Chapter 13 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE NEXT
Her name was Natalie Crane.
She was thirty-two, a registered nurse, and a single mother of two living in New Jersey.
Maya found her through a copy of the second gestational agreement Sienna turned over under subpoena.
The document was not signed by me.
It was not signed by Julian.
It was signed by Evelyn Mercer as "authorized family representative."
The intended embryo was listed only as FAMILY CRYOPRESERVED MATERIAL C4.
The agreement promised Natalie one hundred eighty thousand dollars plus medical expenses.
That amount was more than double the ordinary compensation described by the reproductive-law specialist Maya consulted.
"Because she was paying for silence too," Maya said.
Natalie agreed to meet us in a lawyer's office near Newark.
She arrived wearing scrubs after a night shift.
She looked tired, wary, and angry.
"I already told the investigator I never had a transfer," she said.
"I withdrew."
"Why?" Maya asked.
Natalie looked at me.
"Because I found your name."
My stomach tightened.
She opened a folder she had kept for seventeen months.
Inside was an early medical screening packet.
One laboratory request included the complete embryo identifier CM-JM-04.
Below it, in small print, were the genetic contributors.
CLARA HALE-MERCER.
JULIAN A. MERCER.
Natalie tapped the line.
"They told me it was a family embryo that both genetic parents had donated for future family use."
"Then I searched you."
"I found the divorce announcement."
"I found articles saying you had infertility issues."
"I thought it was strange that a woman supposedly unable to create embryos had one in storage."
Maya leaned forward.
"What did you do?"
"I asked Graham Vale."
"He told me the legal details were private."
"I asked to speak to you."
Natalie looked at me.
"He said you were mentally unstable and had signed away all reproductive rights."
The phrase made my skin crawl.
It had become their universal key.
Unstable.
A word that allowed them to speak for me even while I was still alive.
"Did you believe him?"
"No."
"Why not?"
Natalie gave a humorless laugh.
"Because normal legal arrangements don't require telling the gestational carrier that the genetic mother must never know she exists."
Maya's eyes sharpened.
"He said that?"
"Not in writing."
"But yes."
"I withdrew the next day."
"What happened to the embryo?"
"They said it would remain stored."
"Did Evelyn contact you afterward?"
Natalie's face tightened.
"Three times."
"She offered more money."
"Then she threatened to sue me for breaching confidentiality."
"I told her to try."
I almost smiled.
Natalie slid another document across the table.
"I kept this because it frightened me."
It was an email from Graham Vale.
PLEASE DESTROY ALL PRELIMINARY MATERIALS REFERENCING GENETIC CONTRIBUTORS.
DO NOT RETAIN COPIES.
Maya looked up.
"You kept it anyway."
"I have been a nurse for eleven years."
"When somebody tells me to destroy a medical paper that should be part of informed consent, I keep two copies."
For the first time in days, I felt a small burst of gratitude toward a stranger.
Natalie gave us both copies.
She also agreed to provide testimony.
As we left, she touched my arm.
"I am sorry."
"You did not do this."
"I almost did."
"But you asked the question everyone else avoided."
I meant it.
That one decision might have saved me from discovering another child years later.
On the drive back, Maya received a call from Rebecca Cho.
Sienna had failed to arrive for a scheduled check-in with Eli.
My body went cold.
"What do you mean failed?"
"Her lawyer says she left home this morning before security arrived."
"Where is Julian?"
"Looking for her."
"The court has Eli's passport."
"That does not prevent domestic travel."
Maya was already calling the court clerk.
Within twenty minutes, Judge Keller issued an emergency pickup order requiring Sienna to present Eli to Rebecca.
No criminal kidnapping charge existed because Sienna was still a legal parent.
But she was violating a direct court order.
Julian called me.
For once, I answered.
"Where is she?"
"I don't know."
He sounded terrified.
"Her car is gone."
"Her phone is off."
"Did your mother contact her?"
"My mother isn't answering either."
Maya looked at me.
"Ask about private aircraft."
I did.
Julian swore.
"The family has access to a charter service at Teterboro."
"Call them."
"I'm already doing it."
The charter company initially refused to provide passenger information.
The court order changed that.
A flight had been booked under a Mercer corporate account for 1:15 p.m.
Destination: Burlington, Vermont.
Passengers listed: Sienna Blake and infant.
From Burlington, Canada was less than forty miles away.
"Why Vermont?" I asked.
Julian's voice broke.
"My mother has a house near Stowe."
We were ninety minutes away.
Police were closer.
Rebecca coordinated with them.
I sat in Maya's car gripping my phone while updates arrived in fragments.
Sienna entered the terminal.
She had Eli.
She had no checked bags.
A black sedan dropped her off and left immediately.
Police approached before boarding.
She did not run.
She sat down on the terminal floor and began crying while holding Eli.
When I heard that, my anger turned into something more complicated.
She was not escaping toward a plan.
She was collapsing inside one.
We met them at a family-services office near the airport three hours later.
Eli was asleep in Rebecca's arms.
Sienna sat at a table with her lawyer.
Her face was swollen from crying.
Julian stood by the window.
He looked as if he might break something and was using every muscle not to.
I walked directly to Rebecca.
"Is he okay?"
"Yes."
"He slept through most of it."
I let out a breath I had been holding for hours.
Sienna looked at me.
"I wasn't going to Canada."
"Then where were you going?"
"Evelyn told me the Stowe house was safe."
Julian turned.
"Safe from who?"
Sienna laughed bitterly.
"From Clara."
"From the court."
"From the prosecutors."
"From everyone."
Her lawyer whispered something.
Sienna shook him off.
"I'm done."
She looked at me.
"She called at six this morning."
"She said if I stayed in New York, the state would take Eli from me and charge me with stealing your embryo."
"She said she could get me new counsel and keep the case quiet from Vermont."
Maya asked, "Did she tell you to violate the court order?"
"She said the order was temporary and her lawyers would handle it."
Julian laughed without humor.
"You still believed her?"
Sienna looked at him with pure hatred.
"You believed her for thirty-eight years."
That silenced him.
Rebecca shifted Eli slightly.
He woke and began fussing.
Sienna stood instinctively.
Rebecca looked at me, then at Sienna.
"He needs calm."
Sienna approached slowly.
She took him.
Eli buried his face against her shoulder.
Watching them, I understood why revenge would be easy and motherhood would be harder.
Revenge wanted Sienna to lose everything immediately.
Motherhood required me to care what losing her would do to Eli.
I hated that responsibility.
I accepted it anyway.
The court held another emergency hearing by video that evening.
Sienna lost unrestricted physical custody.
For the next two weeks, she could care for Eli only at a supervised residence approved by Rebecca.
My parenting time expanded.
Julian received separate contact.
No one was permitted to remove Eli from the county.
After the hearing, Sienna asked to speak to me with both lawyers present.
"I did not authorize CM-JM-04 to leave Delaware," she said.
Maya watched her carefully.
"Then why does the release request carry your signature?"
"Because Evelyn has copies of everything."
"My passport."
"My driver's license."
"My signature from the gestational agreement."
Sienna looked at me.
"She collected pieces of us like tools."
I believed that part.
"Where is the embryo?"
Sienna wiped her face.
"I don't know where it is now."
"But I know what she planned to do with it."
My stomach tightened.
"What?"
"If I ever left Julian or refused to cooperate, she planned to have Natalie carry it."
"She called it the backup heir."
Julian went completely still.
Sienna continued.
"She said the Mercer family would never again depend on one woman doing what she was told."
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THE FILE THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
