Chapter 3 - The Pregnancy Emily Lost
Emily barely slept.
By 8:00 the next morning, she was on the phone with St. Matthew Women’s Center.
The fertility clinic had closed six years earlier.
Its records had been transferred twice.
Emily spent hours calling administrators.
Finally, a woman located her archived file.
“There’s a restriction on part of it.”
Emily frowned.
“What kind of restriction?”
“A legal hold.”
“Placed by whom?”
“I can’t see that from this screen.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
She requested everything they could legally release.
Then she called Dr. Alan Reed.
He had overseen her fertility treatment.
His office told her he had retired.
She found a home number through an old medical directory.
He answered after the fourth ring.
“Dr. Reed?”
“Yes?”
“My name is Emily Parker.”
Silence.
Not ordinary silence.
Recognition.
Emily sat up.
“You remember me.”
“I treated hundreds of patients.”
“You remember me.”
Another pause.
“What is this about?”
“My daughter.”
Dr. Reed breathed slowly.
“Emily…”
“Eight years ago, you told me I lost my baby.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t discuss—”
“Did I?”
He stopped.
Emily’s heart pounded.
“Did I lose her?”
“I think you should speak to an attorney.”
Her hand began shaking.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I know.”
“Was my mother involved?”
Dr. Reed hung up.
Emily stared at her phone.
Then Sophie started crying in the next room.
Emily went to her immediately.
She lifted her.
Sophie rested her head against Emily’s shoulder.
Emily whispered:
“Who are you?”
The question broke her heart the moment she said it.
Not because Sophie’s identity changed anything about her love.
But because someone had possibly stolen eight years from them.
Emily spent the afternoon with an attorney named Marcus Bennett.
He specialized in medical records and family law.
Marcus listened without interrupting.
Then he asked:
“Why was Sophie raised by Lauren Mills?”
“I don’t know.”
“And Lauren claimed Daniel was the biological father?”
“Yes.”
“But never said anything about you?”
“No.”
“What was Lauren’s connection to your family?”
“I thought none.”
Marcus began searching public records.
Twenty minutes later, he turned his laptop.
Lauren Mills had worked for Parker Family Holdings.
Emily stared at the screen.
“What?”
“Accounts payable assistant. Nine years ago.”
Emily’s skin went cold.
The company had belonged to Emily’s father, Robert Parker.
Margaret had controlled it after his death.
Lauren hadn’t been a stranger.
She had worked for Emily’s family.
Marcus kept searching.
Then found another record.
A property deed.
Eight years earlier, six weeks after Emily’s reported miscarriage, Lauren bought a small house outside Albany.
Cash.
Purchase price: $340,000.
Emily stared.
“Lauren never had that kind of money.”
“Maybe someone gave it to her.”
“Why?”
Marcus didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
Emily’s phone rang.
Rachel.
Her voice was low.
“You need to come to Dad’s old office.”
“Why?”
“I found something.”
Emily grabbed Sophie’s bag.
“What?”
“A safe deposit key.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It does when Mom had taped your old fertility clinic number to it.”
Emily froze.
Rachel continued:
“And underneath it, Dad wrote one word.”
“What word?”
May you like
Rachel whispered:
“Emily.”
