.
Not identical twin pregnancy inside body.
A single embryo had split in lab into two viable embryonic structures.
Rare and medically unusual, but St. Catherine records initially treated them as A1 and A2 pending viability.
Only one should have been retained for possible transfer under consent.
The other was expected not to survive.
But both developed.
Then naming changed.
4471-A.
4471-B.
Claire stared.
“So there really were two embryos from one?”
Melissa nodded.
“Potentially genetically identical.”
Ethan looked toward Sarah’s newborn.
Then Claire’s pregnant belly.
“Are you saying they’re twins?”
Melissa answered carefully.
“Genetically they may be monozygotic siblings originating from same embryo. But they were transferred weeks apart and carried by different women. Medically and legally, this is extraordinary. We need DNA before calling them anything.”
Why “there was never supposed to be Baby B”?
Because clinic protocol and Bennett consent authorized storage and transfer of one surviving split product only until review.
The second should not have been transferred without new explicit consent.
Who transferred it?
Melissa denied.
Then independent audit found camera footage.
A woman entered embryology lab after hours.
Dark hair.
Black dress.
Eleanor stared at still image.
May you like
Ethan turned slowly toward her.
The woman looked exactly like Eleanor.
