Chapter 8 - THE FATHER ON THE EMBRYO FILE
Independent DNA testing showed the embryos were not created with Derek’s sample.
The donor was Walter.
My father-in-law.
The fertility record had been altered.
Margaret wanted a child combining my blood trait with Walter’s genetic line because Derek and Michael inherited their disorder from her side.
Walter’s sample provided a healthier match.
He claimed Margaret collected it during prostate treatment without his knowledge.
The archived consent form carried his signature.
Video showed him heavily sedated.
Again, a real signature without free choice.
The unborn child was biologically mine and Walter’s.
The horror did not come from parenthood alone.
It came from a family reducing people to genetic components.
Caroline carried the pregnancy.
She contacted federal authorities voluntarily.
She had escaped with help from a nurse and entered independent medical care.
She chose to continue the pregnancy after receiving full counseling.
The decision belonged to her.
Not me.
Not Walter.
Not Margaret.
Caroline said she was willing to discuss future contact, but she intended to remain the legal mother.
I accepted that.
The embryo came from my stolen egg.
Her body carried the child.
The crime created no simple ownership answer.
Margaret’s system depended on adults fighting over children as property.
We refused.
Then Caroline revealed another secret.
The pregnancy began as twins.
One fetus disappeared from her scans at twenty weeks.
Doctors told her it had been absorbed.
She overheard Margaret discussing a fetal transfer.
Impossible under ordinary medicine.
But Vale laboratories had been testing artificial-womb support and surgical extraction.
The second fetus may have been removed and continued inside a medical chamber.
Federal agents searched the research wing.
One chamber remained active.
Inside was a developing fetus genetically identical to Caroline’s unborn baby.
The laboratory labeled it SUBJECT M2.
The system had split the twins between a human carrier and an artificial environment to compare development.
Margaret had turned my stolen embryos into research.
The chamber was placed under independent medical guardianship.
No one would terminate or continue treatment without ethical review.
The medical team determined the fetus had reached viability and could be supported safely.
The court appointed a neutral guardian.
For the first time, the family could not choose.
Derek reacted to the news with anger, not grief.
“That child belongs to Morgan blood.”
I finally understood he had never seen children as people.
Only continuation.
Walter testified against Margaret and Derek.
He accepted responsibility for earlier silence and participation in Anna’s marriage.
His cooperation did not erase criminal exposure.
Rachel charged him with fraud and unlawful confinement.
He pleaded guilty.
Then my heart monitor alarmed during the night.
Dr. Reed found another drug in my IV.
This time the security camera captured the attacker.
My lawyer Rebecca Sloan.
She stood beside my bed, injected the port, and walked away.
Rebecca was in federal custody during the same hour.
The woman on camera was her identical twin.
May you like
Rachel Sloan.
The federal prosecutor.
