Chapter 5 - The Woman in the Lab
It was not Eleanor.
Facial comparison showed woman younger.
The resemblance came from hairstyle, posture and poor image.
Identified as Catherine Vale.
Former St. Catherine clinical operations director.
Catherine was Eleanor’s younger half-sister.
Ethan had met her once as child and barely remembered.
Claire had never met her.
Catherine left clinic six months ago.
Why had Eleanor never mentioned connection?
Because sisters had been estranged for ten years.
Their dispute involved St. Catherine.
Eleanor’s charitable board had approved expansion Catherine opposed.
Catherine accused clinic of prioritizing success rates over consent clarity.
Eleanor believed Catherine exaggerated.
They stopped speaking.
Then Catherine appeared on lab footage entering under Melissa's credentials.
Melissa said access badge had been missing two days.
She reported it.
Security closed incident as misplaced.
Catherine was located in Philadelphia.
She denied unauthorized transfer.
She admitted entering lab.
Why?
She suspected Dr. Keene was planning to destroy evidence of split embryo.
She copied inventory.
Did she transfer embryo?
“No.”
“Did you know Sarah?”
“Yes.”
She had counseled gestational carriers through outside agency.
Sarah was one.
Catherine noticed Sarah’s paperwork used Bennett case code.
She warned Melissa.
So Catherine and Melissa were whistleblowers, though they used unauthorized methods.
Then who actually implanted embryo?
Sarah’s transfer occurred at partner clinic, Brookhaven Fertility Center.
Physician:
Dr. Elaine Porter.
Elaine received sealed embryo shipment from St. Catherine marked:
4471-B — approved anonymous intended-parent program.
The forged Bennett signatures were not shown to Sarah.
They were kept central record to authorize release.
Brookhaven believed everything legitimate.
Who issued shipment?
St. Catherine logistics officer:
Daniel Reed.
Daniel admitted physically releasing cryogenic carrier.
He relied on electronic authorization.
No reason to suspect.
Then audit traced authorization creation to executive assistant account belonging to:
ANNA MARTIN.
Anna.
The maid.
Ethan stared.
Anna had worked for Bennett household only six months.
Before that?
Administrative coordinator at St. Catherine.
Claire turned toward her.
“You worked there?”
Anna began crying.
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“Because I needed this job.”
She had been fired after embryo-transfer scandal began internally.
Not for causing it.
For copying restricted logs.
She believed clinic scapegoated her.
Why become maid in Bennett house?
Not coincidence.
Catherine recommended her.
Anna wanted monitor Claire and eventually tell her truth.
Ethan’s anger rose.
“You entered my home under false pretenses.”
“Yes.”
“You cared for Claire while investigating her pregnancy.”
“Yes.”
“Did you create authorization?”
“No.”
Her credentials did.
But she claimed account had been shared across operations office—bad practice.
Who knew password?
Several people.
Then Anna revealed why she panicked when Eleanor forced medicine.
She recognized vial.
Not drug itself.
Label format.
St. Catherine’s fetal-treatment program.
“Baby A” was clinic designation.
“What medicine?” Ethan asked.
Anna looked at Claire.
“Flecainide.”
A medication sometimes used maternally to treat fetal tachyarrhythmia.
Claire’s maternal-fetal specialist later confirmed she had been prescribed it that morning after fetal rhythm problem developed.
So medicine was real.
For fetus.
Not poison.
But Eleanor had forced it dangerously into Claire when she was too weak to swallow.
Then Ethan asked the question no one could avoid.
“If Eleanor knew it was prescribed, why was she panicking about Baby B?”
Anna answered:
May you like
“Because if Baby A and Baby B are genetically identical, anything happening to one could tell us what happened to the other.”
And Sarah’s newborn had developed an abnormal heart rhythm the previous night too.
