Chapter 3 - The Authorization
Grant stopped breathing.
“My mother’s signature?”
Rachel nodded.
Evelyn immediately shouted:
“That proves nothing.”
Rachel almost smiled.
“You haven’t even seen it yet.”
Evelyn realized her mistake.
Grant turned slowly.
“Mom.”
She lifted her chin.
“Your brother froze genetic material before chemotherapy.”
Grant knew that.
Michael had been diagnosed with lymphoma at twenty-eight.
Doctors warned treatment could leave him infertile.
So he banked sperm.
Michael recovered initially.
Then the cancer returned.
He died two years later.
Grant had attended every hospital visit he could.
But he had never known what happened to the stored samples afterward.
Rachel continued.
“The clinic’s records say Michael originally authorized destruction after five years unless he renewed.”
Grant frowned.
“So why wasn’t it destroyed?”
“Because someone filed an amended authorization.”
Rachel reached into her bag.
She pulled out copies.
Grant read them.
Michael Bennett.
Stored reproductive material.
Change in disposition authorization.
The signature looked like Michael’s.
But the date was six months after his death.
Grant’s stomach turned.
“That’s impossible.”
Rachel nodded.
“The clinic agrees.”
Evelyn’s face went white.
Grant looked at the witness section.
Evelyn Bennett.
His mother.
Her signature.
He stared.
“Did you forge Michael’s signature?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why were you witnessing a document signed by a dead man?”
Evelyn exploded.
“You have no idea what your brother wanted!”
Grant flinched.
Rachel didn’t.
“What did he want?”
Evelyn looked at Maddie.
Then away.
That tiny movement chilled Rachel.
Grant whispered:
“Mom.”
Evelyn’s voice softened.
“Michael wanted children.”
“That doesn’t answer anything.”
“He deserved a legacy.”
Rachel tightened her hold on Maddie.
“There it is.”
Grant looked between them.
Evelyn continued:
“Michael was the best of you.”
Grant recoiled.
“The best of us?”
“He was disciplined. Responsible. Strong.”
“And I’m what?”
Evelyn didn’t answer.
Grant laughed bitterly.
Suddenly fifteen months of behavior looked different.
Evelyn wasn’t rejecting Maddie because she believed the toddler wasn’t a Bennett.
She knew Maddie was.
Possibly more Bennett than anyone realized.
Rachel asked:
“Did you have Michael’s sample substituted during our fertility treatment?”
Evelyn’s eyes flashed.
“No.”
“You just said he deserved a legacy.”
“I didn’t say I did anything.”
Grant stared at the paperwork.
Then something occurred to him.
“How could Mom even access the clinic?”
Rachel answered:
“She couldn’t have done it alone.”
Silence.
The fertility clinic had already suspended one employee after discovering irregularities in archived records.
A senior embryology technician.
Someone who worked there during Rachel’s treatment.
Someone Evelyn knew socially.
Grant’s face hardened.
“Who?”
Rachel looked at him.
“Dr. Allison Price.”
Grant knew the name.
May you like
She had attended Michael’s funeral.
Standing beside Evelyn.
