Chapter 2 - The Secret Deal
The words hung in the air like a thick, toxic smoke that choked the life out of the room.
My sister Clara gasped loudly, bringing both hands up to cover her mouth in utter shock.
I slowly turned to look at the woman I had been married to for ten years, the woman who had just spent nine months carrying a child in her womb.
“Elena, what is he talking about?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
She refused to look at me, her eyes squeezed tightly shut as tears finally began to spill over her pale cheeks.
“Tell him the truth, Elena,” Dr. Hayes pressed, his tone devoid of any bedside manner.
“If you don't explain why there are also traces of heavy immunosuppressants in your system, I am legally obligated to call the authorities.”
Elena’s eyes snapped open, blazing with a sudden, defensive anger.
“Fine!” she screamed, her voice echoing shrilly in the small hospital room.
“There was a mix-up at the fertility clinic during our final round of IVF.”
I felt my knees go weak, forcing me to lean heavily against the cold metal of the overbed table.
“They implanted the wrong embryo,” she confessed, the words tumbling out of her mouth in a desperate rush.
“I found out during my second trimester when I did a secret amniocentesis because I was feeling terribly paranoid.”
“You knew?” I choked out, the betrayal feeling like a physical knife twisting deep into my chest.
“You knew for months and you let me paint the nursery, build the crib, and cry tears of joy over ultrasound pictures?”
“The clinic approached me right after I found out,” Elena sobbed, finally looking at me with a pathetic expression.
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“They offered me five million dollars in an offshore account to carry the baby to term and quietly surrender him to the biological parents.”
“That is why I needed you to sign those custody papers, giving up your rights so I could legally transfer him!” she cried out.
