Chapter 15 - THE MIRROR REMEMBEREDThe nurse was identified as Paula Vance.
She had worked at our fertility clinic for fourteen years.
Three months before Claire’s pregnancy, Paula accessed the storage room containing my biological samples.
The clinic initially believed nothing had been removed.
The photographs suggested otherwise.
Paula disappeared two days after the police began investigating.
Her bank records showed a $75,000 payment from Olivia’s shell company.
Claire denied knowing her.
Ryan denied it too.
For once, I believed both of them.
Olivia had been running a separate plan.
That raised a terrifying question.
What had she done with my sample?
The smart mirror provided another answer.
Investigators reviewed months of buffered recordings.
Most contained ordinary moments.
Claire applying makeup.
Claire exercising.
Claire speaking to doctors.
Then they found a clip from the morning after her positive pregnancy test.
Olivia stood inside our bedroom.
I had never seen her there.
She wore a wide-brimmed hat and large sunglasses even indoors.
Claire paced near the bed.
“You promised the timing would work,” Claire said.
“It did,” Olivia replied.
“I was with both of them.”
“That gives you options.”
“I don’t want options. I want certainty.”
Olivia smiled.
“Certainty is whatever the paperwork says.”
Claire looked frightened.
“What did Paula do?”
“What she was paid to do.”
“Did she use Daniel’s sample?”
The recording ended when Olivia disconnected the mirror.
That question changed everything.
Had Claire conceived naturally?
Had someone interfered with our fertility treatment?
Had my stored sample been used without my consent?
The clinic conducted an emergency audit.
One embryo-transfer record had been altered.
Claire had undergone what she believed was a hormone-support procedure during the conception window.
The physician listed on the document had not performed it.
Paula had assisted.
My knees nearly failed when I heard.
Olivia might have arranged an unauthorized insemination using my stored sample.
Not to help us.
To ensure the child was biologically connected to my estate.
Claire had been manipulated too.
That did not erase what she had done afterward.
But it changed part of the truth.
She had not created every layer of the trap.
Some had been built around her.
I watched the mirror recording again.
Claire’s face held uncertainty.
Olivia’s held control.
“Why didn’t Claire report it?” the detective asked.
“Because she saw an advantage,” I said.
The answer hurt.
Claire could have exposed her mother.
Instead, she used the uncertainty to manipulate Ryan and me.
The mirror had remembered what every person in the room wanted forgotten.
That evening, the clinic director called.
They had found Paula Vance.
Not in another state.
Not hiding under another name.
She was in a private hospital outside Los Angeles after a serious car accident.
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Before surgery, she asked to speak with me.
She said she knew who the baby’s father was.
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