Chapter 1 - THE IMAGE WITHOUT A HEARTBEAT
At sixty-six, Maria Collins walked into Dr. Ethan Parker’s Columbus clinic carrying a canvas bag filled with newborn diapers, two tiny bottles and a blue knitted cap.
The receptionist assumed the things belonged to a grandchild.
Maria smiled and placed both hands over her swollen abdomen.
“I’m seven months pregnant.”
No one laughed.
Dr. Parker had been an obstetrician long enough to know that surprise was not a diagnosis. He brought Maria into an examination room, took her blood pressure twice and asked the questions in a calm, even voice.
Had she received fertility treatment?
Yes.
Where?
A private clinic in Cyprus.
Whose embryo had been transferred?
“A donated one.”
What prenatal care had she received since returning to Ohio?
Maria looked down at the blue cap in her lap.
“The clinic sent instructions.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I knew doctors here would judge me.”
Her blood pressure was dangerously high. Both ankles were swollen, one more than the other, and she described a sharp pain beneath her right ribs that had worsened during the night.
Dr. Parker ordered an urgent ultrasound.
Maria lay back and stared at the monitor, waiting for the curve of a cheek, a hand against a face, any small movement that would prove everyone who doubted her wrong.
The technician grew quiet.
She changed the angle of the probe. Then she excused herself and returned with Dr. Priya Shah, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist from the hospital across the street.
Dr. Shah studied the screen without speaking.
“What is it?” Maria asked.
Neither doctor answered immediately.
The fetus was not inside Maria’s uterus.
It had developed in her abdominal cavity, wedged between loops of bowel and the outer wall of the uterus. The placenta had attached near major blood vessels and appeared to be separating.
There was no heartbeat.
Free fluid around Maria’s liver suggested internal bleeding.
Dr. Parker turned off the monitor.
“Maria, the fetus has died.”
She gripped the diaper bag.
“No. Check again.”
“We checked several times.”
“The clinic said he was strong.”
“You need emergency surgery. If the bleeding worsens, you could die.”
Maria shook her head.
“My daughter is coming tonight. I promised she would meet her brother.”
Dr. Shah exchanged a glance with Dr. Parker.
“Your daughter knows about the pregnancy?”
Maria looked toward the examination-room door.
Before she could answer, footsteps struck the hallway at a run.
A woman in her late thirties entered without knocking. Her dark hair was half pulled from its clip, and she wore a winter coat over hospital scrubs.
“Mom.”
Maria tightened both arms around the bag.
Dr. Parker stood.
“You must be Maria’s daughter.”
“Rachel Hayes.”
Rachel looked at the ultrasound monitor, then at her mother’s abdomen.
Fear crossed her face first.
Anger followed.
“Tell him,” she said.
“Rachel, please.”
“Tell the doctor where you really got that embryo.”
Maria’s lips began to tremble.
Dr. Shah stepped between them.
“We need to move Maria to surgery now. Anything affecting the pregnancy’s history must be disclosed immediately.”
Rachel reached into her purse and removed a fertility-clinic photograph.
Two embryos were pictured beneath a printed identification number.
“Those belonged to me and my husband,” she said. “They were created six years ago.”
Dr. Parker looked at Maria.
“Is that true?”
Maria closed her eyes.
“Colin said Rachel would understand after the baby was born.”
Rachel pressed one hand against the examination table.
“Colin is my estranged husband.”
“He is the baby’s father,” Maria whispered.
“And I am its mother.”
The room seemed to contract around the four of them.
Rachel and Colin had created three embryos during in vitro fertilization. One became their son, Owen. Two remained frozen after his birth.
Owen had died two years earlier.
Rachel had expressly forbidden anyone from using the remaining embryos.
“How many were released?” she asked.
Maria looked at the photograph.
“One.”
Rachel shook her head.
“The storage clinic called me this morning. Both embryos were removed from the tank.”
Maria stared at her.
“Colin said the other one was being returned.”
“Returned where?”
Maria had no answer.
Dr. Shah called for a transport team.
As nurses transferred Maria to a stretcher, Rachel walked beside her.
“Mom, where is my other embryo?”
Maria reached for her daughter’s hand.
May you like
Rachel moved it away.
“You don’t get to touch me until you answer.”
