Chapter 6 - Another Doctor Is Still Watching
Police traced the message to a disposable phone.
No location.
The threat changed the investigation.
The fertility program was not dead history.
Someone connected to it was still active.
Emily gave detectives everything.
The ledger.
Richard’s statement.
Her father’s old medical records.
Claire helped her search boxes from Emily’s childhood home.
They found photographs of Andrew Cole with several doctors.
One face appeared repeatedly.
Dr. Helen Ward.
Emily remembered her.
“She came to our house.”
“When?” Claire asked.
“After Dad died.”
“Why?”
“She said she was checking on me.”
Claire looked uneasy.
“How often?”
“Every few months until I went to college.”
They searched Helen Ward.
She was now medical director of a private fertility network operating
clinics in three states.
Emily felt sick.
The hospital compliance officer compared Ward’s old signature against
the embryo ledger.
Match.
Ward had approved storage transfers after Andrew Cole died.
She had kept the program alive.
Detectives obtained warrants.
Ward disappeared before they reached her office.
Emily received another message.
YOU ARE DESTROYING FAMILIES THAT LOVE THEIR CHILDREN.
Emily stared.
That sentence hurt because part of it was true.
Sophie had a mother.
Laura Bennett had carried her.
Raised her.
Loved her.
If Emily appeared and announced biology, what would that do to an
eight-year-old?
Claire sat beside her.
“What are you thinking?”
“That finding the truth might hurt Sophie.”
“Yes.”
“What if the kindest thing is leaving her alone?”
“Maybe.”
Emily looked at Benjamin.
“But her medical history is false.”
“Yes.”
“And she has a right to know someday.”
“Yes.”
“I hate this.”
Claire nodded.
“Because there isn’t a clean answer.”
Emily contacted a child psychologist specializing in donor conception
and fertility fraud.
The recommendation was clear.
Do not surprise Sophie.
Do not approach her directly.
Inform her legal parent privately.
Give Laura control over timing with professional support, unless urgent
medical risk requires disclosure.
Emily agreed.
Tyler asked to be present when Laura was told.
Laura refused.
Emily respected that.
The DNA test confirmed Sophie was Emily’s biological daughter.
Richard was the biological father.
Tyler, who had raised Sophie for her first two years believing she was
his biological child, was genetically her maternal half-uncle.
The family tree looked impossible.
But the people were real.
Laura called Emily three days after receiving the results.
Neither woman knew what to say.
Finally Laura whispered, “She has your eyes.”
Emily cried.
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t do this.”
“Neither did you.”
Silence.
Laura continued.
“I’m her mother.”
“Yes.”
The answer came immediately.
Laura began crying.
Emily said it again.
“You’re her mother.”
“What are you?”
Emily looked at Benjamin sleeping nearby.
“I don’t know yet.”
Laura exhaled.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not trying to take her.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“I know what it feels like when someone tries to take your baby.”
They agreed to work with the psychologist.
No dramatic reunion.
No demand.
No secret contact.
Sophie’s wellbeing came first.
That evening, Richard’s attorney delivered another box recovered from
William Mercer’s estate.
Inside was a videotape.
William sat behind a desk.
The date was twelve years earlier.
“If Noah survives and remains healthy, the program continues.”
Emily stared.
William spoke clinically about “lineage preservation.”
About Richard.
About future Mercer heirs.
Then:
“Cole’s daughter provides optimal maternal genetics.”
Emily felt nauseated.
Her father had reduced her body to a resource.
William continued.
“If Richard’s marriage fails, the stored embryos remain viable for
future transfers.”
Claire paused the video.
“He planned children using you and Richard before you even met.”
Emily nodded.
Then the video resumed.
Dr. Helen Ward entered the frame.
She asked:
“And if Andrew objects?”
William smiled.
“He won’t.”
Emily stared at her father’s name.
Two weeks after the date on that video, Andrew Cole died from what
police called a medication interaction.
Emily had always believed it was accidental.
Now she was no longer sure.
The video ended.
Claire whispered, “We need to give this to detectives.”
Emily nodded.
Before they could move, the doorbell rang.
Richard stood outside.
He was alone.
Claire did not open the door.
“What do you want?”
Richard held up a folder.
“I know where Helen Ward is.”
Emily came into the hallway.
Richard saw her through the glass.
“She contacted me.”
“Why?”
“She wants the remaining embryos.”
Emily’s heart stopped.
“Remaining?”
Richard nodded.
“Five were never all used.”
May you like
He held up the folder.
“Three still exist.”
