Chapter 4 - The Signature Brooke Refused
At seven the next morning, attorney Rebecca Sloan called Brooke from her office in downtown Boston.
Rebecca had reviewed the surrogacy agreement before Brooke signed it. She did not sound dramatic now.
That reassured Brooke.
“The contract matters,” Rebecca said. “The genetics may matter. The representations made before transfer may matter. But none of those things, by themselves, answer parentage today.”
“So what do I do?”
“Preserve information. Don’t speculate. Don’t sign anything you don’t understand.”
Brooke looked at Owen sleeping in the bassinet.
“What happens to him?”
“Nothing reckless.”
Rebecca explained that existing parentage paperwork and hospital procedures could not simply be erased because a disputed IVF document had appeared. Cole remained available to care for the baby. Megan’s hospital access restriction resulted from the assault, not the fertility dispute.
Brooke appreciated the distinction.
It kept Owen from becoming an object adults fought over.
At nine, a surrogacy-agency coordinator arrived with routine closing papers.
Brooke declined to sign.
The woman looked uncomfortable.
“Megan said there’s been some family confusion.”
“Did Megan tell your agency the embryo was created with donor eggs?”
The coordinator glanced at Cole.
“I need to review the file before answering that.”
Brooke understood the answer anyway.
By noon, Rebecca had formally requested preservation of Brooke’s fertility, surrogacy and donor records.
That meant the conflict could no longer be handled privately over Sunday dinner.
It also meant Brooke risked the final payment held in escrow under the surrogacy arrangement until postpartum paperwork was complete.
Twenty-two thousand dollars.
Brooke needed it.
Her elementary-school salary covered rent and ordinary life, not the three months of unpaid leave she had taken around delivery.
Nora offered to help.
Brooke refused.
“This is exactly why Megan thinks she can make decisions for me.”
The donor bank emailed Brooke’s authorized history that afternoon.
Most recipient information had been removed.
One line remained.
Donor lot B-417 had been transferred to Commonwealth Reproductive Medicine.
Cole and Megan’s clinic.
Brooke called Rebecca.
“Is that enough?”
“To prove the baby came from those eggs? No.”
Brooke closed her eyes.
“To prove Megan knew?”
“Also no.”
Rebecca paused.
“But it is enough to keep looking.”
Cole received his portal reset that evening.
Megan had changed the recovery email to her own account years earlier.
Once clinic staff verified Cole separately, he obtained access.
He sat at the small hospital desk while Brooke watched from the bed.
There were hundreds of pages.
Billing.
Lab reports.
Consent packets.
Embryology summaries.
Then Cole stopped scrolling.
“What?”
He turned the screen.
The donor number appeared again.
B-417.
Beside it were the dates of fertilization.
Cole’s name appeared under sperm source.
Brooke felt nauseated.
“How many embryos?”
“Three.”
“And which one did they transfer to me?”
Cole scrolled farther.
His face changed.
Brooke did not ask again.
He read the line aloud.
“Embryo three. Donor oocyte lot B-417. Transfer to gestational carrier Brooke Mercer.”
Nora whispered, “Oh, God.”
Brooke looked at Owen.
For the first time, she allowed herself to think the thought she had been fighting since the previous afternoon.
May you like
The child might not simply have grown inside her.
He might have begun with her.
