Chapter 6 - Storage Unit 17
The door opened.
Judith stood there.
Rachel lowered the phone.
Owen looked furious.
“Were you watching us?”
“What?”
He showed her the photograph.
Judith went pale.
“No.”
Rachel believed her.
Someone else had access to the hospital cameras.
Security was alerted.
But Rachel already knew the person behind this wanted them moving.
Storage Unit 17 was bait.
The question was whether the truth inside was worth the trap.
They went anyway.
Not alone.
Hospital security contacted police after the NICU incident, and an officer accompanied them to the storage facility.
Unit 17 contained no person.
Only boxes.
Medical files.
Photographs.
Videotapes.
And a locked metal case.
Inside the first box, Rachel found documents bearing her name.
Her fertility evaluation.
Owen's.
Then something worse.
Consent forms.
Her signature.
Except she had never signed them.
“Forgery,” she whispered.
Owen looked sick.
“What did they authorize?”
Mercer read them.
“Storage of reproductive tissue.”
Rachel sat down.
The ovarian surgery.
Thomas had used tissue retained from it.
But the next document changed everything.
The experimental procedure had failed.
No viable eggs had been created.
Rachel exhaled so sharply she almost laughed.
“So the baby isn't genetically mine.”
“No,” Mercer said.
Owen looked relieved too.
Then Mercer picked up another page.
His expression changed.
“What?”
“There was a second protocol.”
Owen leaned over him.
Mercer read silently.
“Your sample.”
Owen froze.
“What about it?”
“Cryopreservation.”
“You said my fertility was severely impaired.”
“Impaired isn't zero.”
Rachel understood.
“They preserved viable sperm.”
Mercer nodded.
“And according to this, years later, one sample was used.”
Owen's face emptied.
“For Serena?”
Mercer looked at the date.
“Eleven months ago.”
Silence.
David whispered, “Then the baby could actually be Owen's.”
Rachel stared.
Every lie had been built around convincing Owen the opposite.
Why?
Owen grabbed the case.
“There has to be a test.”
Rachel stopped him.
“Not yet.”
He looked at her.
“If someone has manipulated records for years, paper isn't enough.”
He understood.
“Independent DNA.”
“Yes.”
David nodded.
“Do it.”
Back at Mercy Lake, with Serena's consent, samples were collected from Owen and the baby.
The test would take hours even with expedited processing.
Meanwhile police traced the storage-unit lease.
The renter was listed as Claire Blake.
Serena's supposedly dead mother.
Serena stared at the name.
“My mother died when I was nine.”
Rachel sat beside her.
“Who told you?”
“My father.”
“Did you see her body?”
Serena shook her head.
“There was a closed casket.”
Rachel felt sadness beneath the anger.
Serena had been manipulated too.
That did not erase her lies.
But it changed their shape.
“Why did you marry Owen?” Rachel asked.
Serena looked at her.
“At first?”
Rachel nodded.
“My father wanted me to meet him.”
“And later?”
“I loved him.”
Rachel believed that too.
Human beings could love someone and still betray them.
She knew that better than most.
Serena looked at her.
“He still loves you.”
Rachel's expression tightened.
“This isn't about that.”
“I saw his face when he saw you.”
“Serena.”
“I'm not blaming you.”
Serena looked toward the window.
“I think I always knew there was a room inside him I could never enter.”
Rachel said nothing.
“He talked about you once in his sleep.”
Rachel stood.
“You need rest.”
“Rachel.”
She stopped.
“I'm sorry.”
Rachel looked back.
“For what?”
“For agreeing to meet him when I knew my father had chosen him for me.”
That was at least honest.
Hours later, the DNA results arrived.
Owen refused to open them alone.
Rachel found him outside the NICU.
“You don't need me for this.”
“I know.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Because you're the only person in this building who has told me the truth even when it hurt you.”
Rachel looked away.
He opened the envelope.
Probability of paternity: greater than 99.99%.
Owen stopped breathing.
Then he laughed.
One broken sound.
“He's mine.”
Rachel smiled despite herself.
“He's yours.”
Owen covered his eyes.
For several seconds, he simply cried.
Then he went into the NICU.
Rachel remained outside.
She watched him place one finger beside his son's tiny hand.
The baby wrapped his fingers around it.
Something inside Rachel finally loosened.
The child had exposed the lie.
But he had not caused it.
He was innocent.
Later, Owen showed Serena.
She cried too.
Relief.
Grief.
Shame.
Their marriage, however, did not magically heal.
“You lied to me,” Owen said.
“I know.”
“You let me believe another man could be his father.”
“I know.”
“I need time.”
Serena nodded.
“I know.”
It was perhaps the first completely honest conversation they had ever had.
Police found another item in Storage Unit 17.
A flash drive.
On it was a video recorded by Thomas Cole shortly before his death.
Owen, Rachel, Judith, Serena, David, and Mercer gathered in a hospital conference room.
Thomas appeared on screen.
Older.
Weak.
Ashamed.
“If Owen is watching this, then I failed to bury what I did.”
Judith began crying.
Thomas confessed to arranging Owen's supplements.
To hiding the medical consequences.
To pressuring Westbridge.
To taking Rachel's retained tissue without consent.
To preserving Owen's viable samples.
Then he said something unexpected.
“I did not authorize their use.”
Owen leaned forward.
Thomas continued.
“Martin Blake did.”
Serena gasped.
Her father.
“He believes the Cole trust should belong to a child he can control. He intends to place his daughter beside Owen and, if possible, create a biological Cole heir through her.”
Serena covered her mouth.
Thomas looked directly into the camera.
“If he succeeds, the child will be Owen's.”
Owen stared.
“He knew.”
Rachel whispered.
“Thomas knew the baby would be yours.”
The video continued.
“But Martin has one weakness. Claire.”
Serena stopped breathing.
“Claire discovered what we had done.”
Thomas coughed.
“She took the original records. Martin told everyone she died. She did not.”
Serena began crying.
Thomas's final words were simple.
“Find Claire Blake.”
The video ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then Serena's phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered with shaking hands.
“Hello?”
A woman's voice spoke.
“Serena?”
Serena's face drained of color.
Rachel stood.
The woman on the phone began crying.
“My baby girl.”
Serena whispered one word.
“Mom?”
The line crackled.
Then Claire Blake said:
“Your father is inside Mercy Lake right now.”
Owen stood.
“Where?”
Claire answered.
“He's coming for the baby.”
At that exact moment, the conference-room lights went out.
May you like
An alarm began screaming.
And from somewhere down the hall, a nurse shouted Owen's name...
