Chapter 6 - Dr. Reed Finally Broke
Dr. Alan Reed agreed to meet only after Marcus threatened a court order preserving his records.
They met in a conference room.
The retired doctor looked exhausted.
Emily placed Sophie’s photograph on the table.
“Tell me what happened.”
Reed stared at the picture for a long time.
Then he whispered:
“I’m sorry.”
Emily’s chest tightened.
“For what?”
“The pregnancy was viable.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
Emily didn’t move.
“You told me my baby died.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Reed began crying.
Margaret had approached him during Emily’s pregnancy.
She claimed Emily was emotionally unstable.
She claimed Daniel was abusive.
She claimed the family was arranging a confidential adoption for the child.
Reed knew it was irregular.
He knew Emily had never personally consented.
“But you did it anyway.”
His voice cracked.
“Yes.”
Emily stared at him with such silence that he could barely meet her eyes.
He explained that the pregnancy continued.
Emily had not miscarried at sixteen weeks.
Instead, records were falsified.
Emily had been transferred to a private obstetric practice under a different patient identifier while she was heavily medicated and experiencing complications.
Emily remembered weeks of confusion afterward.
Medication.
Bleeding.
Her mother constantly staying with her.
She had believed all of it was recovery from pregnancy loss.
“What happened to my daughter?”
Reed looked at Sophie’s photo.
“She was born prematurely.”
Emily’s hand flew to her mouth.
“At thirty-two weeks.”
Rachel began sobbing.
“And I never knew?”
“Margaret arranged everything.”
“Lauren?”
“She was presented as the intended guardian.”
“Did Lauren know I hadn’t consented?”
“Not at first.”
Emily stood and walked away from the table.
She couldn’t breathe.
Eight years.
Birthday after birthday.
Christmas after Christmas.
A daughter alive somewhere.
She had been grieving a child who was breathing.
Marcus asked the next question.
“Why would Margaret do this?”
Reed shook his head.
“She never told me.”
Emily turned.
“You took $225,000.”
Reed’s face collapsed.
“Yes.”
“So you destroyed my life for money.”
“I told myself your mother had legal authority.”
“You knew she didn’t.”
He looked down.
“Yes.”
That mattered.
Not because it healed anything.
Because he finally stopped lying.
Reed agreed to provide sworn testimony and surrender every record he still possessed.
Before they left, he said one more thing.
“There was another person present the night Sophie was born.”
Emily stopped.
“Who?”
“Victor Hale.”
The attorney from Robert’s papers.
“What was he doing there?”
“He brought documents.”
“What documents?”
“I don’t know.”
Reed hesitated.
“But Margaret signed something.”
Rachel whispered:
“What?”
Reed looked at Emily.
“After the baby was taken away.”
That afternoon, Marcus discovered Victor Hale had died three years earlier.
But his law firm archive still existed.
And one document from the year Sophie was born had been indexed under Margaret Parker’s name.
Description:
TRANSFER OF BENEFICIAL INTEREST.
Emily stared at the screen.
May you like
Margaret hadn’t only taken her daughter.
She had apparently altered the ownership of something immediately afterward.
