Chapter 2 - THE BRIDE CARRYING MY EMBRYO
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
The sounds of the neonatal unit continued around us.
Monitors beeped.
Nurses moved between rooms.
A baby cried somewhere down the corridor.
Inside my body, something went cold.
“How far along are you?” I asked Bianca.
She looked at Ethan.
He answered for her.
“Twenty-two weeks.”
I did the calculation.
The transfer occurred before our divorce was final.
While Ethan publicly accused me of being emotionally unstable, he was secretly creating another child from our embryos.
“Did you know the embryo was mine?” I asked Bianca.
Her silence answered.
“I asked you a question.”
She lifted her chin.
“Ethan said you didn’t want any more children.”
“That does not create consent.”
“He said the embryos belonged to both of you.”
“The storage agreement required both signatures.”
Rebecca placed copies of the clinic documents on the counter.
My signature appeared beneath an authorization form.
It was forged.
The witness signature belonged to Ethan’s business attorney.
The clinic director received three hundred thousand dollars through Bellrose Consulting one week later.
The theft was tied directly to the hidden accounts I had traced.
Bianca’s anger shifted toward Ethan.
“You said she signed everything.”
“She was supposed to.”
The words escaped before he could stop them.
Detective Hale looked at him.
“Supposed to?”
Ethan rubbed both hands over his face.
“This is a private family matter.”
“No,” Rebecca said. “It is medical fraud, identity theft, conspiracy, and unlawful use of reproductive material.”
Bianca backed toward a chair.
“I’m pregnant. You can’t treat me like a criminal.”
“No one is criminalizing the pregnancy,” I said. “The child is innocent.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You think that gives you rights over my baby?”
The question cut through me.
The embryo was genetically mine and Ethan’s.
Bianca was carrying the pregnancy.
None of those facts allowed us to reduce the child to property.
“I’m not discussing custody in a hospital hallway,” I said. “I’m discussing the theft that created this situation.”
Noah began fussing.
I adjusted the blanket around him.
Ethan watched us.
His expression softened.
Then his focus shifted to the chart beside my bed.
“What name did you give him?”
“Noah Bennett.”
“Not Cole?”
“No.”
“He is my son.”
“He is a premature infant recovering from injuries connected to your fiancée’s actions.”
“I didn’t know she would touch you.”
Bianca turned sharply.
“You told me to stop Claire from reaching the records office.”
Ethan’s face changed.
Hale stepped closer.
“What records office?”
Bianca realized what she had admitted.
She stopped speaking.
The parking garage was attached to a medical-research building owned partly by Bennett-Cole Systems.
I had gone there after discovering restricted laboratory payments.
Bianca followed me because Ethan asked her to prevent me from reaching archived files.
The shove had not been jealousy.
It had been obstruction.
Rebecca showed us the preliminary audit.
Bellrose Consulting paid the fertility clinic.
Northline Medical Holdings purchased experimental neonatal devices.
The charitable foundation moved grant money into private accounts.
One device had been tested on premature infants without complete authorization.
St. Matthew’s Hospital had purchased several units.
A serial number in Noah’s treatment record matched the Northline batch.
My son had been placed on equipment connected to Ethan’s hidden company.
Dr. Reyes immediately checked the machine beside him.
She called biomedical engineering.
Within minutes, staff replaced it.
“What is wrong with the device?” I asked.
“We don’t know yet,” she said. “But until we verify its certification, we won’t use it.”
Ethan stared through the glass.
“I would never endanger my son.”
“You endangered strangers’ babies,” I said.
“That’s different.”
The sentence exposed him completely.
He had divided children into categories.
His child.
Other children.
Valuable lives.
Acceptable risk.
Then Hale’s phone rang.
He listened for less than a minute before looking at Ethan.
“Your wedding venue has been searched.”
Bianca stood.
“What?”
“Officers found company servers and medical records inside a locked bridal suite.”
“My bridal suite?”
Hale nodded.
“The files include prenatal genetic profiles for more than forty embryos.”
May you like
Ethan had not stolen only one.
The wedding venue was hiding an embryo-trafficking archive.
