Chapter 18 - H-417B
I hated how quickly old habits came back.
Folder.
Timeline.
Phone calls.
Search.
The same kitchen table became an investigation desk again.
Claire watched me spread copies across it.
“You said we weren't doing this anymore.”
“I said we weren't hiding things anymore.”
“That isn't the same as turning every unanswered line into an emergency.”
I looked at her.
She was right.
I hated that more.
We called Melissa.
Not Paul.
Not Rachel.
Not Riverbend ourselves.
Proper channels first.
Heartland's records showed three children's cord-blood profiles.
Lily.
Noah.
Maya.
But embryo-storage records were separate.
Riverbend's surviving database was incomplete.
The old paper ledger was more useful.
H-417A.
Transferred to Claire.
Lily.
H-417C.
Transferred to Rachel.
Noah.
H-417D.
Transferred through Midwest Cellular Research.
Maya.
I looked at the sequence.
A.
C.
D.
Melissa saw it too.
“Where's B?”
Nobody answered.
Paul Benson did.
Through his attorney.
H-417B had existed.
It had been thawed.
Prepared.
Then marked:
TRANSFER CANCELLED.
I read the date.
Four months before Rachel became pregnant with Noah.
“Why was it cancelled?”
Paul's attorney said Paul did not remember.
I didn't believe that.
Neither did Melissa.
A subpoena refreshed his memory.
The answer arrived three days later.
H-417B had been prepared for transfer to another woman.
Not Rachel.
Not Claire.
Not Lauren.
The transfer was cancelled before implantation.
That should have been good news.
Then Melissa read the next line.
“The embryo was not returned to Riverbend storage.”
Claire stared at her.
“Where did it go?”
“Paul says Judith personally took custody.”
I felt my chest tighten.
“Custody of an embryo?”
“In a cryogenic transport vessel.”
“Where?”
“He doesn't know.”
I laughed once.
“You're telling me my mother-in-law walked out of a fertility clinic carrying one of our embryos?”
Claire looked sick.
Melissa corrected me.
“We have no evidence she walked out personally.”
“That makes me feel much better.”
She ignored the sarcasm.
“We know only that H-417B left Riverbend under Judith's authorization and was never logged back in.”
Claire whispered:
“When?”
Melissa checked.
“Eight years and eleven months ago.”
I looked toward the living room.
Lily was eight.
Noah was eight.
Maya was seven.
The timeline immediately invited the worst conclusion.
I refused it.
“Don't.”
Claire looked at me.
“I didn't say anything.”
“You were about to.”
She nodded.
We had learned.
No speculation around children.
No building a person from a missing line in a ledger.
Melissa continued.
“There is one more thing.”
Of course there was.
“The cancelled recipient has a code.”
She turned the page.
R-204.
Claire stared.
“Can we identify her?”
Melissa hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
She looked at both of us.
“Karen Doyle.”
Claire went pale.
Karen.
The embryologist who had testified against Judith.
The woman who helped expose H-417.
May you like
The woman who had told the court she discovered the unauthorized transfers years later.
According to the ledger, Judith had once prepared our embryo for transfer into her.
