Ryan Parker arrived twenty minutes later already angry.
Claire heard his voice before she saw him.
"Where is she?"
A second later he came through the clinic doors in a charcoal-gray suit, moving with the quick, aggressive stride Claire remembered from arguments he believed he could win by sheer momentum.
Megan followed.
She wore dark sunglasses despite being indoors and carried a diaper bag over one shoulder.
Claire's attention fixed on the bag.
Lily.
For one irrational second Claire expected the baby to be with them.
She wasn't.
Patricia hurried toward Ryan before he reached the conference room.
She whispered rapidly.
Claire watched his expression change.
Annoyance first.
Then disbelief.
Then something much closer to fear.
Megan noticed Detective Cole.
She stopped walking.
That tiny hesitation told Claire more than anything Megan might have said.
Ryan entered the conference room.
"What the hell is going on?"
Dr. Reed shut the door.
Cole stood near the wall while Patricia sat rigidly at the end of the table. Claire remained beside a speakerphone connected to a video screen.
Angela Morris appeared on it from her office.
Claire's attorney had been waiting for this meeting since the clinic released its first batch of records.
Angela adjusted her glasses.
"Mr. Parker, I strongly recommend that you contact counsel before making any statements."
Ryan looked at the screen.
"Who are you?"
"Claire's attorney."
He turned toward Claire.
"You brought a lawyer into this?"
Claire almost smiled at the absurdity.
"You used one of our embryos without my permission."
"Our embryos."
"Correct."
That answer surprised him.
Claire continued.
"Ours. Which means neither of us had unilateral authority to use one."
Ryan's nostrils flared.
"You abandoned them."
Angela immediately spoke.
"That is factually inconsistent with the storage agreement."
Ryan glanced toward her.
"The contract requires written authorization from both genetic parents before transfer to a gestational recipient."
"I had written authorization."
"No," Claire said. "You had a forgery."
Megan removed her sunglasses.
Her eyes were red.
Whether from crying, exhaustion, or fear, Claire could not tell.
Ryan pointed toward Claire.
"You said you were done."
Claire stared at him.
"When?"
"After the miscarriage."
The memory arrived with painful clarity.
Claire lying in bed with the curtains closed.
Ryan sitting on the edge of the mattress.
Claire saying, I can't do this again.
Not never.
Not destroy them.
Not give one to my best friend.
Just not again.
Not then.
"I said I couldn't survive another transfer right away."
"You wanted to stop."
"I wanted time to grieve."
"You pushed me away."
Claire's hands went still.
There it was.
The old argument.
Her grief had inconvenienced him, therefore everything afterward became understandable.
Megan finally spoke.
"Ryan told me you had agreed."
Everyone looked at her.
Ryan's face changed.
"Megan."
She ignored him.
"He told me you didn't want the embryos anymore."
Claire felt something almost like disbelief.
"You believed him?"
Megan's eyes filled.
"He showed me paperwork."
"You were my best friend."
"I know."
"You knew how many years we spent trying."
"I know."
"You sat in my kitchen after the miscarriage."
Megan lowered her eyes.
Claire could see that kitchen.
Megan washing mugs because Claire had been too tired to stand.
Megan saying Ryan simply grieved differently.
Megan telling Claire not to assume the worst when Ryan began staying out late.
Claire's voice remained controlled.
"You knew exactly what those embryos meant to me."
"I thought you'd agreed."
"No."
Megan wiped beneath one eye.
"I swear to you, Claire, he said you had."
Ryan pushed his chair backward.
"Stop talking."
Cole straightened.
Ryan realized how that sounded.
He looked toward the detective.
"This is insane."
Angela's voice came from the screen.
"Then perhaps you can explain who signed Claire's authorization."
"I don't know."
"You submitted it."
"The clinic handled the paperwork."
Dr. Reed spoke for the first time.
"That is not accurate."
Ryan looked at him.
Dr. Reed placed a record on the table.
"The authorization was uploaded through the patient portal associated with your credentials."
Ryan stared at the paper.
Claire hadn't known that detail.
She looked toward Angela on the screen.
Angela's expression revealed nothing.
"Which credentials?" Claire asked.
"Ryan's."
Ryan stood.
"I want a lawyer."
Cole nodded.
"That's probably wise."
The ease with which he said it seemed to unsettle Ryan.
Megan remained seated.
Patricia leaned toward her.
"Don't say another word."
Megan looked at Patricia.
Claire noticed the dynamic immediately.
Patricia wasn't comforting her.
She was controlling her.
Megan noticed too.
"You told me it was legal."
Patricia froze.
Ryan whispered, "Megan."
But it was too late.
Claire turned slowly toward her former friend.
"What did Patricia tell you?"
Megan pressed both hands against her forehead.
Patricia stood.
"She's upset. She doesn't know what she's saying."
"What did she tell you?" Claire repeated.
Megan looked at Claire.
"That because Ryan was your husband when the embryos were created, he could authorize the transfer."
Angela leaned toward her camera.
"Who specifically told you that?"
Megan hesitated.
Then she looked toward Patricia.
Nobody needed the answer spoken aloud.
Patricia's chair scraped against the floor.
"This meeting is over."
Cole moved toward the door before she reached it.
"I'm not detaining you."
"Then move."
He did.
Patricia grabbed her handbag.
Before leaving, she turned toward Claire.
"You have no idea what you're about to do to that child."
Claire rose.
"No, Patricia."
Her voice was quiet enough that everyone listened.
"I know exactly why I have to be careful."
Patricia stared at her.
Claire continued.
"Lily isn't evidence. She isn't a prize. And she isn't a weapon."
Megan began crying.
Claire looked at her.
"She's a little girl."
The anger inside Claire shifted.
That was the truth she had been struggling to articulate since learning what happened.
She wanted consequences.
She wanted the forgery investigated.
She wanted Ryan exposed.
But Lily could not become collateral damage in the process.
Angela seemed to understand what Claire was thinking.
"Claire."
She looked toward the screen.
"We should discuss the parentage petition."
Ryan turned.
"The what?"
Angela folded her hands.
"A petition to establish Claire's legal relationship to Lily."
"No."
Ryan said it instantly.
Claire looked at him.
"You don't get to decide that by yourself either."
Ryan's face reddened.
"She's my daughter."
Claire's throat tightened.
"She's mine too."
The room went silent.
Saying it aloud changed something.
Until that moment, Lily had existed in Claire's mind as an impossible combination of concepts—Megan's baby, Ryan's daughter, stolen embryo, medical evidence.
Now there was only one fact Claire could not escape.
Her daughter was nine months old.
And she had never met her.
