Chapter 4: The Agreement James Never Signed
James opened the envelope.
The first page carried his name beneath a signature that looked almost perfect.
“I didn’t sign this.”
“I believed you did,” Laura said.
“Victoria brought every document to me herself.”
Victoria folded her arms.
“He gave me permission to arrange treatment.”
“No, I gave permission to store genetic material while we considered our options.”
Laura’s fingers tightened around the envelope.
“She told me the clinic would use your embryos.
After the birth, a nurse showed me the medical summary.
The twins came from my eggs and James’s stored sample.”
James lowered the paper.
“They’re biologically Laura’s children?”
“And yours,” Laura said.
Victoria stepped closer.
“They are my children because I planned for them, paid for everything, and brought them home.”
“You forged my consent,” James said.
“I built the family you kept postponing.”
“You used my name and my genetic material.”
“And now you have two beautiful babies.
You should be thanking me.”
Laura flinched as though the words had struck her.
“You promised I could see them before they left the hospital.”
“You were compensated.”
“I returned every dollar after I learned the truth.”
Victoria laughed once.
“You spent months calling them mine.”
“I said that because you told me James knew.”
One of the babies cried upstairs.
Laura looked toward the ceiling but did not move.
James noticed and opened his mouth.
Laura stopped him.
“Don’t ask me to hold them yet.
If you take them away again, I don’t know if I can survive that twice.”
The words emptied the strength from his face.
He gripped the back of a chair.
“I held them on their first night home,” he said.
“I promised nobody would ever take them from me.”
“And I held them before you did,” Laura replied.
“Then a nurse carried them out while Victoria told me the paperwork was routine.”
James sank into the chair.
Emily knelt beside him.
“Look at me,” she said.
“Those babies need someone who will tell the truth, even when it hurts.”
“What if Laura is right?” he whispered.
“What if I have no right to keep them?”
Laura lowered herself into the chair opposite him.
“I didn’t come to erase you.
I came because Victoria erased me.”
James covered his eyes.
His shoulders shook once, then again.
Laura reached across the table and placed her hand over his.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have known,” he said.
“Victoria kept me away from appointments.
She said stress was dangerous.
I accepted every excuse because I wanted the babies.”
“That is the painful part,” Laura said.
“We both believed her because she offered us something we desperately wanted.”
Emily wiped her eyes.
“Then stop letting her use that love against you.”
Victoria snatched the agreement from the table.
“This proves Laura accepted money.
A judge will see a surrogate trying to change her mind.”
Laura removed a second document from her bag.
“It also proves you promised that James had given informed consent.”
Victoria tore the first page in half.
James took out his phone and photographed every remaining sheet.
“Destroying paper won’t destroy the truth.”
“You think a photograph will save you?” Victoria asked.
“My attorney will have Laura removed before midnight.”
A knock sounded at the front door.
An older woman stood outside, one hand resting on a silver cane.
Victoria went completely still.
“Mother, why are you here?”
Eleanor Price entered without waiting for an invitation.
“Because you called me from the car and asked me to lie for you.”
“I asked you to protect your grandchildren.”
Eleanor set a small recorder on the table.
“No, Victoria.
You asked me to say James approved the arrangement.”
She pressed a button.
Victoria’s recorded voice filled the room.
“If Laura talks, we’ll call her unstable.
James must never learn those eggs were hers.”
Victoria stared at her mother.
May you like
Eleanor turned off the recording.
“That isn’t the only time you said his name while planning this.”
