Chapter 19 - The Photograph from Room 214
Daniel forwarded me the photograph.
It had been taken six hours after Lily was born.
I sat in a hospital bed looking exhausted and happy.
Daniel sat beside me holding Lily.
Behind us stood a nurse.
I had forgotten about her.
She was older, maybe sixty.
Gray hair.
Warm smile.
One hand rested on the bed rail.
"Who is she?" I asked.
Daniel stared.
"I don't know."
"Was she our nurse?"
"I don't remember."
I zoomed in.
Her badge was turned away.
But a small silver brooch on her collar showed a lighthouse.
Grace Harbor used a lighthouse in its logo.
My skin prickled.
"Daniel."
"I see it."
I called the hospital.
Records from Lily's birth listed seven nurses who accessed my chart.
None matched the woman in the photograph based on staff directory archives the privacy officer could immediately find.
"Could she have been a volunteer?"
"Possibly."
"Chaplain?"
"Possibly."
"Can you check visitor logs?"
"They may no longer exist."
Of course.
I sent the image to Claire.
She called five minutes later.
"I know her."
"Who?"
"Martha Sloane."
Martin's mother.
I stood.
"Why was Martin Sloane's mother in my hospital room?"
"She volunteered with Grace Harbor's maternity program."
"Did Evelyn know?"
"Definitely."
Martha Sloane had died three years earlier.
Another dead person in the story.
At least this one seemed to have stayed dead.
I called Raymond using the number from which he had contacted Daniel.
Disconnected.
Daniel sent messages through the secure channel Raymond had given Officer Patel.
No response.
Then Claire noticed something in the photograph.
"Look at Martha's hand."
I zoomed.
She held something small near the bed rail.
A plastic collection tube.
"What is that?"
Claire whispered, "Could be a cheek swab."
My stomach turned.
"From Lily?"
"We don't know."
Daniel sat down.
"Mom had Lily DNA-tested."
"Maybe."
"At birth."
"Maybe."
"For the trust?"
Meredith reviewed the original trust language.
The legitimate trust did not require biological descent for Lily's status because Daniel was legally Raymond's son under the document's definition.
DNA would not matter.
So why collect it?
Pastor Tom provided a possible answer.
Thomas Mercer Senior had died six years earlier from a hereditary cardiac disorder.
A rare one.
"Did Daniel inherit it?" I asked.
"He was tested as an adult," Tom said. "Negative."
"Then why Lily?"
Tom hesitated.
"My father carried a specific genetic marker."
"If Daniel didn't inherit it, Lily couldn't inherit it through Daniel."
"Correct."
"Then this makes no sense."
Unless the DNA test was not about Daniel.
I called the fertility clinic archive.
Finding the donor record required legal paperwork and days of delay.
Meredith obtained an expedited order because unauthorized access was already under investigation.
The donor number was 7421.
Anonymous.
Medical history unremarkable.
No cardiac disorder.
Then the lab cross-reference produced something strange.
Donor 7421 had been removed from the program two years after Lily's conception because identity verification was found incomplete.
"What does incomplete mean?" I asked.
The compliance officer sounded uncomfortable.
"Older donor programs did not always use current authentication standards."
"Was the donor who he said he was?"
"We cannot confirm."
Daniel looked at me.
I felt sick.
We had chosen an anonymous donor because we wanted distance from family complications.
Now family complications had followed us into a laboratory.
Claire searched old foundation records.
Grace Harbor had helped fund the fertility clinic during the year we were treated.
Evelyn sat on the grant committee.
"You think she chose the donor?" Daniel asked.
I shook my head.
"That sounds impossible."
Claire did not answer.
I hated that.
"Say it."
"Mom knew about your infertility."
Daniel stared.
"How?"
"She had access to insurance payment summaries through the family company."
My anger became almost physical.
"So before we told anyone we were trying fertility treatment, Evelyn knew."
"Probably."
"And Grace Harbor funded the clinic."
"Yes."
"And Sloane's mother was in my hospital room."
"Yes."
I laughed.
"Nothing about our daughter was private."
Officer Patel cautioned us against conclusions.
Good advice.
Then the DNA lab called.
Raymond had submitted a sample for comparison.
Not illegally.
He had somehow obtained Lily's newborn screening card.
That was the photograph clue.
He needed the photo to identify the volunteer who might have handled hospital materials.
"What did he compare?" I asked.
The lab representative could not tell me without authorization.
Raymond had listed Daniel as a person permitted to receive the result.
Daniel got the email.
He opened it.
I watched his face.
"What?"
He handed me the phone.
The report did not name the donor.
It compared Lily's genetic profile against a stored sample belonging to a deceased man.
Probability of close biological relationship: 99.4%.
"Who?"
Daniel scrolled.
Reference sample: THOMAS MERCER SR.
I stared.
"No."
Tom was silent over speakerphone.
Daniel whispered, "Lily is related to Thomas Senior."
"How?"
The possibilities were limited.
If Thomas Senior was Daniel's biological father, Lily could still be related through Daniel only if Daniel were biological parent, which he was not.
So the relationship came through the donor.
Tom sat down.
"My father donated sperm."
Nobody spoke.
"When?"
"I don't know."
"Did Evelyn know?"
Tom laughed bitterly.
"My father told her everything."
I felt dizzy.
The anonymous donor may have been Thomas Mercer Senior.
Daniel's biological father.
Which meant Evelyn may have maneuvered us toward a donor genetically connected to Daniel.
Not Daniel's sperm.
His father's.
Legally, Daniel was Lily's father.
Biologically, if the hypothesis was true, Lily was his half-sister.
I put the phone down.
"No."
Daniel looked sick.
"No."
"This needs independent testing."
"Yes."
"Nobody tells Lily anything."
"Of course."
"No more family secrets around her means no adult theories around her either."
"Agreed."
We sent fresh samples to an independent accredited laboratory.
Results would take days.
That night Raymond finally called.
I answered before Daniel could.
"Why did you test my daughter?"
Raymond said nothing.
"Why did you take her screening card?"
"I did not take it."
"Then how did you get it?"
"Martha Sloane kept copies and samples."
"Where?"
"In Martin's archive."
"You found him?"
"No."
"Then how did you find the archive?"
Raymond paused.
I was done with pauses.
"Answer me."
"Because Evelyn gave me the key."
Daniel stared.
"What?"
Raymond continued.
"Three months ago."
I laughed in disbelief.
"You've been working with Evelyn?"
"No."
"She gave you a key."
"Because she wanted Martin exposed."
"She ran away with him."
"She went to the airport to stop him."
"That's not what police thought."
"Police don't know everything."
I closed my eyes.
There was always another layer.
"Where is Evelyn now?"
"I don't know."
"What does she want?"
"To survive."
"From whom?"
Raymond's voice lowered.
"Martin."
"Why?"
"Because Martin didn't work for Evelyn."
I thought of the spoofed message.
Evelyn is working for Marcy.
Not literally.
Pointing deeper.
"Who did Martin work for?"
Raymond answered.
"His mother."
"Martha is dead."
"Now."
A pause.
"But when Lily was born, Martha Sloane was running the entire program."
"What program?"
Raymond said three words.
May you like
"The family project."
Then the line went dead.
