Chapter 7 - THE OTHER CHILD
“What child?”
My voice barely worked.
Evelyn looked sick.
“I don’t know.”
Luca stepped toward her.
“You’re going to tell me everything.”
She sat down.
For the next twenty minutes, the woman I had spent years imagining as Luca’s perfect replacement tore apart the image I had built of her.
Celeste had approached her months before our divorce.
She told Evelyn that Luca’s marriage was failing.
She told her I couldn’t have children.
She told her the Moretti family needed options.
“Options?” Luca snapped.
Evelyn looked down.
“I thought she meant sperm preservation. Surrogacy research. I didn’t understand.”
“You didn’t want to understand.”
She looked at him.
“Maybe.”
That honesty silenced him.
I sat across from her.
“When did you realize?”
“Three years ago.”
“How?”
“Celeste was hospitalized. I went to her house for insurance documents. I found a storage key.”
Luca laughed bitterly.
“My mother kept reproductive fraud in storage?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like, Evelyn?”
“A private medical archive.”
“Where?”
“A secure records facility outside Naperville.”
Luca stood.
“We’re going.”
“Wait.”
She reached into a cabinet.
From the back, she pulled out a small metal box.
Luca stared.
“What is that?”
“I took some files.”
“You’ve had them for three years?”
“I was scared.”
I almost screamed.
Everybody had been scared.
Daniel was scared.
Evelyn was scared.
Doctors were scared.
And somehow I had paid for all of their fear.
Evelyn opened the box.
Inside were copies of invoices.
Medical codes.
Lab reports.
Most of it meant nothing to me.
Then I saw a page with two initials.
LM.
NC.
My stomach turned.
“That’s us.”
Luca took the document.
His eyes moved quickly.
“Four embryos?”
Evelyn nodded.
I stared.
During our marriage, the fertility clinic told us every attempt had failed.
We had never been told viable embryos existed.
“Four?” I whispered.
Luca’s voice was dead.
“They created four viable embryos.”
“Without telling us?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Two were destroyed.”
My heart twisted.
“One was marked transferred.”
“To who?” I asked.
“No recipient name.”
“And the fourth?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Unknown disposition.”
Luca looked like he wanted to break something.
“Who authorized this?”
She pointed to a signature.
Celeste Moretti.
I stared at the ink.
The woman had controlled our marriage even after it ended.
Then Luca flipped the page.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He turned the sheet toward me.
There was a date.
Almost nine years ago.
And beside it:
Live birth confirmation received.
My mouth went dry.
“Somebody had a baby.”
Luca nodded.
“Our embryo?”
“Maybe.”
My mind raced.
“Where is the child?”
“No location,” Evelyn said.
Luca pulled out his phone.
“I’ll find out.”
His phone rang first.
He looked at the number.
Unknown.
He answered.
“Moretti.”
A woman’s voice was loud enough for all of us to hear.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Paula Vance.”
We all froze.
The missing clinic administrator.
“I heard you were looking for me.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere your mother can’t reach me.”
Then Paula said something none of us expected.
“If Nia Carter is with you, put me on speaker.”
Luca did.
I leaned forward.
Paula took a breath.
“Nia, the pregnancy you had after your divorce was natural. The twins are Luca’s. But Celeste did something else.”
“What?”
“She used one of your embryos.”
My hand flew to my mouth.
“Who carried it?”
Silence.
May you like
Then Paula answered.
“Evelyn Shaw.”
