Chapter 12 - The Next Woman
Intended surrogate:
Megan Hayes.
Luke’s cousin.
Twenty-six.
She had visited villa that morning.
I barely noticed.
My goal was to find out whether she knew.
Megan said Beatrice told her we were struggling medically and needed help.
Same script used on Emily.
She agreed to testing, not transfer.
Then Beatrice pushed a contract.
Megan delayed signing.
That was why Luke needed my signature too.
Two signatures missing.
Then Megan said she overheard Luke and Beatrice arguing.
Luke:
Caroline won’t sign.
Beatrice:
Then make her understand what she loses.
Luke:
She doesn’t care about the trust.
Beatrice:
Everyone cares when they’re afraid enough.
That showed Beatrice’s philosophy.
Then Megan heard the crash and scream later.
She left through side door in panic instead of helping.
She admitted it.
Cowardice.
She called Beatrice from car.
Beatrice told her not to return.
Then Megan kept voicemail.
BEATRICE:
You saw nothing. Luke and Caroline fight all the time.
Evidence of cover-up attempt.
Then Megan testified.
Then Beatrice’s bail was revoked.
Then Sophia’s pregnancy reached twenty-eight weeks.
Healthy.
The question of future parentage became pressing.
Henry wanted to be legally recognized as biological father after birth but not controlling guardian.
I would be biological mother but had not gestated.
Sophia gestational carrier with full bodily autonomy.
Complex.
All parties entered mediated plan:
Sophia retains medical autonomy through pregnancy.
After birth, temporary neutral guardianship pending parentage adjudication.
Henry and I recognized genetic parentage but neither claimed immediate custody.
Why? Because child created without consent, all needed trauma-informed process.
Then I realized I wanted involvement.
Not because embryo was “mine.”
Because child would be genetically mine and born from violation affecting us all.
I did not know what role yet.
That uncertainty felt honest.
Then my natural pregnancy continued.
My daughter.
I named her Hope privately.
No one else knew.
Then Luke’s sister Rebecca asked if I wanted her at delivery.
I said maybe.
Trust forming slowly.
Then another evidence file.
Beatrice had a baby-name list.
Male names.
Trust percentages beside each.
No female names.
That simple page became emotionally devastating.
She never imagined girls as people inside the plan.
Then Henry found an old note from his father.
He had warned:
A trust that rewards one child for sex will teach the family to punish every other child.
Prophetic.
Henry had ignored it.
Then he apologized publicly to Rebecca for decades of secondary treatment.
No instant repair.
But real.
Then the lender controlling Luke’s debt attempted to claim future trust distributions from unborn child.
Court rejected.
Child’s rights independent.
Then Beatrice’s lawyers argued Sophia’s fetus should activate replacement clause.
Henry’s new amendment removed sex preference but not yet final.
Court stayed all succession until both births and criminal case.
No one gained.
Then I checked my old prenatal sheet again.
One annotation I had missed:
Twin marker initially suspected.
What?
Dr. Morgan explained early bloodwork suggested vanishing twin.
No confirmed second fetus.
Then genetics archive showed something strange.
A few cells from transferred male embryo may have briefly implanted then vanished, while natural female pregnancy continued.
That could explain mixed lab markers.
I may have briefly carried both.
No living twin.
No secret baby.
But medically, the illegal embryo transfer affected my body.
Then Luke had seen that note.
He believed a male embryo may once have implanted and been lost.
That fueled his rage toward me irrationally.
He blamed my body for “losing” the boy.
I thought his hatred was only about the daughter I carried—but records showed he had been blaming me for the failed male embryo from the very beginning.
May you like
**Luke believed my body had “rejected” the male heir he secretly implanted and punished me for a medical outcome I never consented to.**
*The final psychological evaluation showed how deeply that belief had shaped his violence—and whether he was competent to stand trial.*
