Chapter 7
Dr. Samuel Reeves lived outside Portsmouth in a weathered gray house near the water.
Jonathan drove.
Rachel sat in front.
I sat in the back beside Claire.
Not because I trusted her.
Because I didn't.
She had begged to come.
At first, I refused.
Then she said she knew where my father had hidden the original clinic correspondence.
That earned her a seat.
It did not earn forgiveness.
For nearly an hour, nobody spoke.
Claire kept her hands folded in her lap.
Finally, she whispered, "How is Lily?"
I looked out the window.
"Safe."
"Is she asking for me?"
I didn't answer.
She wiped her eyes.
"I love her."
That made me turn.
"Do you?"
Her face twisted.
"How can you ask me that?"
"I watched her beg you not to lock her in a dark pantry."
Claire looked down.
"I know."
"You let me believe Maria hurt her."
"I panicked."
"You keep saying that like panic erases choices."
"It doesn't."
"Then stop using it."
Silence.
A few minutes later, she said, "I started losing control after Ethan contacted me."
I didn't respond.
"He knew about Lily."
"How?"
"He found clinic records among his mother's papers."
"Why would his mother have them?"
"Because Caroline had frozen embryos there before chemotherapy."
I knew Caroline's story.
Ethan's older sister had developed lymphoma at twenty-four.
She froze embryos with her husband before treatment.
She survived the first round.
Then the cancer returned.
She died at twenty-seven.
Her husband died in a car accident the following year.
"Who inherited the embryos?" Jonathan asked.
"Ethan says Caroline left instructions to keep them stored for five years. After that, they were supposed to be destroyed unless her husband requested otherwise."
"But he died."
Claire nodded.
"According to Ethan, the clinic reported them destroyed."
"And he thinks they weren't."
"He found inventory paperwork with Caroline's patient number next to a transfer date."
My throat tightened.
"Lily's transfer date?"
"Yes."
I looked away.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I was terrified."
"Of Ethan?"
"At first, of losing Lily."
She started crying.
"If Caroline's embryos were used, I thought Ethan could claim her."
Jonathan shook his head.
"Biology does not automatically give an uncle custody of a child raised by legal parents."
"I know that now."
"But you didn't talk to an attorney."
"I talked to Ethan."
Rachel turned in her seat.
"That was smart."
Claire ignored the sarcasm.
"He told me we needed to protect Lily from Daniel."
I laughed.
"How convenient."
"He said your father knew what the clinic had done and covered it up to protect the investment."
"So you believed him."
"I saw documents."
"You saw what he wanted you to see."
Claire looked at me.
"I know."
We arrived just before noon.
Dr. Reeves answered after the third knock.
He was in his seventies.
Tall.
Thin.
Suspicious.
When I gave my name, the color drained from his face.
"Robert's son."
"You knew my father."
He looked past me at Claire.
His expression hardened.
"You."
Claire stepped back.
"You remember me?"
"I remember everyone involved in that mess."
That was not comforting.
He let us inside.
The house smelled like coffee and old books.
Jonathan immediately explained that we were not there to threaten him.
Reeves almost laughed.
"Your father threatened me enough for all of you."
I stared at him.
"What did he threaten you about?"
Reeves sat by the window.
"Tell me what you know first."
I explained Lily.
The paternity report.
The trust.
Caroline Cole.
He closed his eyes when I said her name.
"God."
"What?"
He looked suddenly older.
"I hoped those records would never surface."
"Is Lily Caroline's daughter?"
He did not answer immediately.
"Dr. Reeves."
"I don't know."
"You're the person my father told me to contact."
"Because I had the original logs. Not because I knew what child came from which embryo."
"Do you still have them?"
He looked toward a locked cabinet.
Jonathan noticed.
"So you do."
Reeves stood.
"You need to understand what happened."
"Then explain."
The clinic had been struggling financially.
Bennett Capital invested during a major expansion.
My father had been one of three private investors.
At the same time, the clinic's storage facility underwent a software migration.
Patient identifiers were temporarily cross-referenced through paper logs.
A nightmare waiting to happen.
"Was there a mix-up?"
"More than one."
My stomach dropped.
"How many?"
"We confirmed three."
Claire covered her mouth.
"Three children?"
"Three embryo batches."
"And Lily?"
"I believe her embryo came from a mislabeled tray."
"Whose?"
Reeves walked to the cabinet.
He unlocked it.
Inside were boxes.
He removed one marked 2019.
"I copied these before the clinic's board ordered the originals consolidated."
"Why?"
"Because I didn't trust the consolidation."
He placed a binder on the table.
Names.
Numbers.
Dates.
Initials.
Reeves pointed.
"Claire Bennett. Scheduled embryo transfer."
Then another line.
"Caroline Cole."
The storage number beside Caroline's name had been crossed out.
Another written beneath it.
The same number appeared beside Claire's transfer.
My heart pounded.
"So it was Caroline's embryo."
"Possibly."
"Possibly?"
"The numbering system was already corrupted."
I wanted to scream.
"How do we know?"
"DNA."
"Caroline is dead."
"Her brother is alive."
Ethan.
I sat back.
If Lily shared biological markers with Ethan, we would have an answer.
"Would Ethan's DNA establish that?"
"It could strongly support a biological relationship."
Claire whispered, "He already tested."
I turned.
"What?"
She looked ashamed again.
"He tested himself against Lily."
"And?"
Her silence gave me the answer.
"Claire."
"He said the result was consistent with him being her biological uncle."
I stood.
"You knew?"
"Only for two months."
"Only?"
"I was trying to figure out what to do."
"So you slept with him?"
Rachel snapped.
Claire flinched.
"That happened before the result."
"That makes it so much better."
Claire started crying.
Reeves looked between us, clearly realizing he had entered a much uglier situation than old medical records.
I turned back to him.
"My father knew about the clinic errors."
"Yes."
"Did he cover them up?"
Reeves hesitated.
"Not exactly."
"What does that mean?"
"Robert wanted an investigation."
That surprised me.
"Ethan says he buried it."
"Then Ethan is wrong."
Reeves opened another folder.
"There was pressure from the clinic board to contain the issue. They were afraid of lawsuits, criminal investigations, loss of licenses."
"And my father?"
"He told them every affected family had to be notified."
I sat.
"Then why wasn't I?"
Reeves looked at Claire.
"She was."
I turned slowly.
Claire closed her eyes.
"What?"
Reeves continued.
"We contacted Mrs. Bennett first because her mobile number was listed as the primary contact."
"I know that."
"Then we contacted your father because he was both an investor and your emergency financial representative."
"And he agreed to hide it?"
"No."
Reeves shook his head.
"He was furious."
Claire whispered, "He came to the house."
I remembered.
Two months before my father died, he had visited while I was traveling.
Claire had told me they discussed a charity board.
Another lie.
"What happened?"
Claire wiped her face.
"He told me I had forty-eight hours to tell you."
"And?"
"I begged him not to."
"Why?"
"Because you had just become a father."
"So?"
"You were happy."
Her voice broke.
"You had spent years trying to prove yourself to him. To everyone. And suddenly you were different. You came home early. You sang to Lily even though you couldn't sing."
Rachel looked down.
Claire continued.
"I thought if you knew, everything would collapse."
"You had no right."
"I know."
"What did my father say?"
"He said exactly that."
Reeves slid another document toward me.
A signed memorandum from Robert Bennett.
It directed that no clinic records connected to the error be destroyed.
It also demanded an outside audit.
"So why didn't this become public?"
Reeves looked at me.
"Your father died three weeks later."
The room went still.
Three weeks.
My father had suffered a fatal heart attack in his office.
At least that was what I had always believed.
Reeves continued.
"After Robert died, the outside audit was canceled."
"By whom?"
"The clinic's board."
"Who led it?"
Reeves hesitated.
Then answered.
"Margaret Cole."
I stared.
"Who?"
"Ethan's mother."
The room went completely silent.
Ethan had spent months telling Claire that my father covered up the clinic scandal.
But his own mother had chaired the board that stopped the investigation.
"That doesn't make sense," Rachel said.
"It does if Ethan doesn't know," Jonathan replied.
Reeves shook his head.
"I think he knows."
"Why?"
"Because Margaret came to see me before she died."
"When?"
"Seven years ago."
"What did she want?"
"The copies."
"Did you give them to her?"
"No."
"What did she say?"
Reeves looked at me.
"She said Robert Bennett had discovered something much bigger than embryo mislabeling."
My skin prickled.
"What?"
Reeves opened the final folder.
Inside were payment records.
Shell companies.
Consulting fees.
Transfers.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Meridian.
The same company receiving money from Bennett Holdings now.
I stared at Jonathan.
He stared back.
Reeves said quietly, "The clinic errors weren't accidents."
Claire whispered, "What do you mean?"
"Someone was moving embryos deliberately."
My stomach turned.
"Why?"
"For private clients."
"What private clients?"
"People willing to pay enormous amounts for embryos selected from donors or patients with specific backgrounds."
Rachel looked sick.
"You're talking about trafficking."
Reeves nodded once.
I thought of Caroline's embryos.
Claire's pregnancy.
Lily.
"Was Lily sold?"
"I don't know."
I could barely breathe.
Then Reeves said something worse.
"Your father found evidence linking the transfers to someone inside Bennett Capital."
I looked at the records.
"Who?"
Reeves pointed to a signature authorizing one of the shell-company payments.
The initials were familiar.
E.C.
Ethan Cole.
I shook my head.
"He would have been twenty-three."
"Yes."
"He wasn't an executive."
"No."
"Then how could he authorize anything?"
Reeves looked directly at me.
"Because the signature wasn't Ethan's."
He turned the page.
The full name appeared underneath.
Edward Cole.
Ethan's father.
The man I had been told was a simple accountant.
The man Ethan claimed my father had cheated.
Reeves leaned back.
"Your father didn't steal from Ethan's family."
May you like
He paused.
"He discovered Ethan's father was selling access to human embryos."
