Chapter 4 - The Fertility Clinic
Ariel was conceived through IVF.
That fact had never been secret.
After two miscarriages, Glen and I went to Lakeview Reproductive Center.
Three embryos.
One successful pregnancy.
Ariel.
Simple.
Until Glen admitted Clara recommended the clinic.
I looked at my stepmother.
“You?”
Clara nodded weakly.
“Why?”
“I knew the director.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Howard Bell.”
The name meant nothing.
To my father, it meant everything.
He stood.
“No.”
Clara began crying.
“Richard—”
“No.”
I looked between them.
“Who is Howard Bell?”
Dad said:
“The man your mother was investigating.”
Silence.
The same medical foundation.
Same fake charity network.
Same money.
The reproductive clinic had grown out of that foundation years later.
I felt sick.
“We went there because Clara sent us there.”
Glen moved toward me.
“I didn’t know that history.”
“Did you know anything?”
“I knew Dr. Bell knew my family.”
“When?”
“After Ariel was born.”
Again.
Truth arriving after commitment.
“What did he tell you?”
Glen looked ashamed.
“That our embryo records had an irregularity.”
My body went cold.
“What irregularity?”
“The paternal sample ID didn’t match the intake code.”
I stared.
“You knew there was a possible problem with Ariel’s paternity and never told me?”
“He said it was clerical.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
That sentence destroyed more trust than any affair could have.
I ordered independent DNA testing.
Not secret.
Not manipulated.
A court-accredited lab.
While waiting, Ariel kept asking about “other Daddy.”
She insisted he had given her something.
“What?”
“A star.”
We searched her room.
Inside the pillowcase, I found a tiny silver charm shaped like a star.
My mother’s charm.
I recognized it immediately.
It had been attached to the bracelet she wore in the photograph.
Gabriel had possession of something that belonged to my dead mother.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A man’s voice.
Identical to Glen’s.
“Megan.”
I stopped breathing.
“Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Don’t ask.”
“You entered my daughter’s room.”
“I needed to see her.”
“You do not enter my house.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Silence.
“Because I needed to know whether Bell did what I think he did.”
My throat tightened.
“What?”
Gabriel answered:
“He used my stored genetic material.”
I looked at Glen.
“What stored material?”
Glen’s face changed.
His brother continued:
“Before I disappeared, Bell’s foundation collected samples from both of us.”
I felt physically sick.
“You’re saying Ariel might be yours?”
“No.”
A pause.
“I’m saying Bell may have wanted everyone to believe she was.”
Then the call ended.
The DNA results arrived the next morning.
Glen was not excluded as Ariel’s father.
But neither was Gabriel.
May you like
Because identical twins share essentially the same standard DNA profile.
The test could not distinguish between them.
