Chapter 3 - The Child I Was Told I Could Never Have
Nia stared at the photograph until the screen blurred.
Ethan.
Her husband.
The man who had thrown her onto the sidewalk because she supposedly couldn't give him children.
Walking into the building of the woman who had allegedly carried one of Nia's embryos.
Holding a child's backpack.
"How old is that photograph?" Nia asked.
Adrian answered quietly.
"Twenty minutes."
"Then why are we standing here?"
"Nia."
"Take me there."
"We don't know what he's doing."
"Exactly."
Adrian studied her.
She didn't look away.
"Take me there."
Rebecca stood.
"I should stay with Lily."
Adrian nodded.
Nia was already reaching for her coat.
"Nia."
She turned.
Adrian's voice was softer.
"If there is a child, we don't know what he knows."
"I know."
"We don't know who raised him."
"I know."
"You cannot walk into that building and claim him."
Pain crossed her face.
"I know."
He approached.
"This may not end the way you want."
Nia swallowed.
"For three years, everyone decided what truth I was strong enough to hear."
She put on the coat.
"Don't do that to me too."
Adrian nodded once.
"All right."
They left.
The drive downtown took twenty-five minutes.
Nia spent every second imagining possibilities.
A little boy.
Four years old.
Maybe hers.
Maybe not.
Perhaps Caroline had raised him.
Perhaps Ethan had known all along.
Perhaps Margaret had known.
The questions multiplied until Nia thought she might scream.
Instead she counted traffic lights.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
Adrian didn't speak.
At the building, one of his security men met them outside.
"Mr. Bennett left six minutes ago."
Nia's heart sank.
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"The child?"
"No child."
"Caroline?"
"We haven't seen her."
Adrian looked up at the modest brick building.
"Apartment?"
"Fourth floor."
They entered.
Nia's legs felt strangely steady.
The elevator smelled faintly of detergent and old metal.
Fourth floor.
The doors opened.
Apartment 4B stood at the end of the hallway.
The door was ajar.
Adrian immediately put one arm in front of Nia.
"Stay behind me."
She hated being told what to do.
But for once, it wasn't control.
It was caution.
She allowed it.
Adrian pushed the door open.
"Caroline?"
No answer.
The apartment was small.
Clean.
A lamp glowed beside the sofa.
A bowl of cereal sat on a children's table.
A cartoon played silently on the television.
Nia's breath caught.
There were toys.
Dinosaurs.
Wooden blocks.
A red toy truck.
Then she saw the photographs.
A little boy smiled from frames across the room.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
A serious expression even while smiling.
Nia walked closer.
Her hands began shaking.
One photograph showed him at perhaps three years old, sitting on a woman's shoulders.
Caroline.
Another showed him blowing out four candles.
Another showed him asleep beside a stuffed lion.
Nia stared.
She couldn't explain the strange ache in her chest.
He didn't look like her.
Not obviously.
But there was something around his eyes.
A softness.
A familiarity she knew could be imagination.
"Don't decide from photographs," Adrian said gently.
"I know."
She found another frame.
The boy standing beside a school sign.
His name was written on a chalkboard.
NOAH MERCER.
Age 4.
Favorite food: pancakes.
Favorite animal: elephant.
Dream: "I want to drive trains."
Nia covered her mouth.
Noah.
Her grandmother had loved that name.
She had once told Ethan, long before fertility treatments, "If we have a boy, I like Noah."
Ethan had smiled.
"Too biblical."
She had laughed.
Now a child born from a hidden embryo was named Noah.
Nia turned.
"Did Ethan name him?"
Adrian's expression hardened.
"I don't know."
Footsteps sounded behind them.
Nia spun.
A woman stood in the doorway.
Thirty-one or thirty-two.
Brown hair pulled into a loose bun.
Terrified.
"Who are you?"
Nia knew immediately.
"Caroline?"
The woman's face drained.
Adrian stepped back, making himself less threatening.
"My name is Adrian Vale."
"I know who you are."
"Then you know I didn't come to hurt you."
Caroline laughed bitterly.
"That's not exactly what people say about you."
"People say many things."
Her gaze moved to Nia.
And stopped.
Caroline whispered, "Oh, God."
Nia felt cold.
"You know me."
Caroline's eyes filled.
"I knew this day would come."
Nia couldn't speak.
Adrian closed the apartment door.
"Where is Noah?"
Caroline looked at him sharply.
"Safe."
"With whom?"
"My sister."
Nia stepped forward.
"Is he my son?"
Caroline began crying.
No answer.
Nia forced herself not to rush her.
"Please."
Caroline wiped her face.
"When I agreed to be a surrogate, I was told the intended parents had chosen anonymity."
"Which parents?"
"A married couple."
"Ethan and me?"
Caroline shook her head.
"No."
Nia's hope collapsed.
"Then whose embryo?"
"That's what they lied about."
Nia frowned.
Caroline continued.
"After Noah was born, Dr. Kline came to see me."
"When?"
"Two days later."
"What did he say?"
"He told me there had been an unauthorized substitution."
Nia stopped breathing.
"He said the embryo I carried belonged to you."
Silence filled the apartment.
Nia closed her eyes.
The room disappeared.
She had spent years imagining the sound of a child calling her mother.
Now somewhere in New York, a four-year-old boy might exist because her embryo had been stolen.
Her knees weakened.
Adrian caught her elbow.
Nia steadied herself.
"Don't."
He released her immediately.
She appreciated that.
"Did you know while you were pregnant?"
"No."
"Did you know after he told you?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you find me?"
Caroline flinched.
The question sounded harsher than Nia intended.
"I wanted to."
"Then why didn't you?"
"Because Margaret Bennett found me first."
Nia went still.
Caroline sat slowly.
"She came to the hospital the day after Samuel visited."
"What did she want?"
"She offered me money."
"For Noah?"
"To disappear."
Nia's anger rose.
"How much?"
"Two million dollars."
Adrian's brows lifted slightly.
Nia stared.
"Did you take it?"
Caroline looked at her.
"No."
Nia's anger faltered.
"I was twenty-seven," Caroline said. "I had no family except my sister. I had agreed to surrogacy because I needed money for nursing school. But after Noah was born... I couldn't hand him to people who had stolen him."
"So you kept him."
"Legally, I was his birth mother. The paperwork had already been falsified."
"And Ethan?"
Caroline's expression changed.
"He came later."
"When?"
"When Noah was six months old."
Nia felt sick.
"What did he say?"
"He said you could never know."
Nia turned away.
There were betrayals that hurt because they surprised you.
Then there were betrayals that hurt because they confirmed everything.
"He knew Noah existed."
"Yes."
"For four years."
"Yes."
Nia pressed her hands to the window ledge.
"And today he threw me out because I couldn't give him a child."
Caroline's face crumpled.
"I'm sorry."
Nia almost told her not to apologize.
Then she realized Caroline wasn't apologizing for pity.
She was apologizing for carrying a truth too long.
"Why is Noah named Noah?" Nia asked.
Caroline froze.
Nia turned.
"Did Ethan tell you?"
"No."
"Then why?"
Caroline stood.
She crossed the room to a cabinet.
From the back she removed a sealed plastic pouch.
Inside was an envelope.
"I found this with the clinic documents Samuel gave me."
Nia opened it.
The paper inside was in her own handwriting.
She recognized it immediately.
It was a page from a journal she had kept during treatment.
At the top she had written:
Names I still hope I'll use someday.
Below it:
Girl: Amelia.
Boy: Noah.
Nia sat down.
"How did Dr. Kline get this?"
Caroline shook her head.
"I don't know."
Nia remembered.
She had brought the journal to appointments.
Once, she'd left it in a consultation room.
A nurse returned it twenty minutes later.
Caroline continued.
"I couldn't give him back to the Bennetts. But I didn't feel right giving him another name when I knew the one you'd chosen."
Nia began crying.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just tears.
"Does he know about me?"
"No."
"Good."
Caroline looked surprised.
Nia wiped her face.
"He's four. Whatever adults did isn't his burden."
Caroline's shoulders loosened slightly.
That mattered.
Nia understood then that Caroline wasn't the enemy.
She was another woman caught inside a system built by people with money.
"Can I meet him?"
Caroline hesitated.
"I want to say yes."
"But?"
"Ethan came here today."
"What did he want?"
"He said Margaret knows Adrian found the records."
"And?"
"He offered me five million dollars to leave the country tonight."
Adrian's expression became cold.
"What did you tell him?"
"No."
"Then what was the backpack?"
Caroline looked toward the children's room.
"He brought it for Noah."
"Why?"
"He wanted Noah's trust."
Nia felt disgusted.
"After four years?"
"He has visited before."
Nia froze.
"What?"
Caroline immediately saw the damage.
"I'm sorry."
"How often?"
"Maybe six times."
"Did Noah know who he was?"
"Only as Ethan."
Nia stood.
"He met my son."
Caroline's eyes filled.
"Nia—"
"He met him while I was injecting hormones into my stomach."
No one answered.
"He met him while I cried after being told another cycle failed."
Her voice remained quiet.
That made it worse.
"He met him while he watched me apologize for ruining our marriage."
Adrian stepped closer but didn't touch her.
Nia looked at Caroline.
"I don't blame you."
Caroline began crying harder.
"I should have told you."
"Maybe."
"I'm sorry."
"But right now I need facts."
Caroline nodded.
"When can I meet Noah?"
"Tomorrow."
"Why not tonight?"
"Because he's with my sister in New Jersey."
"Fine."
Adrian spoke.
"We should arrange a DNA test first."
Caroline nodded.
"I already did."
Everyone turned toward her.
"What?" Nia whispered.
Caroline crossed to a desk.
She opened a drawer.
"I sent samples to an independent lab two weeks ago."
"How did you get mine?"
"I didn't."
Nia frowned.
"Then what did you test?"
"Noah and Ethan."
The room went silent.
Caroline removed an envelope.
"The results arrived this morning."
Nia stared at it.
Ethan was biologically infertile, but not necessarily incapable.
If Noah was the embryo from their clinic, he might still be Ethan's.
Or he might not.
Caroline handed Nia the paper.
She opened it.
PATERNITY PROBABILITY: EXCLUDED.
Nia read it twice.
"Noah isn't Ethan's."
"No."
Nia looked at Adrian.
"Then whose embryo was implanted?"
Adrian's expression had changed.
That frightened her.
"What?"
He didn't answer.
"Adrian."
Caroline looked at him too.
"You know something."
Adrian stepped toward the table.
"Dr. Kline had a second set of records."
Nia's heartbeat accelerated.
"What records?"
"He documented donor material."
"Donor?"
"After Ethan's test, Margaret arranged for donor sperm."
Nia felt dizzy.
"Without my consent?"
"Yes."
"So Noah could still be biologically mine."
"Yes."
"But his father—"
"Unknown."
Nia stared at the DNA report.
Then she noticed something.
A handwritten note at the bottom.
Caroline had added it.
Nia read aloud.
"Additional comparison requested."
She looked up.
"Comparison to whom?"
Caroline's face turned pale.
"I didn't request it."
Adrian took the page.
His eyes narrowed.
Then his phone vibrated.
A secure message.
He opened it.
Nia watched his expression harden.
"What?"
Adrian said nothing.
"Adrian."
He slowly turned the screen toward her.
The laboratory had found a paternal match.
Not Ethan Bennett.
The name displayed beneath the result was someone Nia had seen only minutes earlier.
ADRIAN MICHAEL VALE.
Nia stared at him.
Adrian stared back.
Neither spoke.
Then footsteps stopped outside the apartment door.
A child's voice called from the hallway.
"Mom?"
Caroline went white.
Noah was home.
May you like
And someone else had brought him.
The door handle began to turn.
