Chapter 6 - The Pregnancy
Corinne had not become pregnant through an affair.
At least not in the way Ethan assumed.
She had undergone fertility treatment.
Secretly.
Five months earlier.
Using sperm stored under Ethan's name.
The procedure took place at a private clinic connected to Dr. Morrow.
Corinne claimed Morrow told her Ethan had previously authorized future spousal use.
He had not.
“Why would you do that without telling me?” Ethan asked.
Corinne looked exhausted.
“Because you said you were done trying.”
“That means no.”
“I thought if I got pregnant—”
“What?”
“You'd be happy.”
Ethan stared.
Corinne continued:
“And I wanted a child who was actually ours.”
There it was.
Maisie.
A child Corinne increasingly viewed as “not theirs.”
That did not excuse abuse.
It explained part of the resentment.
Then investigators found the consent form.
Ethan's signature appeared.
Forged.
Corinne denied forging it.
Morrow claimed Corinne brought it already signed.
Who created it?
Digital metadata traced the document to Ethan's home office printer.
Corinne had access.
So did Ethan.
So did their house manager, Elena Price.
Elena had worked for Ethan for six years.
Quiet.
Reliable.
She immediately volunteered her devices.
No evidence she created the form.
Then the printer's old scan history revealed the source.
A copy of Ethan's signature from a real estate document.
Scanned by:
Corinne.
She had done it.
Confronted, Corinne admitted scanning the signature.
But claimed Morrow told her it was “administrative.”
Ethan almost laughed.
“You knew I hadn't signed.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
That settled the moral question.
Whether Morrow manipulated her or not, Corinne knowingly bypassed Ethan's consent.
Then came another shock.
The sperm sample used for Corinne's procedure was not Ethan's.
DNA from the pregnancy tissue excluded him.
So whose was it?
The clinic donor code matched an internal Reeves-family specimen.
Daniel's?
No.
Testing ruled him out.
Melissa's male relative?
There was one.
Their father.
Dr. Samuel Reeves.
Founder of Larkspur.
Dead six years.
His stored reproductive sample had been retained from cancer treatment.
Why would his sample be used?
Morrow claimed clerical error.
Daniel did not believe him.
Neither did Ethan.
Corinne's lost pregnancy had been biologically related to the Reeves family.
Which meant Corinne had unknowingly carried a child from the same family tied to Maisie.
Then Daniel revealed a darker piece.
Samuel Reeves had one undocumented son.
Born from an affair.
Name:
Lucas Ward.
Corinne's former fiancé.
Corinne stared.
Lucas was Samuel's biological son.
That meant the embryo Corinne created years earlier with Lucas was also part of the Reeves family.
The pregnancy she had just lost could have come from Lucas's stored sample or related material, not Samuel directly.
The clinic codes were ambiguous.
Forensic review was needed.
No one invented certainty.
Corinne whispered:
“Lucas told me his father was dead.”
“He thought his father was someone else,” Daniel said.
The Reeves family had hidden Lucas too.
Another secret lineage.
But why would Morrow use Reeves material in Corinne?
One possible explanation was not sinister:
the storage system mislabeled Corinne-Lucas material under Reeves because Lucas was genetically a Reeves.
But Morrow knew the family connection.
He had adjusted records after discovering it.
Then one email surfaced.
Morrow to Corinne, three months before the procedure:
IF THE PREGNANCY WORKS, ETHAN WILL NEVER QUESTION MAISIE AGAIN.
Ethan stared.
Why would Corinne's pregnancy make him stop questioning Maisie's identity?
May you like
Because Morrow had a plan.
And Corinne had been part of it.
