Chapter 1 - THE ULTRASOUND THAT STOLE HER SMILE
Dr. Ethan Parker’s gloved hand stopped in the middle of Maria Collins’s swollen abdomen.
The ultrasound probe froze against her skin. His shoulders stiffened. Then he leaned toward the monitor and pressed the probe down again, changing the angle so sharply that Maria flinched.
“Can you see the baby?” she asked.
Dr. Parker didn’t answer.
At sixty-six, Maria had arrived at Riverside Women’s Hospital in Columbus carrying a canvas diaper bag filled with newborn diapers, two small bottles, and a blue knitted cap. Her silver hair hung loose over the shoulders of her hospital gown.
She had smiled at every nurse who stared at her stomach.
“I know I’m not your usual expectant mother,” she had joked.
Now that smile disappeared.
Dr. Parker turned one of the controls and moved the probe to the other side of her abdomen. The image on the monitor shifted. His jaw tightened.
“Maria, don’t move.”
“What’s wrong?”
He removed the probe and stared at the screen as if he could force it to show him something different.
Maria gripped the hospital sheet. “Is the baby moving?”
Dr. Parker set the probe into its holder and stepped between Maria and the monitor.
“Your pregnancy isn’t where it should be.”
She blinked. “What does that mean?”
“The fetus developed outside your uterus, inside your abdominal cavity. The placenta appears to be attached near several major blood vessels.”
Maria pushed herself higher against the pillows.
“No. The clinic said everything was normal.”
“Which clinic?”
“The one that did the transfer.”
Dr. Parker looked at her chart. “You told the nurse the procedure was performed overseas.”
Maria’s eyes shifted toward the door.
“I didn’t want anyone judging me.”
“Maria, I’m not judging you. I’m trying to keep you alive.”
He explained that her blood pressure was dangerously high. The swelling in her legs, the pain beneath her ribs, and the sudden weakness she had felt that morning were not ordinary pregnancy symptoms.
There was also internal bleeding.
Maria shook her head before he finished.
“No. Check again.”
“We’ve checked three positions.”
“I can feel him.”
Dr. Parker’s expression softened, which frightened her more than his silence had.
“We’re not detecting a heartbeat.”
Maria grabbed the blue cap from the diaper bag and pressed it to her chest.
“You’re wrong.”
“We need to prepare for emergency surgery.”
“No.”
“Maria—”
“I said no.”
She tore her wrist from his grasp when he tried to steady her.
The examination-room door flew open.
Rachel Collins rushed inside wearing a beige coat over her office clothes. Her brown hair was damp from the rain, and she was breathing hard.
“Mom.”
Maria clutched the cap tighter. “You came.”
Rachel looked at the swollen abdomen, the ultrasound monitor, and the half-open diaper bag. Anger flashed across her face, but it vanished when she saw the fear in Dr. Parker’s eyes.
“What did the scan show?” Rachel asked.
Dr. Parker turned toward her. “Your mother is in immediate danger. We need consent for surgery.”
Maria reached for Rachel. “Tell him the baby is healthy. Tell him about the clinic.”
Rachel did not take her hand.
“What clinic?”
“The place near Cincinnati.”
Rachel went completely still.
Dr. Parker looked from mother to daughter. “Maria told us the embryo transfer happened overseas.”
Maria’s mouth trembled.
Rachel stepped closer to the bed. “Mom, what did you tell him?”
“I did this for us.”
“For us?”
Maria held out the blue cap. “I was going to give him to you.”
Rachel’s face lost color.
She turned to Dr. Parker.
“Where did that embryo come from?”
Maria began to cry.
“You said you couldn’t carry again,” she whispered. “You said your last chance was sitting in a freezer.”
Rachel stared at her mother as the meaning settled over the room.
Eight years earlier, before chemotherapy damaged her uterus, Rachel and her first husband had created three embryos.
Two had failed during treatment.
May you like
One remained.
And Rachel had never authorized anyone to use it.
