Chapter 2 - The Husband Who Came Back
Ryan stopped walking.
Vanessa nearly collided with him.
“What did you say?”
Ryan’s voice was barely above a whisper.
Luka smiled without warmth.
“You heard me.”
I stared between them.
“You know each other?”
Ryan finally looked at me.
“Claire, give me the baby.”
My name is Claire Carter Bennett.
For seven years, hearing Ryan say my name had made me feel safe.
Now it sounded like a command from a stranger.
I stepped backward.
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“She’s my daughter.”
Luka’s eyes moved toward him.
“That didn’t seem important twenty minutes ago.”
“This is none of your business.”
Ryan moved toward me.
Luka stepped between us.
Ryan froze.
There was something about Luka that discouraged a second attempt.
Vanessa folded her arms.
“This is ridiculous.”
She glanced at my hospital gown.
Then at the baby.
“Ryan came back because there are documents Claire needs to sign.”
Of course.
Documents.
Not because his newborn daughter needed him.
Not because his wife had just given birth.
Documents.
“What documents?”
Ryan pulled a folder from beneath his jacket.
“A separation agreement.”
I laughed.
I actually laughed.
“You brought divorce papers to the maternity ward?”
“It’s not divorce paperwork yet.”
Vanessa answered for him.
“It protects everyone.”
Luka held out his hand.
“Let me see it.”
Ryan pulled the folder against his chest.
“No.”
Luka’s expression changed.
That tiny movement was enough.
Ryan looked toward the security officers.
Then he looked at me.
“Claire, you need to understand something.”
“I understand plenty.”
“No, you don’t.”
He pointed toward Luka.
“You have no idea who that man is.”
Luka reached into his coat again.
This time he removed a photocopied document.
He unfolded it.
Ryan stopped breathing.
Luka handed it to me.
At the top was the logo of Hale Reproductive Medicine.
The clinic Ryan had insisted we use after almost two years of trying to have a baby.
My name appeared halfway down the page.
Below it was Ryan’s signature.
And beside a section titled AUTHORIZED GENETIC MATERIAL was a code.
M-17.
I looked up.
“What is this?”
Ryan suddenly moved toward me.
“Give me that.”
Luka caught his wrist.
Not violently.
He simply stopped him.
Ryan couldn’t move another inch.
“What did you authorize?” I asked.
Ryan said nothing.
Vanessa’s face had gone pale.
That frightened me more than Ryan’s silence.
Luka released him.
Then he looked at me.
“Your husband signed that fourteen months ago.”
“That was before I started treatment.”
“I know.”
My stomach twisted.
Ryan had taken me to Hale Fertility nine months earlier.
He had acted surprised when the doctor suggested IVF.
He had held my hand.
He had told me everything would be okay.
But he had signed paperwork connected to my treatment five months before I even walked through the clinic doors.
I turned toward him.
“You planned it.”
Ryan’s eyes filled with panic.
“Claire.”
“You planned my pregnancy.”
“It’s complicated.”
“No.”
I held our daughter tighter.
“It’s very simple.”
Luka pointed at the code.
“M-17 was genetic material stolen from a private medical repository.”
I looked at him.
“Whose genetic material?”
Ryan closed his eyes.
May you like
Luka didn’t.
“Mine.”
