Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“I don’t know,” Ruby says. “Somehow, Wendy got to my mother while she was alive. My mother never mentioned it.”
“She probably threatened her,” Ryan says.
“I don’t think so,” Ruby says. “If my mother felt threatened, she would’ve come to us. No. What Wendy did was much more sinister. I believe she befriended my mother and somehow got her to keep their friendship a secret. I’m sure she probably used a fake name. Perhaps Dyane Wingdam, which was what she was going by at that point, or maybe even Sabrina Smith. But I don’t think she threatened my mother.”
“Your mother’s been gone for a while,” Ryan says. “There’s certainly no way to corroborate anything.”
“Unless…” I say.
“Unless what?” Ryan asks.
I look to Ryan and then back to Ruby. “Unless your mother’s not actually dead. People in your family have a tendency not to stay dead.”
“Believe me,” Ruby says, “I’ve thought of that. My mother’s gone. I was with her when she passed, and I stayed with her body. After Ryan’s father turned out to be alive twice, I learned to do that with everyone in our family who passed.”
I rise from the table and pace across the tile kitchen floor. “I don’t like Ava in there alone with her.”
“Neither do I,” Ryan agrees.
Ruby sighs. “We’ve talked about this, both of you. This is what she feels she needs to do. We have to trust Ava.”
Ruby is right, of course. I do trust Ava.
But I don’t trust Wendy Madigan.
“It’s my mother I don’t trust,” Ryan says, voicing my thought.
“None of us do, but the nurse is right outside, and Wendy’s bedridden.”
I pull out the paper with the name of the family-planning clinic on it. “It’s possible that she’s storing the actual sperm samples here.”
“We can destroy those,” Ryan says. “If we can get our hands on them.”
“Do we want to destroy them?” Ruby says. “I mean, it’s a question of ethics at this point. Bioethics.”
Ryan shakes his head. “It’s fine to destroy them. If they were fertilized embryos, there would be a question. We’d have to look to science, philosophy, theology—and that would be a nightmare, trying to figure out the best thing to do. But they’re not. If they’re just sperm, it’s no different from jacking off.”
“True,” I agree. “But they’re from dead people. People who maybe wanted their specimens preserved.”
“I agree with Brendan. I don’t think we can ethically destroy them.” Ruby taps on her cheek. “Plus, I’m afraid of what we may find. What if we do find frozen embryos? I wouldn’t put it past Wendy to have frozen her own eggs and fertilized them with Brad’s sperm. For all we know, that’s how Lauren came about.”
“We don’t know,” Ryan says. “We still don’t know if William Steel was a figment of Wendy’s imagination. The only way we’ll know that for sure is if Lauren agrees to a DNA test.”
“I can have Jack ask her. She adores her son, and she would do anything for him.” I text Jack quickly.
“And what now?” Ryan asks.
“We wait,” Ruby says. “We trust Ava, and we wait.”
Ryan rises. “I can’t wait. Come on, Brendan. You and I are going to visit this family-planning clinic.”
“Okay. That’s fine with me. I hate sitting around anyway.”
Ruby nods. “I’ll stay here with Ava. You two be careful.”
“We will be.”
A little over forty-five minutes later, Ryan and I—in one of Ryan’s luxury cars—pull into the parking lot for Western Slope Family Planning. We take the papers that Ava and I copied, and we go inside.
“Good morning,” the receptionist says. “How can I help you today?”
“We represent the Fleming Corporation, and we’d like to have a look at these samples.” Ryan shoves the paper in front of the receptionist.
She glances at it, furrows her brow. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about here.”
An attractive woman walks by, smiling.
“Davey, do you have any idea what this is about?” the receptionist asks her.
Davey takes the paper from her, scans it, and furrows her brow as well. “I sure don’t. Is there something we can help you with, gentlemen?”
“We have reason to believe that sperm samples are being stored here,” Ryan says, “and we’d like to have a look.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have any authority to let you look at anything,” Davey says, “but let me get our manager.”
“Thank you,” I say. “We’d appreciate that.”
“You gentlemen have a seat.” The receptionist nods to the waiting area.
“I think we’d prefer to stand if it’s all right with you.” Ryan raises his eyebrows.
I see what he’s doing. He’s a Steel, after all, and Steels aren’t used to being told what to do. The Steels always put forth a strong front, and staying on their feet displays that.
I’m going to stay standing with him because we need to figure this out.
A few moments later, an older gentleman appears. “Hello, I’m Dr. Sloan Franklin. Can I help you?”