Chapter 5 - Corinne’s Child
The pregnancy Corinne had lost was not her first.
At twenty-four, before she met Ethan, Corinne underwent egg retrieval.
She had been in a long-term relationship with a man named Lucas Ward.
They created embryos.
Then broke up.
Corinne believed the embryos were destroyed.
They weren't.
Larkspur retained them because the destruction authorization was never properly processed.
Years later, during a storage migration, multiple embryo files became mismatched.
At least three sets were affected.
Ethan and Claire.
Corinne and Lucas.
Melissa Reeves and an anonymous donor.
The possibility was horrifying.
But Ethan refused to accept Corinne's assumptions.
DNA first.
The Vermont girl was identified in records as Ava Brooks.
Age seven.
Her adoptive parents were informed through legal channels that there might be a serious reproductive-record issue.
Nobody arrived at their house demanding a child.
Nobody called Ava a missing heir.
Her parents agreed to preserve evidence and seek counsel.
DNA testing, performed carefully and with appropriate consent, established:
Ava was Ethan and Claire's biological daughter.
Not Corinne's.
Corinne's belief was wrong.
Ethan sat alone when he received the result.
He had a seven-year-old daughter.
A child who had lived her entire life with another family.
A family she loved.
Ethan wanted to see her.
He also knew wanting something did not make it right to take it.
Claire’s trust lawyers confirmed Ava could potentially have inheritance rights.
That would be handled later.
Child first.
Money second.
Then where was Corinne's embryo child?
Larkspur's corrupted records contained another possibility.
Baby Girl Reeves.
Maisie.
Could Maisie be Corinne and Lucas's biological daughter?
DNA answered.
No.
Maisie was biologically Melissa Reeves's daughter.
Father:
unknown.
So the three girls were:
Ava — Ethan and Claire.
Maisie — Melissa Reeves.
Corinne's embryo child — missing.
Corinne broke when told.
For years she had convinced herself Ava might be hers.
Why?
Because Daniel Reeves had shown her partial matching records.
He had not lied deliberately.
The files were wrong.
Everyone had been making life-changing choices from corrupted paperwork.
Ethan asked Daniel:
“Why were you investigating any of this?”
Daniel answered:
“Because Melissa was my sister.”
Ethan froze.
Claire had not one sibling.
Two.
Daniel and Melissa.
Melissa Reeves gave birth to Maisie.
Then what happened to Melissa?
Alive.
Living in California.
Why did Maisie leave her?
Melissa had severe postpartum complications and agreed to temporary family care while recovering.
Larkspur transferred the baby.
Temporary care became a legal adoption pathway.
Melissa later tried to reverse it.
She was told the child had been adopted anonymously and records were sealed.
Who signed the consent?
Melissa insisted she didn't.
Handwriting analysis later supported concerns that documents had been altered.
Who benefited?
Larkspur.
The hospital was facing lawsuits from storage errors.
A clean adoption removed one more disputed child from the system.
Was there a grand conspiracy?
Maybe not.
Investigators increasingly found something more ordinary and dangerous:
employees correcting one mistake with another.
One administrator moved records.
Another signed a form.
A third assumed consent existed.
No one viewed the entire chain.
Then Daniel said:
“There was one person who did.”
Name:
Dr. Andrew Morrow.
Ethan's fertility specialist.
Morrow supervised storage reconciliation.
He knew Ava's embryo had been transferred incorrectly.
He knew Maisie's record was wrong.
He knew Corinne's embryos remained active.
And two years later, he told Ethan he could no longer naturally father children.
Why did that matter?
Because shortly after giving Ethan that diagnosis, Morrow personally authorized release of one of Ethan's stored sperm samples.
Recipient:
Larkspur Research Program.
Ethan stared.
“I never consented.”
May you like
Daniel replied:
“That's why Corinne being pregnant isn't impossible.”
