Chapter 3 - The Other Baby
Ethan did the one thing his family had apparently spent years avoiding.
He ordered independent DNA testing.
Not through the clinic.
Not through Corinne.
Not through any Hale—no, Carter—family contact.
A court-approved laboratory collected samples from Ethan and Maisie.
The result arrived forty-eight hours later.
Ethan Carter was not Maisie's biological father.
He read it once.
Then again.
Then put the paper down.
Maisie was asleep beside him with one foot hanging off the couch.
Nothing about her changed.
She was still the child who cried for him.
Still the child who refused bananas unless sliced into circles.
Still the child who screamed when the vacuum cleaner started.
Still his.
Biology mattered.
It simply did not erase attachment.
Then Rachel called.
They had located Baby Girl Reeves.
Or rather, her records.
The baby had been born at the same private hospital.
Mother:
Melissa Reeves.
Father:
not listed.
Discharged two days later.
Then the file changed.
A correction replaced Reeves with Carter.
Same medical record number.
Different name.
“Someone merged the babies,” Rachel said.
“Accident?”
“Maybe.”
Ethan no longer trusted maybe.
The hospital had been part of a private maternal-care network called Larkspur Women’s Health.
Corinne worked there.
Not recently.
Nine years earlier.
Before she ever met Ethan.
Position:
Patient liaison.
Ethan stared at the personnel file.
“She told me she worked in event planning.”
“She did later.”
“How long was she at Larkspur?”
“Three years.”
Then another name appeared.
Dr. Andrew Morrow.
The fertility specialist who had told Ethan natural conception was effectively impossible.
He had also served on Larkspur's reproductive-medicine board.
Every part of Ethan's adult life was suddenly touching the same institution.
Rachel requested old fertility records.
The clinic resisted.
Legal process began.
Meanwhile, investigators questioned Corinne again.
This time Ethan watched from another room.
They showed her the DNA result.
She closed her eyes.
“You knew,” the detective said.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Since before Ethan took Maisie home.”
Ethan stood.
Rachel put a hand on his arm.
Corinne continued.
Maisie was not the embryo Claire believed she carried.
Claire had undergone a transfer.
But the embryo implanted was not Ethan and Claire's embryo.
Whose was it?
Corinne refused to answer without immunity.
She did reveal one thing.
Claire discovered the mismatch because she secretly tested Maisie after birth.
The result showed Claire was not Maisie's biological mother either.
Ethan felt the room tilt.
Maisie was biologically unrelated to both parents who had been told she was theirs.
Then who was she?
Corinne whispered:
“She was the Reeves baby.”
Baby Girl Reeves.
Melissa Reeves's daughter.
Where was the actual Carter embryo child?
Corinne began crying.
“That’s why Claire died trying to find her.”
Ethan stared.
“Claire died from an embolism.”
Corinne nodded.
“She did.”
“So don't imply murder without evidence.”
Corinne looked at him.
“I’m not.”
Good.
The death could be real.
The secret around it could still be terrible.
Then the detective asked:
“Where is Ethan Carter's biological daughter?”
Corinne looked toward the one-way glass.
As if she knew Ethan stood behind it.
May you like
Then said:
“With the man Ethan thinks is dead.”
