Chapter 5
Grant finally agreed to meet.
Not privately.
Maya sat beside Rachel.
Grant arrived with his own attorney, Thomas Reed.
For several seconds husband and wife simply looked at each other.
Grant appeared exhausted.
Rachel felt nothing useful from seeing that.
He spoke first.
“Maddie okay?”
“Yes.”
“Does she ask for me?”
Rachel’s expression tightened.
“This meeting is not about helping you feel better.”
Grant looked down.
Maya placed the genetic report on the table.
Then Nathan’s destruction request.
Then the substitution sheet.
Grant’s face lost color.
Thomas leaned toward him.
“You told me there was no written substitution.”
Grant did not answer.
Rachel stared.
“Your own lawyer didn’t know?”
Grant finally looked at her.
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Before Maddie turned ten?”
“Rachel.”
“Before she got married?”
He flinched.
She pushed the genetic report toward him.
“You used Nathan.”
Grant closed his eyes.
“I used Bennett genetic material.”
Rachel almost stood.
Maya touched her wrist.
Rachel stayed seated.
“He was your brother.”
“I know.”
“He told the clinic to destroy it.”
“I know.”
“You overrode him.”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
“The samples still existed.”
“That does not mean they belonged to you.”
“I know how it sounds.”
Maya spoke for the first time.
“How it sounds is currently the least important part.”
Grant’s attorney looked miserable.
Rachel asked:
“Why Nathan?”
Grant stared at the table.
“My condition was permanent.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“You wanted a child.”
“We agreed to an anonymous donor.”
“You wanted a family.”
“I had one.”
Her voice broke.
“You changed what I consented to.”
Grant looked up.
“I knew you’d love her.”
Rachel went completely still.
There it was.
The arrogance beneath everything.
Not uncertainty.
Certainty that Rachel’s eventual love for a child would retroactively excuse how the child was conceived.
She whispered:
“You decided the outcome gave you permission.”
Grant looked away.
Maya asked about the trust.
Grant’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
Rachel saw it.
“You knew.”
He did not answer.
“The eighteen million.”
Still nothing.
“Grant.”
His attorney intervened.
“My client will not discuss trust matters without additional documents present.”
Rachel laughed.
“You were willing to choose sperm without documents, but now we need paperwork?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Grant finally said:
“The money is Maddie’s.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I never stole from her.”
“Then what did you gain?”
Grant looked at Rachel.
“Something this family was going to lose.”
May you like
That was the closest thing to truth he offered.
It was enough for Maya to know where to look next.
