Chapter 2 - THE AGREEMENT
Grant arrived the next morning.
Rachel’s sister, Natalie, refused to let him inside.
“You made a five-year-old cry on camera,” she told him through the intercom. “Today isn’t the day to test my hospitality.”
“Rachel needs to speak to me.”
“She doesn’t need anything from you.”
Rachel came downstairs before Natalie could end the call.
“Let him in.”
Natalie looked at her.
“You sure?”
“No.”
Grant entered looking nothing like the man from the gala.
No jacket.
No tie.
His hair was disordered.
His eyes were bloodshot.
He looked as though he had not slept.
“Where’s Maddie?”
“Upstairs.”
“I want to see her.”
“No.”
His jaw hardened automatically.
Rachel recognized the instinct.
Command.
Control.
Then he remembered why he was there and lowered his voice.
“Please.”
“She asked me if you could stop being her father.”
Grant’s face crumpled slightly.
Rachel had expected satisfaction.
She felt none.
He sat down.
“I was angry.”
“So?”
“You were threatening to leave.”
“I had already told you our marriage was in trouble.”
“You embarrassed me.”
Rachel stared at him.
“What exactly did I do?”
“You let people think—”
“Think what?”
He fell silent.
Rachel leaned forward.
“That I cheated?”
Grant looked away.
“You let them think that too.”
“I never said you did.”
“You didn’t have to.”
The marriage had deteriorated gradually.
Grant’s diagnosis had preceded their wedding by two years.
At first, he had handled it with surprising openness.
He talked about adoption.
Donor conception.
Fostering.
He said biology didn’t define fatherhood.
Then Maddie was born.
For two years, he was devoted to her.
But as she grew, Grant became increasingly sensitive to comments about resemblance.
A cousin asked where Maddie got her dimples.
A newspaper printed side-by-side photographs.
A drunk investor joked about Rachel having “strong genetics.”
Each harmless observation became a small humiliation Grant stored away.
Eventually he began asking Rachel questions that had no rational basis.
Did she ever regret using a donor?
Had she ever wished the donor could meet Maddie?
Was there any chance the procedure had failed and she had conceived naturally with someone else?
Rachel had been stunned.
“You were there.”
“I know.”
“You watched the entire process.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you asking me this?”
Grant never gave a useful answer.
Now she understood.
Shame had rotted into suspicion.
Rachel placed her phone on the table.
“Northbrook called.”
Grant looked up.
“What?”
She played the voicemail.
He listened once.
Then again.
The color vanished from his face.
“They made a mistake?”
“They think they may have used the wrong donor.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Apparently not.”
He stood.
“We’ll sue them.”
“Sit down.”
He stopped.
“Rachel—”
“This is not one of your companies.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
“You’re already talking about litigation before we know what happened.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Care about what this means for Maddie.”
“I do.”
“Then act like it.”
Grant sat.
For the first time that morning, the anger disappeared.
“What happens now?”
“DNA testing.”
Grant stared at the floor.
“And if it was the wrong donor?”
“We find out who he was.”
He swallowed.
“And then?”
Rachel looked at him carefully.
“That depends on what else we discover.”
“You’re still divorcing me.”
It was not a question.
“Yes.”
His face tightened.
“Because of one sentence?”
Rachel nearly laughed.
“You think one sentence ended our marriage?”
He said nothing.
“No, Grant. One sentence revealed our marriage.”
He closed his eyes.
Rachel continued.
“You didn’t just insult me. You used the thing I protected most about you to make Maddie feel unwanted.”
“I panicked.”
“Exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means when protecting yourself and protecting your daughter became competing choices, you picked yourself.”
The words landed.
Grant looked toward the stairs.
“She really doesn’t want to see me?”
“She’s afraid you’ll tell her she isn’t yours again.”
He flinched.
Rachel almost softened.
Almost.
Then the doorbell rang.
A courier stood outside.
The envelope was addressed to Rachel Mercer.
Northbrook Reproductive Medicine.
Inside were consent forms, genetic-testing recommendations, and a letter.
The first paragraph was cautious.
The second was clinical.
The third made Rachel’s pulse race.
Based on preliminary genetic-genealogy analysis conducted in connection with unrelated patient reports, Northbrook has identified a cluster of individuals sharing a probable common biological father.
Grant read over her shoulder.
The letter continued.
Several individuals in this cluster were conceived using donor specimens recorded under different donor identification numbers.
Grant whispered:
“What does that mean?”
May you like
Rachel already knew.
“It means this might not have been an accident.”
