Chapter 5
For several seconds, I couldn't speak.
I stood beside Leah's hospital bed with Patricia's voice still echoing through my head.
Your daughter was never supposed to live.
I tightened my grip on the phone.
"What did you just say?"
Patricia sighed.
"Rebecca, you're making this so much worse than it needs to be."
"Answer me!"
Leah looked up.
Daisy began fussing in her arms.
Patricia lowered her voice.
"Victor has powerful friends. You have no idea what you're dealing with."
I walked toward the window.
"Did you help him steal my eggs?"
Silence.
"Patricia?"
"You don't understand."
"Then explain it."
She laughed bitterly.
"You always did think the world revolved around you."
I stared at the dark glass.
For twenty-eight years, I had tried to be kind to this woman.
I remembered lending her money when she couldn't pay rent.
Watching her children when she needed help.
Inviting her to live with us after her divorce.
And now she was speaking as though I were the one who had betrayed her.
"Where are you?" I demanded.
"Somewhere safe."
"Are you with Victor?"
Another silence.
Then Patricia whispered, "You need to let the baby go."
My body went cold.
"No."
"Rebecca—"
"Never."
"You don't know what she'll cost you."
I looked at Daisy.
Her tiny fist rested against Leah's collar.
"She's a baby, Patricia. Not something you can buy or sell."
"You're being emotional."
I laughed.
"You're threatening a newborn, and I'm the emotional one?"
Her voice sharpened.
"Christopher already ruined everything by getting involved."
"Christopher isn't the person you need to worry about."
"Oh?"
I swallowed.
"You're talking to me now."
I disconnected.
Then I immediately gave the phone to the police officer who had entered the room.
"She called me," I said. "My sister-in-law. She threatened Daisy."
The officer took down everything I remembered.
He requested the call details and asked whether I would preserve any further messages.
I agreed.
Leah watched me silently.
When the officer left, she whispered, "You're not afraid of her?"
I sat beside her.
"I'm terrified."
"Then why did you speak to her like that?"
I looked down at Daisy.
"Because fear doesn't get to make my decisions anymore."
Leah reached for my hand.
And for the first time, she smiled.
A real smile.
Small, but beautiful.
Around six in the morning, my three sons arrived.
Matthew came through the door first.
He was tall, serious, and usually calm.
But the moment he saw my face, he hurried toward me.
"Mom."
I fell into his arms.
Behind him stood Daniel and Jacob.
My boys.
The three children I had raised.
The three people who could still make me feel safe when everything else was collapsing.
Daniel hugged me next.
Then Jacob.
My youngest held on longest.
"Are you okay, Mom?"
I kissed his cheek.
"I'm trying to be."
Matthew looked toward Leah.
"And who's this?"
I wiped my tears.
"This is Leah."
Leah offered a nervous smile.
"And this is Daisy."
Jacob leaned forward.
"Oh, wow."
Daisy opened one eye.
Daniel laughed softly.
"She's tiny."
Matthew looked at me.
Then at Daisy.
His expression changed.
"Mom?"
I nodded.
"We have a lot to talk about."
We sat together.
I told them about the surgery.
The laboratory.
The genetic test.
And the possibility that Daisy had been created from an egg taken from me without my knowledge.
Nobody interrupted.
When I finished, Jacob was crying.
Daniel looked furious.
Matthew sat completely still.
Finally, he asked, "Does Dad know?"
I looked at my husband.
Christopher had entered quietly behind the boys.
"Yes," I answered. "He knew some of it."
Matthew turned around.
"Dad?"
Christopher looked devastated.
"I made a mistake."
"A mistake?" Daniel snapped.
"You let them use Mom's body without her knowing!"
Christopher didn't defend himself.
"I did."
Jacob stared at him.
"How could you?"
That question destroyed me.
Because I had asked it a hundred times in my own head.
Christopher sat down.
"I believed the doctor. Then I was too ashamed to tell your mother what I'd signed."
Matthew shook his head.
"That's not what marriage is supposed to be."
Christopher's eyes filled.
"I know."
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
Then Leah's phone rang.
She grabbed it.
"Hello?"
Her face changed.
"Noah?"
She began crying.
"Oh, thank God!"
The police had located her brother.
He was safe.
Two officers were remaining nearby while investigators assessed the threat.
Leah covered her mouth.
"I love you, Noah. I'll call you again soon."
When she hung up, she sobbed with relief.
I hugged her.
"See?"
She nodded.
"He's okay."
For a few moments, the room felt lighter.
Then an investigator named Detective Angela Brooks arrived.
She was in her forties, with sharp eyes and a calm voice.
She introduced herself to everyone.
"I need to ask you some questions."
I nodded.
"Anything."
Detective Brooks explained that Patricia and Victor were being investigated in connection with missing reproductive records.
But the situation was more serious than we knew.
Westbridge had been closed after multiple patients complained that their medical files contained unexplained procedures.
Investigators later discovered discrepancies involving stored eggs and embryos.
Several records had disappeared.
And now a former employee had come forward.
"What employee?" I asked.
"A laboratory technician named Evelyn Marsh."
Christopher looked up.
"I've heard that name."
Detective Brooks nodded.
"She worked at Westbridge when Mrs. Hayes was treated."
I leaned forward.
"What did she say?"
"She claims Dr. Lang directed staff to retrieve eggs from patients without valid consent."
My stomach turned.
"Why?"
"Initially, experimental research. Later, unauthorized fertility arrangements."
Leah held Daisy closer.
Detective Brooks continued.
"Ms. Marsh also claims certain embryos were preserved for decades under falsified ownership records."
I looked down at my hands.
My body had become part of a business I never agreed to enter.
"Can she prove any of this?"
"She says she kept copies of laboratory logs."
"Where is she?"
Detective Brooks hesitated.
"She's currently in protective custody."
A knock interrupted us.
Another officer entered and handed the detective a folder.
She read the first page.
Then the second.
Her expression darkened.
"Mrs. Hayes," she said slowly, "we've located an old financial record."
I stared at her.
"What record?"
"A payment made by Westbridge twenty-five years ago."
Christopher shook his head.
"I never received anything."
Detective Brooks looked at him.
"We know."
She turned the document toward me.
The payment was for one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
The recipient wasn't Christopher.
It was Patricia.
I stared at the number.
Then at the date.
The money had been transferred three days after my surgery.
My sister-in-law had received a fortune while I recovered from an operation I believed was routine.
And then I noticed something else.
The transaction carried a reference number.
A number matching an entry on my old laboratory file.
Detective Brooks pointed to the description.
"That code appears to identify your reproductive material."
My vision blurred.
Patricia hadn't simply introduced us to Westbridge.
She had profited from what happened to me.
I looked at Christopher.
He seemed genuinely stunned.
"Patricia?"
His voice broke.
"My own sister?"
I closed my eyes.
Then Detective Brooks said something that made everyone fall silent.
"Mrs. Hayes, there's another reason we need that archived file."
I looked up.
"What reason?"
She opened a second folder.
"According to the surviving inventory, your name appears beside more than one embryo."
My heart began pounding.
"How many?"
Detective Brooks took a breath.
"Seven were originally recorded."
I couldn't move.
Seven.
Seven possible lives.
Seven secrets hidden for twenty-five years.
"How many are left?" I whispered.
Her expression changed.
"That's what we're trying to find out."
Then she placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a little boy.
About six years old.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
And a smile that looked exactly like my son Jacob's.
May you like
Detective Brooks spoke softly.
"Mrs. Hayes, we believe Daisy may not be the only child connected to you."
