Chapter 4 - The Signature That Couldn’t Be Hers
Julia Mercer arrived from Astoria in boots and an oversized coat, her hair still wet from a rushed subway ride.
She kissed Evelyn’s forehead, then leaned over the bassinet and stared at Lucy for a long time before saying anything.
“She has your stubborn chin.”
Evelyn almost cried at that, mostly because it was exactly the kind of useless sister thing she needed to hear.
Alyssa and a hospital risk manager joined them an hour later. Evelyn showed them the transfer consent.
The document listed Diana Keller as the known egg donor and Nathan Cross as the sperm source. It also included Evelyn’s electronic signature and a timestamp from late March.
“I was teaching sophomore English at that exact time,” Evelyn said. “I still have attendance records. We were doing Macbeth presentations.”
The risk manager copied the form.
Nathan, meanwhile, had begun texting from a number Evelyn did not recognize because the hospital had blocked his usual one.
You are overreacting.
You knew we needed a donor.
Don’t make this ugly in front of the hospital.
The second message landed harder than the first.
You knew we needed a donor.
They had discussed donor eggs once, after the first failed IVF cycle. Evelyn had cried in the car outside the clinic and said she wasn’t ready to give up the possibility of a child genetically connected to her. Nathan had taken her hand and said they still had time.
He had never brought it up again.
Julia read the messages over Evelyn’s shoulder. “He’s already building a version of this.”
“Can he take her?” Evelyn asked, nodding toward Lucy.
“Not today,” Alyssa said. “Not from here.”
The cost of acting fast arrived before lunch.
Nathan’s mother, Eleanor, called Julia and left a voicemail sharp enough to cut.
Nathan says Eve is confused and threatening to keep him from the baby. Please tell her to calm down before she humiliates everyone.
Humiliates everyone.
Evelyn understood the family language. Reputation before truth. Tone before harm.
With Alyssa’s help, she requested private status at the hospital, barred unscheduled visitors, and arranged to be discharged to Julia’s apartment rather than the Park Slope townhouse she shared with Nathan.
The hospital also contacted Hudson Reproductive Center to request the original consent trail.
By evening, another fact surfaced.
The clinic’s portal showed the consent had been authenticated using a backup phone number ending in 8831.
Evelyn had never seen that number before.
Nathan had not merely forged her name.
May you like
He had created the method by which her agreement could be manufactured.
And if he had done that once, there was no reason to believe the transfer itself was the only lie.
