Chapter 3 - The Brother’s Claim
Gavin’s accusation followed us long after the hearing ended.
Gwen stared at the dark screen of the hospital laptop.
“What did he mean?” she asked.
“He meant to hurt us.”
She turned toward me.
“You don’t believe him, do you?”
“No.”
My answer came immediately.
Gwen and I had undergone in vitro fertilization after years of infertility. The embryo had been created from my genetic material and hers. There had been medical records, appointments, and laboratory confirmations.
Yet Gavin had visited a genetic testing clinic months earlier.
That fact would not leave my mind.
Rachel requested an emergency investigation of the fertility center we had used: New Dawn Reproductive Medicine.
By noon, we learned the clinic’s embryology director had resigned six months earlier.
His name was Dr. Peter Lang.
He had left the United States.
“Where is he now?” I asked.
“Belize,” Thomas said.
“Why?”
“Officially, retirement.”
“And unofficially?”
Thomas turned his laptop toward me.
Dr. Lang had received two payments totaling $600,000 from a shell company connected to Gavin.
Gwen covered her mouth.
“What could Gavin have paid him to do?”
No one answered because the possibilities were too terrible.
New Dawn agreed to release our records under court order. The files showed that eight embryos had been created during our final treatment cycle.
One embryo had been transferred to Gwen.
Seven were listed as nonviable and destroyed.
But the destruction log had been signed by Dr. Lang alone, violating clinic protocol.
Rachel arranged an independent DNA test for Noah, me, Gwen, and Gavin.
The results would take two days.
During those two days, Noah remained in intensive care.
His lungs improved slowly. Gwen’s iron levels began to rise, but she remained weak.
I slept in a chair beside her bed and visited Noah every three hours.
At night, when Gwen finally rested, I reviewed months of messages and security footage.
The more I studied the past, the more I saw moments I had ignored.
Brenda dismissing the housekeeper Gwen trusted.
Gavin appearing at family dinners without invitation.
Elise sending me flattering messages about my leadership while secretly accessing company files.
I had mistaken access for loyalty.
On the second night, Thomas called.
“We located Dr. Lang.”
“Will he talk?”
“He refused until we mentioned the federal investigation.”
“And then?”
“He asked for immunity.”
“What did he do?”
Thomas exhaled.
“He altered the embryo records.”
I looked through the glass at Noah sleeping inside the incubator.
“Whose embryo was transferred to Gwen?”
“He claims it was yours.”
“Then why change anything?”
“Because he stole one of the remaining viable embryos.”
I gripped the phone.
“For Gavin?”
“Yes.”
The truth unfolded in fragments.
Years earlier, Gavin had learned about the Legacy Trust while searching through Brenda’s old files.
He discovered the first grandchild would inherit the land.
At the time, Gwen and I had suffered multiple miscarriages. Gavin believed we might never have a child.
He tried to persuade a girlfriend to become pregnant, but medical tests showed he had an extremely low chance of fathering a child naturally.
When Gwen and I created viable embryos, Gavin saw another path.
Dr. Lang stole one embryo and delivered it to a private clinic.
The embryo was later transferred to Elise.
“But Elise isn’t pregnant,” I said.
“She was.”
According to medical records, Elise had given birth six months earlier at a clinic in Alabama under a false name.
My heart stopped.
“Where is the child?”
“We don’t know.”
The boy would be genetically mine and Gwen’s.
Our biological son.
A child we had never known existed.
I entered Gwen’s room and found her awake.
I wanted to protect her until we had more information.
But protection through silence was the mistake that had allowed my mother to abuse her.
So I told her everything.
Gwen listened without interrupting.
When I finished, she pressed a hand to her chest.
“They stole our baby?”
“An embryo.”
“That was our baby.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“We’re looking.”
Tears ran down her face.
She looked toward the video monitor showing Noah.
“I have another son.”
“We may.”
“No. I know.”
She struggled to sit up.
“We have to find him.”
“We will.”
“Gavin said Noah belonged to him.”
“He lied.”
“Why?”
“To confuse the court. Maybe to hide what he actually did.”
The DNA results arrived the next morning.
Noah was biologically ours.
Gavin had no parental relationship to him.
But the results also revealed an unexpected genetic marker.
Noah’s DNA matched a newborn screening record in Alabama.
The record belonged to a six-month-old boy named Samuel Reed.
Samuel’s listed mother was Elise Reed.
No father was listed.
Thomas tracked the false identity through clinic billing records. Elise had stayed at a rented farmhouse outside Montgomery for the final months of her pregnancy.
After giving birth, she did not bring the baby to Atlanta.
She handed him to Brenda.
Security footage from a gas station showed my mother placing an infant carrier into her car.
Then the trail disappeared.
The idea that Brenda had hidden a child somewhere while pretending to care for Gwen made me physically ill.
The police executed search warrants at the family home, Gavin’s apartment, and two properties Brenda had rented.
They found no baby.
But they recovered ledgers documenting payments to several women.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Marlene Voss.
Marlene had worked as our childhood nanny.
She left Atlanta when I was twelve after Brenda accused her of stealing jewelry.
I remembered her differently.
She had been gentle.
She taught me to read maps and helped Gavin with nightmares after our father died.
Thomas found her in a rural town near Savannah.
Before the police could reach her, she called me.
Her voice sounded older but familiar.
“Lucas?”
“Yes.”
“You need to come alone.”
“Is Samuel with you?”
Silence.
Then I heard a baby fussing in the background.
Gwen grabbed my arm.
“He’s there,” she whispered.
“Marlene, please don’t hang up.”
“I never wanted any part of this,” she said.
“Is the baby safe?”
“Yes.”
“Then let me come get him.”
“I can’t hand him to you until I know the truth.”
“What truth?”
“Whether you are like your mother.”
The call ended.
Against Rachel’s advice, I drove toward Savannah with Thomas and two plainclothes officers following at a distance.
Gwen remained at the hospital with Noah, protected by security.
The address led to a small blue house surrounded by pine trees.
Marlene waited on the porch.
She was in her late sixties, with silver hair and tired eyes.
Inside the house, a baby slept in a wooden crib.
He had Gwen’s mouth.
My hands began to shake.
“Samuel,” I whispered.
Marlene watched me carefully.
“Brenda called him Adam.”
I approached the crib slowly.
The baby opened his eyes.
They were the same gray-blue as mine.
I touched the edge of his blanket but did not lift him.
“Why did she leave him with you?”
“She said his mother was dangerous and his father was dead.”
“Did you believe her?”
“At first.”
Marlene sat at the kitchen table.
“She paid me five thousand dollars a month. She said the arrangement would last until a custody case was settled.”
“What changed?”
“I saw the news about Gwen being hospitalized. Then I saw your mother outside the courthouse. I recognized her expression.”
“What expression?”
“The one she wore when she hurt your father.”
I turned toward her.
“My father died in a truck accident.”
Marlene’s eyes filled with sadness.
“That is what Brenda told you.”
She opened a cabinet and removed an old metal box.
Inside were letters, photographs, and a cassette tape.
“Your father discovered Brenda had been taking money from his company,” Marlene said. “He planned to leave her and take you boys with him.”
“What does that have to do with his death?”
“The night before the accident, she put something in his drink.”
I could barely speak.
“How do you know?”
“I saw her.”
Marlene had remained silent because Brenda threatened to accuse her of theft and have her deported. At the time, Marlene was a permanent resident but not yet a citizen.
After my father died, Brenda blamed missing jewelry on her and forced her to leave.
“Why keep the evidence?” I asked.
“Because I was a coward,” she said. “And cowards often save proof in the hope that one day it will become courage.”
The cassette contained a recording of an argument between my parents.
My father accused Brenda of embezzlement.
Brenda threatened that he would never take her sons or her home.
Then my father said something that explained the hatred I had never understood.
Lucas knows what kindness is. You cannot control him forever.
Marlene agreed to speak with police.
The officers entered after she gave permission.
Samuel was taken to a hospital for examination and DNA testing.
He was healthy.
Biologically, he was our son.
But legal custody was complicated.
Elise had given birth to him. Although the embryo had been stolen, she was his gestational mother and was listed as his legal parent under the false identity.
Gavin and Elise immediately claimed the baby had been willingly given to Marlene for temporary care.
They insisted the embryo belonged to them.
Dr. Lang’s testimony became crucial.
Federal agents arranged for his return from Belize.
He was arrested at the airport.
During questioning, he admitted Gavin had bribed him to steal our embryo.
He also revealed a darker part of the plan.
Brenda never intended for Gavin and Elise to keep Samuel.
Once the Legacy Trust transferred to the child, she planned to have both of them declared unfit.
She had been collecting evidence against them for months.
My mother had manipulated everyone.
Gavin thought he was stealing my inheritance.
Elise thought she was securing wealth.
Brenda intended to control the child and the trust herself.
When Gavin learned this, he requested a private meeting with me.
I refused.
Then he sent a photograph.
It showed Brenda standing beside Gwen’s hospital bed while Gwen slept.
The photograph had been taken that morning.
Despite the protective order, my mother had entered the hospital.
On the back of the image, Gavin had written one sentence.
May you like
She is not trying to take the children anymore.
She is trying to make sure there are no parents left.
