Chapter 9 - The Conflict Leaves the Family
By the following week, three institutions were reviewing versions of the same question.
The surrogacy agency opened an internal file.
Commonwealth Reproductive Medicine began a compliance audit.
Atlantic Donor Bank preserved the selection history for donor lot B-417.
None of them offered Brooke an immediate answer.
That was how real systems worked.
They moved through authorization forms, lawyers and policy reviews while the people involved still had to wake up every morning and feed a newborn.
Cole stayed at Erin’s with Owen.
Brooke visited every afternoon.
The first visit was unbearable.
She stood outside the nursery doorway while Cole changed Owen’s diaper.
The ordinary scene hurt worse than the hospital fight.
“You can come in,” Cole said.
Brooke stepped inside.
Neither of them discussed Megan.
For forty minutes they talked about bottles, sleep and whether Owen hated the bassinet.
Then Cole asked, “Do you want to hold him?”
Brooke did.
She cried only after leaving.
Megan’s attorney formally argued that even if Brooke’s donated oocytes had been used, Brooke had relinquished ownership when she donated them years earlier.
Rebecca did not dispute that point.
“The eggs were legally available through the bank,” she explained.
“So Megan didn’t steal them.”
“Not in the property sense you’re thinking of.”
Brooke hated how much that mattered.
Because Megan had not stolen frozen cells from a laboratory.
She had done something more personal.
She had allegedly recognized Brooke’s donor identity, selected those eggs and then asked Brooke to carry the resulting embryo without telling her.
That was harder to summarize.
It was also harder to dismiss.
Then Megan offered her explanation.
Through counsel, she claimed she had chosen B-417 from a blinded catalog because the donor resembled her.
She said she only later suspected the donor might be Brooke.
After the pregnancy had begun.
“She’s saying it was coincidence,” Brooke said.
“Yes.”
“Do you believe her?”
“My job isn’t belief.”
Rebecca tapped the evidence list.
“We need selection history.”
The egg bank refused to release recipient-side browsing records without appropriate authorization.
Megan would not authorize them.
Rebecca prepared to seek them formally.
Meanwhile the DNA samples had already been collected under chain-of-custody procedures.
Brooke’s cheek had healed.
Her throat no longer hurt.
Her postpartum body slowly began feeling like her own.
But every day that passed made one fact harder to avoid.
If the DNA confirmed maternity, Owen would eventually have to be told the truth regardless of the legal result.
On Thursday afternoon Rebecca called.
“The bank contacted the clinic’s compliance officer.”
Brooke sat down.
“And?”
“They found something in the archived recipient-selection audit.”
“What?”
“They won’t release it informally.”
Brooke’s frustration rose.
“Then why call?”
“Because their lawyer asked whether Megan would reconsider authorizing disclosure.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
Brooke closed her eyes.
Rebecca continued.
“They’re preparing for a subpoena.”
“So we still have nothing.”
“Not exactly.”
“What do we have?”
“The compliance officer told me there is a reason Megan does not want that audit produced.”
Brooke looked toward the small photograph Cole had texted that morning.
May you like
Owen asleep with one hand above his head.
“Then get it.”
