Chapter 8 - Lucas Bennett
The next name came from a cryostorage log.
Not donor records.
Patient storage.
Lucas Bennett.
Grant’s first cousin.
Forty-one now.
At twenty-nine, Lucas had been diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Before chemotherapy, he banked sperm.
Where?
Vale Reproductive Medicine.
Same clinic.
Same storage facility.
Two years before Maddie’s conception.
His samples were for personal fertility preservation.
Not donation.
Lucas later recovered.
Married.
Had one child naturally.
He believed the stored samples had been destroyed after he signed a disposal authorization years later.
The audit found a discrepancy.
Six vials originally stored.
Five documented at disposal.
One marked:
“Transferred per physician authorization.”
No destination.
No signed patient authorization attached.
Physician:
A. Vale.
My stomach turned when I read it.
Amanda stopped me.
“This is not proof Lucas’s sample was used for Maddie.”
“I know.”
“Say it again.”
“It is not proof.”
Good.
We notified Lucas through counsel.
He thought it was a scam.
Then became furious.
“I never donated sperm.”
“I know.”
“Did Evelyn know I banked?”
Probably.
The Bennetts discussed everyone’s medical crises over dinner.
Lucas agreed to independent DNA testing only after his own attorney reviewed everything.
Good.
No secret swab.
No stolen hairbrush.
May you like
Process.
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