Chapter 5 - BEFORE GRANT WAS BORN
Evelyn initially denied everything.
Then Grant placed the photographs on her dining table.
Her resistance collapsed.
“I was trying to have a child.”
Grant stared at her.
“With Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Then why is Vale touching you like that?”
Evelyn looked at Rachel before answering.
“Your father had fertility problems.”
Grant’s expression changed.
Rachel felt the symmetry immediately.
Father and son.
Both facing infertility.
Both keeping it secret.
Evelyn continued.
“Your father’s sperm count was extremely low. We tried for three years.”
“Did you use a donor?”
A long silence.
“Yes.”
Grant leaned backward.
“You told me Dad was my biological father.”
“I told you he was your father.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“He raised you.”
Grant laughed bitterly.
Rachel recognized his own words reflected back at him.
The irony was almost cruel.
“Who was the donor?” he asked.
Evelyn looked down.
“We were told he was anonymous.”
“Was it Adrian Vale?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Vale treat you?”
“Yes.”
Grant stood abruptly.
“So Maddie’s fertility doctor may have secretly fathered her, and thirty-eight years earlier the same doctor handled your insemination?”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“When you say it that way—”
“How else should I say it?”
“I didn’t know.”
Grant paced.
Rachel remained still.
Something about Evelyn’s wording bothered her.
Not the facts.
The omissions.
“Why did you keep photographs?”
Evelyn looked at her.
“What?”
“If Vale was simply your doctor, why hide photographs of him?”
Evelyn said nothing.
Grant stopped pacing.
“Mom?”
“I trusted him.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I was young.”
Rachel’s pulse quickened.
“Were you having an affair?”
“No.”
Too fast.
Grant noticed too.
“Mom.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“No. Not an affair.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means there were boundaries that became confused.”
Grant stared.
Rachel asked quietly:
“Did Dr. Vale ever tell you he used his own sperm?”
Evelyn opened her eyes.
“No.”
“Did you ever suspect it?”
Silence.
Grant’s voice cracked.
“Mom?”
May you like
Evelyn whispered:
“Years later.”
