Chương 3
Margaret straightened.
“It was not intended for me.”
“What was it?”
“A patient communication.”
“Why would my fertility clinic send you a patient communication?”
“They didn’t.”
The answer came from Richard.
Claire looked at him.
He rubbed his thumb along the edge of the table.
“They sent it to me.”
The baby moved again.
Claire sat.
This time nobody told her to.
“You?”
Richard nodded.
“Why?”
“Because my email was listed as an emergency financial contact.”
Claire frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“No,” Richard said. “It doesn’t.”
Evan pulled out the chair across from her.
“The clinic had Dad’s information because he helped us with the first deposit.”
Claire remembered.
Three thousand dollars.
Richard had offered after hearing Evan complain about insurance coverage at Thanksgiving. Claire had resisted. Evan had said they could repay him. Richard had said he did not care if they did.
They had repaid every dollar anyway.
“You were never supposed to receive medical records.”
“I know.”
“What did they send?”
Richard looked at Margaret.
Margaret stared at the burned ultrasound.
“A billing reconciliation,” Richard said.
Claire waited.
“And?”
“It referenced a procedure date.”
“What procedure?”
No one answered.
Claire’s throat tightened.
“What procedure?”
Evan spoke.
“An embryo transfer.”
Claire stared at him.
“We never had an embryo transfer.”
“I know.”
Their treatment had involved ovarian stimulation and an egg retrieval. They had created embryos.
None had been transferred.
After genetic testing, the clinic had recommended waiting because Claire’s uterine lining was not responding as expected. Then a second attempt had been canceled. After months of medications, arguments, insurance calls, and one particularly awful afternoon when Claire had cried in the frozen-food aisle of a grocery store because she could not remember whether she was supposed to buy spinach, they had stopped.
Their remaining embryos were supposed to remain frozen.
Claire looked at Richard.
“What date?”
He told her.
She knew the date.
Of course she did.
It was nine days before the evening she and Evan had conceived—or believed they had conceived—their daughter.
Claire’s fingers went numb around the water glass.
“No.”
Evan leaned forward.
“That’s what I thought.”
“No.”
“I called the clinic.”
Claire stared at him.
“You called them?”
“They wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“Good.”
“Claire—”
“They shouldn’t.”
“I’m your husband—”
“Fiancé.”
The correction slipped out before she intended it.
They were engaged, not married.
The dinner had been Margaret’s idea because she considered a courthouse ceremony “an administrative surrender,” and Claire had refused a large wedding while pregnant.
Evan stared at her.
Claire stared back.
“Fiancé,” she repeated.
He nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
Margaret folded the wet napkin into smaller and smaller squares.
“I hired someone.”
Richard turned toward her.
“You what?”
“A medical-records consultant.”
“There is no legitimate consultant who could get Claire’s private records for you.”
“I did not say I obtained her records.”
“What did you obtain?”
Margaret hesitated.
Claire watched her.
There was the first real clue.
Margaret had not been certain.
Whatever she had learned, whatever had driven her to dump Claire’s belongings across a dinner table, she did not have the whole truth.
“What did you obtain?” Claire repeated.
“A former employee.”
Evan stood.
“Oh, Jesus Christ.”
“Sit down.”
“No, Mom.”
“Sit down.”
“You paid somebody from their clinic?”
Margaret’s chin lifted.
“I paid for information.”
Richard’s voice became very quiet.
“With whose money?”
Margaret looked at him.
He laughed once without humor.
“With whose money?”
“Ours.”
“No. Try again.”
“Richard.”
“Business account?”
She said nothing.
Richard pushed his chair back.
That seemed to frighten Margaret more than the ice water had.
Claire watched them, and another understanding arrived.
This was not merely about her.
There were fault lines in the Bennett marriage she had never seen.
Richard took his phone from his pocket.
“What are you doing?” Margaret asked.
“Calling Martin.”
“At ten o’clock at night?”
“He’s our attorney. He bills enough.”
“You are not involving attorneys.”
“You involved stolen medical information.”
“I did not steal anything.”
“You paid somebody for it.”
“I was protecting our son.”
Evan stared at her.
“From Claire?”
“From a lie.”
Claire felt the words hit, but they did not hurt the way Margaret intended.
Something had changed.
Maybe it was exhaustion.
Maybe anger had finally found a place to stand.
Claire picked up the burned ultrasound.
“Tell me what you think happened.”
Margaret looked at her.
“No speeches. No insults. Tell me.”
Margaret glanced around the table.
The orchids were still upright.
One of Claire’s tissues floated in the water glass where it had landed.
The absurdity of it caught Claire unexpectedly.
She pulled the soggy tissue out and put it on a plate.
Evan almost smiled.
Nobody else did.
Margaret said, “The employee told me an embryo connected to your patient file was removed from storage on the date in question.”
Claire stopped moving.
“Removed?”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“He believed transfer.”
“Believed?”
Margaret’s jaw tightened.
“That was his understanding.”
“So you don’t know.”
“I know enough.”
“No. You know somebody you paid told you something he believed.”
“The billing record confirms a transfer.”
Richard shook his head.
“A billing code confirms a charge.”
Margaret looked at him sharply.
Claire caught it.
“You checked.”
Richard’s eyes met hers.
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Not enough.”
“How much, Richard?”
He took a slow breath.
“I called the clinic’s billing department. They confirmed there had been an erroneous charge attached to your account. They said it was being investigated.”
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
Claire looked from him to Evan.
“You both knew for four months.”
Evan said, “We didn’t know.”
“You knew there was a problem.”
“Yes.”
“And nobody told me.”
“I wanted to.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then apparently you didn’t want to enough.”
He looked away.
Margaret reached for her champagne flute.
Her hand was shaking now.
Claire had never seen that before.
Margaret noticed Claire noticing and set the glass down without drinking.
“I was trying to determine whether you had undergone a procedure without telling Evan.”
May you like
Claire stared at her.
“Why would I do that?”
