Chapter 10 - THE DOCTOR WHO VANISHEDSimon Kline did not literally vanish.
He did something more realistic.
He stopped answering.
The day the clinic board placed him on leave, he left his Princeton home and moved temporarily to a property in Vermont owned by his sister.
His attorneys said health reasons.
No media.
No patient contact.
His clinic email disabled.
Phone through counsel.
To Nadia, it felt like disappearance because he had been present in every stage of June’s conception.
The man who said:
“We found an excellent cycle.”
“Your numbers look good.”
“Try not to stress.”
The man who shook Wesley’s hand after positive test.
The man who knew exactly what he had done.
Kline’s deposition eventually took place remotely under civil discovery order.
He was sixty-eight.
Silver hair.
Thin glasses.
Calm physician voice.
Nadia watched from conference room beside Elena.
Wesley elsewhere? Plaintiffs can attend. He chose.
Kline’s attorney objected frequently.
Elena asked:
“Did you provide genetic material used to conceive Wesley Fairmont?”
Kline:
“Based on later testing, apparently.”
“Did Priscilla consent to your sperm?”
“At time, donor procedures less standardized.”
“That is not answer.”
“I do not recall exact source documentation.”
“Did Charles Fairmont consent to you specifically?”
“I do not know.”
“Did you tell them?”
“Not initially.”
“Why?”
Kline’s expression remained detached.
“Clinical judgment then prioritized successful conception and donor anonymity.”
Elena:
“Using your own sperm while treating patient was not simply donor anonymity, correct?”
Objection.
He eventually:
“Standards evolved.”
Nadia wanted scream.
Standards.
Then June case.
“Did Nadia Fairmont consent to use your sperm?”
“No.”
“Did Wesley?”
“No.”
“Did you know they selected D-417?”
“Yes.”
“Did you substitute?”
“I authorized use of a genetically related sample at request of family representative.”
“Who?”
“Priscilla Fairmont.”
Nadia’s nails dug palm.
“Did Priscilla have legal authority over Nadia’s reproductive treatment?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Kline paused.
“The intended father had significant distress regarding genetic disconnection.”
Wesley whispered:
“Liar.”
Elena:
“Did Wesley tell you?”
“No.”
“Did Nadia?”
“No.”
“So your statement based on Priscilla.”
“Yes.”
“Did you receive $75,000?”
“For genetics consulting.”
“Did you personally direct vial SK-H17 into cycle?”
“I approved substitution.”
There.
Admission.
Nadia closed eyes.
“Was SK-H17 your sperm?”
“Yes.”
“Did you disclose?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Kline looked almost offended by moral framing.
“Because child would be genetically related to Wesley at a first-degree level.”
Elena:
“Half-sibling.”
“Yes.”
“Did you think creating a child who is intended father’s genetic half-sibling without either parent’s consent was medically appropriate?”
His attorney objected.
Kline said:
“I believed maintaining genetic connection had psychosocial benefit.”
Nadia felt rage.
He had medicalized Priscilla’s obsession.
Elena continued:
“Did you do same for other families?”
“I used own samples under various circumstances.”
“With informed consent?”
“Sometimes donor identity not disclosed.”
“Were patients told donor number was someone else?”
Kline’s attorney intervened.
Eventually evidence forced.
He admitted at least eleven substitutions personally.
Other cases he claimed lab errors.
Plaintiffs had 31.
Why?
Kline’s reasoning:
In early career, donor shortages.
He viewed his screened sperm as safe.
Later he believed outcomes proved method effective.
He rationalized.
Sometimes patients requested “highly screened known physician donor” but records unclear.
Sometimes ego likely.
No single dramatic motive.
A doctor who believed his judgment outranked consent.
Terrifying precisely because ordinary language.
“Healthy children.”
“Successful pregnancies.”
“Different standards.”
No magic villain speech.
Nadia asked Elena afterward:
“How can he think that?”
Elena:
“People protect self-story.”
Priscilla too.
Kline’s license was later suspended by Pennsylvania medical board pending formal disciplinary proceedings. Multiple civil cases. Prosecutors reviewed whether applicable criminal laws covered conduct dates and document falsification.
No instant prison.
Legal systems slow.
Families wanted more.
Nadia wanted public accountability but protect June.
They agreed court filings use minor initials.
Media identified Fairmont involvement through Wesley’s public company status.
Headline:
FAIRMONT HEIR ALLEGES FERTILITY DOCTOR FATHERED BOTH HIM AND HIS CHILD
Horrible.
Technically sensational.
Wesley had panic attack reading.
June’s privacy threatened.
They issued statement:
“We ask press not characterize a five-year-old child through adult genetic relationships. Wesley Fairmont remains her father legally and emotionally. Litigation concerns nonconsensual substitution and medical records.”
Strong.
Priscilla wanted sue every publication.
Elena said some claims protected.
Control cannot erase press.
They focused.
Kline’s deposition included one line that changed Wesley.
Elena asked:
“Why did you remain socially involved with Fairmonts after Wesley birth?”
Kline:
“Priscilla wanted me close.”
Priscilla later denied.
Kline said:
“She wanted reassurance child healthy and genetic source successful.”
Maybe.
Priscilla admitted:
“At first.”
“Then Simon became friend.”
Victim attached to violator under secrecy.
Complicated.
Kline perhaps enjoyed influence.
He was in photographs because secret became bond.
Thirty-year photo now made sense.
Not affair.
Not hidden romance.
A relationship built from unethical conception, shame, gratitude, leverage, and mutual silence.
Nadia preferred messy truth to sensational affair.
Because real harm did not need sex to be dramatic.
Kline had not vanished.
He had hidden behind professional language.
May you like
But deposition forced him into record.
And once facts were written, Foxmere House could no longer edit them out.
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