Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO CARRIED MY CHILD
I drove home with Rachel.
Not Mike.
Not Tiffany.
Rachel canceled the rest of her own wedding reception after I begged her not to.
She compromised by leaving her husband in charge.
“Marriage starts with delegation,” she said.
I loved her for making me laugh when nothing felt funny.
Lily fell asleep in the back seat.
I watched her through the mirror.
My daughter.
Whatever DNA said.
That truth did not move.
At home, I opened Claire’s box.
After her death, the attorney handling guardianship gave me everything she had left.
Documents.
Photographs.
A journal.
I had never read the journal.
It felt invasive.
That night, invasion had already happened years ago.
I opened it.
Eight months before Lily’s birth:
I met with D again. Says the clinic made a mistake and needs me to help correct it. Money would clear Mom’s debt.
D.
Who?
Next entry:
They say the embryo belongs to a couple who signed abandonment paperwork.
My hands shook.
We had never signed abandonment paperwork.
Another:
I asked why they don’t just tell the woman. D said she already moved on and the husband wants no contact.
Mike.
I felt sick.
Rachel sat beside me.
“Keep reading.”
Claire wrote that she agreed to carry the embryo under what she believed was a compensated gestational-surrogacy arrangement.
She was told the genetic mother had consented anonymously.
The father had waived rights.
She needed money.
Her mother’s nursing-home debt exceeded sixty thousand dollars.
The clinic arranged payments.
Then halfway through pregnancy, Claire became suspicious.
She requested documents.
Nobody provided them.
She threatened to stop cooperating.
Too late.
She was already carrying a baby.
Then:
Tiffany told me quietly that the mother never signed.
I stopped.
Tiffany.
Claire knew her.
Another entry:
Tiffany says she’s trying to find Jessica but D watches the records.
My pulse raced.
D.
Daniel?
Doctor?
Director?
Then the final pregnancy entry:
If anything happens, I want the baby protected from them. I found Jessica. She works at the county clinic now. I saw her picture online.
My breath stopped.
Claire knew who I was before she first came to my desk.
She had not selected me randomly after becoming my friend.
She came looking for me.
Then a folded note fell from the journal.
Jessica,
If you ever read this, I am sorry I did not tell you immediately.
I was afraid they would take Lily.
The name Lily was already written.
Claire had named her.
I continued.
You did not abandon her.
You did not donate her.
Someone lied to both of us.
At the bottom:
The man arranging everything called himself Dr. Daniel Price.
Rachel looked at me.
“Price.”
Tiffany Price.
Her husband?
Brother?
Father?
I called Tiffany.
She answered immediately.
“Daniel Price,” I said.
Silence.
Then:
“My father.”
And now I knew why Tiffany had gone pale.
May you like
She had not merely recognized Lily.
She recognized the child created by the worst thing her own father had ever done.
