Chapter 5 - The Truth Inside the Embryology Report
Rebecca warned them not to treat the clinic record as a genetic test.
Mistakes happened.
Codes could be entered incorrectly.
Archived donor material could be reassigned.
Chain-of-custody records had to be verified.
Brooke clung to those possibilities longer than she expected.
Not because she wanted Megan’s story to be true.
Because the alternative frightened her.
She had prepared herself to give birth and say goodbye.
She had not prepared herself to discover that goodbye might have been built on a lie.
Cole sat beside Owen’s bassinet.
“He has your chin.”
Brooke looked sharply at him.
“Don’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t start turning his face into evidence.”
Cole nodded.
He looked exhausted.
Before lunch, the clinic’s compliance manager called Cole after receiving Rebecca’s preservation request.
She confirmed that the embryology report was authentic.
She would not discuss the donor’s identity over the phone.
Cole asked one question.
“Was the embryo created from Megan’s eggs?”
“No.”
Brooke closed her eyes.
That answer destroyed the last version of the story Megan had told her.
Still, it did not establish that donor B-417 was definitely Brooke.
Rebecca arranged an independent DNA test using an accredited relationship-testing laboratory.
No home kit.
No social-media reveal.
No guessing.
The test would compare Brooke and Owen.
Cole agreed immediately.
Megan, through her new attorney, objected.
Her lawyer’s email arrived that afternoon.
Ms. Hale disputes any suggestion that genetic testing alters the parties’ surrogacy agreement or intended-parent relationship.
Brooke read the sentence twice.
Megan was no longer Megan in the communications.
She was Ms. Hale.
The change hurt more than Brooke expected.
Nora noticed.
“You still want her to explain this like your sister.”
“She is my sister.”
Nora shook her head.
“She knew what she was doing yesterday.”
Brooke looked away.
That evening Cole admitted something else.
“When Megan told me we needed donor eggs, I asked whether we should tell you.”
Brooke waited.
“She said you already knew.”
“You told me that.”
“There was more.”
Cole stared at his shoes.
“She said you’d asked not to know anything about the donor because you didn’t want to feel attached.”
Brooke laughed once.
“I knitted him a blanket.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Cole raised his eyes.
Brooke’s voice broke despite her effort to control it.
“I talked to him every night. I knew what made him kick. I knew he hated orange juice and loved when the kids in my classroom sang. I spent nine months teaching myself that loving him did not make him mine.”
Cole said nothing.
“And your wife used that love to keep me from asking questions.”
Cole swallowed.
“Our wife-and-husband problems are not your responsibility.”
“Apparently they were inside my uterus.”
The sentence landed hard.
Cole looked away.
Later that night Brooke examined the original donor paperwork again.
A handwritten note appeared on the bottom of one page.
Emergency contact after retrieval: Megan Hale.
Brooke had forgotten that completely.
Megan had not merely known about the donation.
She had been physically present through it.
May you like
And if donor B-417 truly was Brooke, Megan had possessed one thing Cole never had.
A way to recognize the donor before anyone else did.
