Chapter 5 - What Isabella Said She Was Trying to Save
Isabella returned to the hospital only after Khloe agreed to a meeting with a patient advocate present.
She had changed clothes.
No burgundy dress.
No red heels.
Just a cream sweater and black trousers.
Without the armor, she looked younger.
Almost like the sister Khloe remembered.
That made the conversation harder.
The patient advocate, Marlene Cho, sat between them.
Marcus stood near the window.
Khloe asked directly.
“Did you donate eggs?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“Why?”
Isabella looked down.
“Because your first cycle was awful.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“You were devastated.”
“Still not an answer.”
Isabella swallowed.
“Aunt Laura called me.”
Their mother’s sister.
That fit the timeline better.
“She said your doctor had mentioned donor eggs as a future option.”
Khloe frowned.
Dr. Wallace had mentioned donor eggs only once, after the failed first retrieval.
Khloe said no.
Not forever.
Just then.
“I told him I wasn’t ready.”
“I know.”
Khloe stared.
“How do you know?”
Isabella’s eyes filled.
“Aunt Laura told me.”
“Aunt Laura knew private conversations with my doctor?”
“She was your emergency contact before Marcus.”
Marcus spoke.
“Being an emergency contact doesn’t give someone blanket access to fertility discussions.”
Isabella ignored him.
“I thought if I banked eggs, you’d have an option.”
Khloe felt nauseated.
“You secretly underwent retrieval because you thought I might need your eggs?”
“Yes.”
“That is strange. But it still doesn’t explain this pregnancy.”
“No.”
Finally.
A word without decoration.
Khloe leaned forward.
“What happened?”
Isabella’s voice became smaller.
“Dr. Wallace called me after your hospitalization.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“He said your embryo quality was worse than expected.”
“But there was an embryo.”
“Yes.”
“He said using it might fail.”
“Doctors don’t just swap embryos because another option might work better.”
“I know that now.”
Khloe stared at her.
“What did you know then?”
Isabella started crying.
“I knew you were talking like you couldn’t survive another loss.”
Khloe felt slapped all over again.
Her grief had been real.
Messy.
Terrifying.
She had once told Isabella, after the second miscarriage, “I don’t know how many more times I can bury a future.”
That was not consent.
Isabella had turned pain into permission.
“Did you tell Dr. Wallace to use your egg?”
“I said if it could save the cycle, I agreed.”
“You agreed.”
Isabella nodded.
“For your body.”
Another nod.
“For my child.”
Isabella whispered, “I thought you’d thank me later.”
Khloe sat back.
There it was.
The hidden truth.
Not simple malice.
Something more invasive.
Isabella believed love gave her the right to make irreversible decisions for her sister.
Then Marcus asked the question that shifted everything again.
“If you thought Khloe would thank you later, why did you hide the records for seven months?”
Isabella’s face changed.
May you like
Because there was another reason.
And it had nothing to do with saving the pregnancy.
