Chương 8
“What if his genetic parents—”
“They're dead.”
“Their mother isn't.”
Her mother looked toward the locked door.
“The woman who tried to break into your room?”
“Yes.”
“She does not get to become reasonable because genetics entered the sentence.”
Emily looked down at the baby.
“That’s not fair.”
“No.”
“I might have somebody else’s child.”
“Yes.”
“And our embryo might be—”
Her voice failed.
Her mother’s face changed.
Emily saw the grief land.
Aaron’s embryo.
The other embryo they had believed was still frozen.
The possibility that it had been lost or destroyed made Aaron die again in a different form.
Her mother reached toward Emily, stopped, and put her hand back in her lap.
“What do you need me to do?”
Emily looked at her.
“Call Aaron’s parents.”
“You told me not to.”
“I know.”
“What do I tell them?”
“The truth.”
“All of it?”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Her mother nodded.
It took three days for the first DNA result.
During those three days, Emily did not leave the hospital.
She was medically ready for discharge by the second morning, but the hospital offered a secure family room on another floor while law enforcement and hospital security reviewed the incident. Emily accepted only after Rachel walked the route with her and showed her the new room, the locks, the badge-controlled entrance, and the location of the nurses’ station.
Emily hated herself for checking the window.
She did it anyway.
Margaret Hale remained away under an agreement arranged through her attorney. The police had not charged her with attempting to force entry because the door itself had not been damaged, but the hospital issued a formal exclusion notice.
The unknown man was still unknown.
His face appeared on eleven cameras and clearly on none.
He had known exactly where to stand.
That fact bothered the detective.
It bothered Emily more.
Janet Vale turned herself in on the second day with an attorney.
The detective told Emily only what he was permitted to say.
Janet admitted altering the newborn registration.
She denied planning to remove the baby.
She said she believed she was creating a temporary legal restriction at the direction of an outside consultant who claimed to represent parties in an embryo ownership dispute.
She had accepted money.
Not from Margaret directly.
The payment had come through a small consulting company.
The police were investigating.
“Who owns the company?” Emily asked.
The detective’s mouth tightened.
“That’s part of what we’re working on.”
“The man?”
“We don't know.”
“Did Janet know him?”
“She says she met him twice.”
“Name?”
“She says the name he gave her appears to be false.”
Emily almost admired the consistency of the nightmare.
Every answer opened another door.
Rachel came to see her after shifts even after Emily was transferred off maternity.
On the second night, she brought two coffees and set one on the windowsill.
Emily looked at it.
“You know I’m breastfeeding.”
“It’s decaf.”
“That’s worse.”
Rachel laughed.
Emily did too.
For three seconds, they were just two tired women making fun of bad coffee.
Then Emily asked, “Why did your face change when I said North Lake?”
Rachel leaned back.
“My sister used them.”
“You said.”
“She had two failed transfers.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“You looked scared.”
Rachel rubbed a thumb along the coffee cup seam.
“North Lake had a records problem after a software migration about two years ago. My sister got a notice because one of her consent forms had been attached to the wrong date.”
Emily stared at her.
“You didn't think that was worth mentioning?”
“I didn't know if it mattered.”
“Everything matters now.”
“I know.”
Emily looked away.
Rachel added, “I told the detective yesterday.”
“Before telling me.”
“Yes.”
Emily’s jaw tightened.
“I’m your nurse.”
“Not anymore.”
“No.”
“So what are you now?”
Rachel looked down at the coffee.
“I don’t know.”
It was an awkward question.
Emily had meant it accusingly.
Rachel seemed to hear something else.
“I guess I’m somebody who was in the room when this started.”
“That doesn’t make you responsible for me.”
“No.”
“But you keep coming.”
Rachel picked at the cardboard sleeve.
“I keep thinking about what would have happened if I hadn’t locked the secondary latch.”
Emily looked at her.
“You did lock it.”
“After I hesitated.”
“You hesitated for half a second.”
“That can be enough.”
Emily understood then that Rachel had been replaying the morning too.
Not as a nurse.
As a person.
“You thought Margaret might be family,” Emily said.
Rachel nodded.
“She was dressed like somebody’s mother. Or attorney. Or donor coordinator. She wasn't screaming at first. Then she hit the door.”
“And the man?”
“I saw him in the window and knew he didn't belong.”
“How?”
Rachel’s mouth tightened.
“He wasn't looking at you.”
Emily waited.
“He was looking at the lock.”
The coffee tasted terrible.
Emily drank half of it anyway.
The laboratory called at eight fourteen the next morning.
Emily’s mother was asleep in the reclining chair with her mouth slightly open. The baby was nursing. Emily answered before the second ring.
The genetic counselor introduced herself.
Emily interrupted.
“Just tell me.”
There was a pause.
“The newborn is not genetically consistent with the stored reference sample from Aaron Carter.”
Emily stopped breathing.
The baby's mouth slipped from her breast.
He fussed.
Emily repositioned him automatically.
The counselor kept speaking.
“The testing also indicates that you are not the genetic mother.”
Emily looked at the wall.
There was a framed photograph of a lake above the television.
Blue water.
A dock.
Three geese.
Emily had hated it since being moved into the room.
Now she stared at the geese.
“All right,” she said.
Her voice sounded normal.
Her mother woke.
Emily raised one hand without looking at her.
“The lab has not independently confirmed identity against the Hale family reference yet,” the counselor continued. “That testing is pending.”
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“But he’s not ours.”
“The current result excludes both you and Mr. Carter as genetic parents.”
