Chapter 3 - Twenty-Two Half-Siblings

“I didn't know about twenty-two children!” Grant snapped, leaping to his feet, his face flushed with panicked sweat. “I swear to God, Rachel, I didn't know that part!”
“Then what did you know?” Rachel demanded, blocking his path to the hallway. “Why did you take me to Dr. Vale’s clinic? Why did you insist on his private laboratory when I wanted to use the university hospital?”
Grant’s voice dropped into a frantic, hushed whisper. “Because my mother insisted on it! When I confessed my fertility issues to her six years ago, she promised to handle everything discreetly. She told me Dr. Vale was a world-class genetic pioneer who had protected our family’s privacy for decades. She said he had access to exclusive, elite donor lines that would preserve the Bennett intellectual stature!”
“Preserve the stature?” Rachel echoed in horror. “You let your mother and her private doctor choose an unregulated donor behind my back? I signed legal contracts for an anonymous Midwestern donor catalog!”
“My mother said it was safer!” Grant argued desperately. “She said public donor banks carry risks of genetic defects! Dr. Vale guaranteed a child of exceptional health and heritage!”
Rachel grabbed her coat and car keys from the console.
“Where are you going?” Grant yelled, following her to the front door.
“I’m going to meet with the mothers of those twenty-two children,” Rachel replied, her eyes burning with pure maternal fury. “And then I’m having your DNA tested, Grant. Because if Dr. Vale and your mother have been playing God with our lives, I’m going to find out what else is buried in that clinic.”
The next morning, Rachel sat inside a private conference room at a legal aid center in Cambridge. Across the table sat three women—Sarah, Claire, and Jennifer—all mothers of children between the ages of four and seven. Each of them held identical red-bordered folders from the New England Fertility Institute.
“Our stories are identical,” Sarah said, sliding her documentation across the table. “We all went to Dr. Vale between 2018 and 2021. We all selected different donor profiles from his private catalog. But when our kids matched on the DNA registries last month, we discovered they share the exact same paternal haplotype.”
Claire leaned forward, her eyes filled with tears. “The state medical board opened a confidential inquiry last Friday. The genetic markers don't belong to any anonymous medical student or catalog donor.”
May you like
“Whose markers are they?” Rachel asked, her heart in her throat.
Sarah pulled out a preliminary forensic subpoena report. “The paternal DNA matches an archived specimen from the clinic founder himself. Dr. Adrian Vale was using his own biological material to inseminate hundreds of unsuspecting patients for over thirty years.”