Chapter 12 - The Daughter Rachel Never Had
Rachel stared at Eric.
“No.”
She had given birth once.
Lily.
No other pregnancy.
No adoption.
No hidden daughter.
Eric raised both hands.
“I know.”
Then why claim Marcus’s daughter had Rachel as mother?
Because of frozen embryos.
Years before Lily, Rachel had briefly undergone fertility preservation after a medical diagnosis.
She had forgotten about it.
Not forgotten the procedure.
Forgotten what happened to remaining samples.
She believed they were destroyed when the clinic closed.
They were not.
The clinic had been financed by Warren Medical Ventures.
Marcus controlled it.
He used one of Rachel’s stored eggs with his own genetic material to create a child through a surrogate.
Without Rachel’s consent.
Her name was Ava Warren.
Fourteen.
Rachel nearly vomited.
“That’s my daughter?”
Biologically, possibly.
But Rachel refused the word until testing.
Correct.
No one was assigning parenthood from a document.
Why would Marcus do this?
At the time, Rachel worked for Meridian and was known to be intelligent, healthy and from a lineage Jonathan’s private advisers considered “clean.”
Ugly language.
Eugenic thinking disguised as family planning.
Marcus wanted an heir without marriage complications.
Then he later married someone else and presented Ava publicly as his wife’s child.
Did Ava know?
Eric didn’t think so.
Rachel whispered:
“She thinks another woman is her mother.”
“Yes.”
The horror wasn’t only stolen genetic material.
It was another child living inside a constructed identity.
Then Jack understood David’s highway line:
“We only need the girl.”
Which girl?
Lily?
Or someone needed Lily to reach Ava?
Eric explained.
Marcus had recently discovered Rachel was alive.
If Rachel learned about Ava and challenged the records, Marcus feared losing control over his daughter’s narrative and perhaps custody complications.
So he wanted Rachel discredited before the truth surfaced.
David was supposed to retrieve Lily’s old Elizabeth identity records and use them to prove Rachel had spent years committing identity fraud.
Not abduct Lily.
At least originally.
But David started making his own deals.
The second SUV on the highway?
Marianne.
Unexpected.
The plan collapsed.
Then Rachel asked:
“Where is Ava?”
Jonathan answered.
“Boarding school near Monterey.”
Marcus had sent her there six months earlier.
Jack looked at him.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Eric laughed bitterly.
“Everyone says that.”
Then Lily spoke.
“What does she look like?”
Eric showed a photograph.
Ava.
Fourteen.
Dark blond hair.
Green eyes.
Rachel’s smile.
Lily stared.
“She looks like Mom.”
Rachel began crying.
Then Lily asked:
“Does she know about me?”
“No.”
“Can we tell her?”
Rachel looked at Jack.
This was not a secret to explode into a child’s life recklessly.
“We tell her safely.”
For once, everyone agreed.
Then Jonathan’s phone rang.
Marcus.
Jonathan answered.
Speakerphone.
“Dad.”
“Marcus.”
“I hear the family reunion is going badly.”
Jonathan’s face hardened.
“Stay away from Ava.”
Marcus laughed.
“You misunderstand.”
“Then explain.”
“Ava isn’t the child I’m worried about.”
Rachel went still.
Marcus continued:
“The embryo wasn’t mine.”
Silence.
“Whose was it?”
May you like
Marcus answered:
“Jack’s.”
