Chapter 9 - THE MAN WHO CHOSE ME
I could not look at Michael after the birth record was confirmed.
He had not met me at a charity dinner when I was twenty-six, as he always claimed.
He had known me since I was seventeen.
He had assaulted me after Diane drugged my drink at a family fundraiser.
Dr. Cole erased the evidence.
Judge Hale sealed the birth.
Sarah took Lily.
Years later, Michael married me because Jonathan ordered him to keep control of the family asset he had already created.
Me.
When Naomi confronted him, Michael finally stopped pretending.
He blamed my father.
He blamed alcohol.
He blamed Diane.
He blamed everyone except himself.
“I was young,” he said.
“You were twenty-seven.”
“I didn’t know she would get pregnant.”
“You returned nine years later and married me without telling me.”
“I loved you by then.”
The words were more disgusting than a confession.
DNA testing also showed Michael was not the biological father of my current child.
The embryo had been created using my egg and sperm from an unknown donor.
Dr. Cole had designed the pregnancy to create a genetic match for Lily without using Michael’s damaged bloodline.
That donor’s identity remained encrypted.
Michael offered the password in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Naomi refused.
Rebecca found another path.
The encryption key was linked to the date of Lily’s original adoption.
But the official date did not work.
Lily remembered Sarah celebrating a different day as her “private birthday.”
June 17.
The drive opened.
Inside was a video of Jonathan Carter speaking to Dr. Cole.
My father looked directly into the camera.
“The second child must be genetically clean. Use the Hale sample.”
Rebecca froze.
Her father had stored reproductive material at Dr. Cole’s clinic during cancer treatment.
Judge Hale might be my unborn child’s biological father.
Rebecca covered her mouth.
“That would make the baby my half sister.”
The truth seemed impossible.
Then Dr. Cole’s laboratory inventory showed the Hale sample had been destroyed years earlier.
Someone substituted another donor under the same identification number.
Security footage from the storage facility showed Jonathan entering the laboratory the night the sample changed.
He carried a silver medical case.
A frame enlargement revealed initials on the case.
R.C.
Richard Carter.
My uncle.
Richard denied donating anything.
But his DNA test matched the embryo profile.
My unborn daughter was genetically his child.
He was not my biological uncle, however.
Further testing revealed Jonathan and Richard were not related.
Diane had lied about Richard’s place in the family.
Richard was my biological father.
My current baby had been conceived using my biological father’s genetic material.
The discovery was horrifying.
Rebecca ordered specialists to evaluate the baby.
As I struggled to breathe, my phone received a video call from an unknown number.
Jonathan Carter appeared on-screen.
Alive.
May you like
He smiled at me.
“Now you understand why the child can never be born.”
