Chapter 13 - Dr. Price
Claire changed doctors immediately.
Dr. Price was suspended pending investigation.
Her explanation was devastatingly mundane.
Money.
Daniel paid her.
Margaret funded her research.
Evelyn threatened to expose both relationships.
Price had spent years telling herself she was merely sharing noncritical information.
Appointment dates.
Routine lab values.
Ultrasound summaries.
Then the requests became more invasive.
By the time she understood the scale, admitting anything would destroy her career.
So she continued.
Again.
One compromise becoming the justification for the next.
Claire asked:
“Did you ever intend to harm my baby?”
“No.”
“Did you intend to take my baby?”
“No.”
“Did Margaret?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Daniel?”
Price hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
That mattered.
Daniel remained missing.
Police issued warrants related to Sophie’s removal and other conduct.
Claire’s pregnancy entered its final weeks.
For the first time, she began making decisions that had nothing to do with decoding someone else’s scheme.
Birth plan.
Hospital.
Who could visit.
Who couldn’t.
Ryan was not allowed in the delivery room.
He accepted it.
Margaret was prohibited from contact.
Evelyn too.
Claire allowed Elena, the advocate who had stayed beside her from the first hospital visit.
Then one evening Ryan requested five minutes.
Claire agreed in a public hospital courtyard.
He looked thinner.
“You don’t have to forgive me.”
“I know.”
“I’m pleading guilty.”
Claire looked at him.
He had been charged based on conduct documented in the recordings.
His attorney had argued coercion.
Ryan rejected using it as a complete defense.
“My mother manipulated me. Daniel manipulated me. Evelyn manipulated me.”
He looked directly at Claire.
“But none of them moved my hands.”
Claire’s throat tightened.
That was the first apology that didn’t secretly ask her to rescue him.
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because our child should eventually know I stopped lying.”
“Our child will know whatever is appropriate when they’re old enough.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
Then handed her an envelope.
Divorce papers.
Signed.
No fight over the house.
No attempt to control medical decisions.
No demand for immediate custody.
Claire stared at him.
“Margaret wanted this.”
“I know.”
“You’re giving her what she wanted.”
“No.”
Ryan shook his head.
“She wanted to control why it happened.”
He stood.
“This is your choice.”
For once, it was.
Claire signed later.
Not because Margaret wanted it.
Because Claire did.
Then, at thirty-six weeks, Adam called.
“We found Daniel.”
“Where?”
“Hale Biomedical.”
The abandoned laboratory.
Police entered.
Daniel was there.
So were dozens of sample containers.
Claire’s.
Ryan’s.
Sophie’s.
Thomas’s.
Margaret’s.
Daniel had reconstructed the original experiment.
But he had not taken fetal tissue from Claire.
He couldn’t.
Instead, he had been waiting for birth.
“Why?” investigators asked.
Daniel smiled.
“Because Claire’s baby will answer the question.”
“What question?”
“Whether Margaret was ever right.”
Claire heard the interview later.
Her biological father had reduced his unborn grandchild to a result.
That destroyed whatever curiosity she had left about him.
Then Daniel said something unexpected.
“But Margaret knows the answer already.”
“How?”
“She tested another child.”
Investigators froze.
“What child?”
Daniel looked toward the camera.
“Ryan’s.”
Ryan had no children.
At least none he knew about.
Then Daniel smiled.
“The pregnancy eight years ago didn’t fail.”
Claire’s blood went cold.
Somewhere, Margaret had already produced the genetic pairing she claimed to be waiting for.
There was another child.
May you like
About seven years old.
And nobody knew where that child was.
