Chapter 3 - THE TRANSPLANT LIST
At the hospital, two medical teams waited for us.
One treated my injuries.
The other locked Lily’s records behind an emergency legal hold.
Rebecca explained that Lily had a rare congenital liver disorder. Sarah had known for years that she would eventually need a transplant.
My unborn child had been conceived to provide a biological match.
The adoption was never about selling her to strangers.
Sarah planned to take my baby, test her organs, and use whatever tissue Lily needed.
I looked at Lily through the glass wall of the adjoining room.
She sat curled beneath a blanket, staring at her hands.
“She didn’t know,” I said.
“No,” Rebecca replied. “She believed Sarah was her biological mother.”
Detective Ortiz entered with a sealed evidence bag containing Michael’s phone.
Inside were messages between him, Sarah, and a transplant coordinator named Dr. Adrian Cole.
One text made my blood turn cold.
Delivery must occur before Emily contacts Hale. Neonate becomes legal property under signed consent. Proceed immediately if maternal complications arise.
Rebecca had not died.
Michael had fabricated her death after she questioned unusual fetal testing orders.
“Why did you disappear?” I asked.
“I was attacked leaving the clinic,” she said. “My car went off a bridge. Ortiz hid me while we investigated.”
Michael believed she was dead because police released a false identity report to flush out whoever ordered the attack.
It worked.
Sarah sent flowers to Rebecca’s supposed funeral.
The card read: Some mothers never learn when to let go.
Ortiz placed another document on the table.
It was a private fertility contract signed by Michael.
The biological material used for my current pregnancy had been altered without my consent.
Michael was listed as the legal father.
But the genetic donor field had been redacted.
“Who is the father?” I asked.
Rebecca looked toward Lily.
“We don’t know yet.”
A nurse entered carrying my bloodwork.
The sedatives in my system matched drugs used at the same private clinic where Lily was born.
A clinic owned by Sarah.
The hospital placed an officer outside my room. Lily was moved beside me so neither of us would be alone.
For hours, we said very little.
What could a mother say to the child stolen from her before she remembered giving birth?
Lily eventually asked, “Did you ever look for me?”
The question cut deeper than the chain.
“I didn’t know you existed.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I used to dream about you.”
I reached across the space between our beds.
She hesitated.
Then she took my hand.
Her fingers felt familiar.
Just after midnight, my phone was returned. It had been recovered from Michael’s car.
A scheduled email appeared in my drafts.
I had written it four months earlier but never sent it.
TO: DR. REBECCA HALE
I found proof Lily is mine. If I forget again, check the blue folder in Michael’s office wall.
I remembered nothing about writing it.
Ortiz immediately sent officers to search our home.
They found the wall compartment.
But the blue folder was gone.
In its place sat a hospital photograph of seventeen-year-old me holding newborn Lily.
Someone had written across the back:
THE SECOND CHILD BELONGS TO HER FATHER.
Below the message was a name.
May you like
Judge Thomas Hale.
Rebecca’s father.
