Chapter 16 - The Child in Anna’s PhotographThe FBI identified the girl within forty-eight hours.
Her name was Lily Bell.
Four years old.
Birth certificate listed Anna Bell as her legal guardian.
Mother:
Claire Elise Morgan.
Father:
Not listed.
Rachel had never heard the name Claire Elise Morgan.
Neither had Michael.
Rebecca discovered that Claire Morgan was Anna’s maternal cousin.
She had acted as a gestational surrogate several years earlier through an unlicensed private arrangement.
Rachel felt physically ill.
The timeline matched.
Their missing embryo could have been implanted into another woman.
Lily could be Rachel and Michael’s biological daughter.
But suspicion wasn’t proof.
Investigators located Claire Morgan in Arizona.
She agreed to speak.
The video call lasted nineteen minutes.
Claire cried through most of it.
“I didn’t know the embryos were stolen.”
Rachel gripped the table.
“What did Anna tell you?”
“That the biological parents had abandoned them.”
Michael closed his eyes.
Claire continued.
“Anna said she had legal documents. She said the couple changed their minds and wanted the embryos destroyed, but she believed giving one a chance was better.”
Rachel’s voice broke.
“And you believed her?”
“I was twenty-six. I needed money.”
“Anna paid you?”
“Thirty-five thousand.”
Michael turned away.
Rachel couldn’t.
“Why is Anna Lily’s guardian?”
Claire wiped her face.
“I had complications after delivery. Then postpartum depression. Anna started taking care of Lily. Eventually she convinced me the child would be safer with her.”
“Where is Lily now?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel’s heart stopped.
“You don’t know?”
“Anna took her six weeks ago.”
Six weeks.
Around the same time Anna escalated her private meetings with Michael.
Everything had been converging.
Michael sat again.
“Why would Anna raise our biological child?”
Claire shook her head.
“I thought Lily came from anonymous donors.”
Rachel wanted to scream.
Instead she asked:
“Does Lily know Anna as her mother?”
“No.”
Rachel almost couldn’t ask the next question.
“What does she call her?”
“Aunt Anna.”
That tiny distinction became Rachel’s only comfort.
After the call ended, Rachel walked into the hotel bathroom and vomited.
Michael waited outside.
When she returned, he looked broken.
“I’m sorry.”
Rachel stared at him.
“For which part?”
His eyes dropped.
“The slap.”
It was the first time he said the word plainly.
Not I lost control.
Not things got crazy.
The slap.
“I should never have touched you.”
Rachel leaned against the wall.
“Our daughter might be somewhere with the woman who destroyed our marriage.”
Michael flinched.
Rachel continued.
“And I don’t even know what to feel first.”
“We’ll find Lily.”
“Don’t call her ours yet.”
His eyes filled.
Rachel hated herself for saying it.
But she needed proof.
Hope had already hurt her too many times.
The DNA results came the following morning.
Probability Michael Whitmore was Lily’s biological father:
99.9998%.
Probability Rachel Whitmore was Lily’s biological mother:
99.9999%.
Rachel read the page.
Then read it again.
She had a daughter.
A four-year-old daughter.
A child whose first steps she had missed.
First word.
First birthday.
First illness.
First day of preschool.
Every milestone stolen.
Rachel folded over the table and sobbed.
Michael tried to hold her.
For several seconds she let him.
Then she remembered Anna’s sentence.
Your marriage was already weak.
She pulled away.
Rebecca entered quietly.
“There’s more.”
Rachel wiped her face.
“What?”
“Anna contacted me.”
Michael stood.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“What does she want?”
Rebecca looked at Rachel.
“She wants to meet you.”
“Where?”
“She hasn’t said.”
Michael shook his head immediately.
“No.”
Rachel looked at him.
“She has Lily.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m going.”
“Rachel—”
“She wants me.”
Michael stopped.
Rachel finally understood the deepest part of Anna’s plan.
Michael represented the Whitmore family.
But Rachel represented both families Anna blamed for Claire’s suffering.
Richard Whitmore had destroyed Claire’s reputation.
Samuel Hayes had denied her medical appeal.
Their children married each other.
Then those children unknowingly created embryos.
Anna had taken one.
Raised the child close enough to love.
And waited.
Not just to steal money.
Not simply to destroy a marriage.
Anna wanted Rachel to experience a version of Claire’s life.
To have something precious taken while powerful institutions failed her.
To feel helpless.
To beg.
Rachel looked at Rebecca.
“Tell Anna I’ll meet her.”
Rebecca hesitated.
May you like
Rachel’s voice became steady.
“But this time, she doesn’t get to choose how the scene ends.”
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