Chapter 8 - The Year Mark Lied About MadisonMark volunteered his DNA sample.
His attorney advised against it.
He insisted.
The question had become unbearable.
If Grace was not biologically his, he feared losing her.
If she was, he feared what Madison had concealed.
Rebecca arranged collection under court supervision. Mark was not told Emily’s location.
While waiting for results, investigators examined the photograph from Franklin Reproductive Center.
The timestamp showed Mark and Madison entering a restricted laboratory corridor thirty-one months before the triplets’ birth.
At the time, Mark and Emily had completed their first unsuccessful embryo transfer.
Mark told Emily he was attending a financial conference in Denver.
He had been in Columbus.
With Madison.
When confronted through attorneys, Mark claimed Madison invited him to discuss investing in the clinic.
He denied entering the laboratory itself.
Security footage showed otherwise.
A former Franklin employee identified the room.
Embryo storage review.
Only clinicians, lab staff, and authorized patients were allowed inside.
Madison had served briefly on Franklin’s acquisition committee and possessed temporary access.
Mark had none.
The employee, Dr. Elaine Foster, agreed to speak with Rebecca.
She remembered the visit because Madison demanded access after business hours. She claimed Mark represented a potential investor and needed to understand the facility.
“I told her absolutely not,” Elaine said. “The next morning, I discovered the digital storage audit had been opened.”
“Were records changed?”
“Not that I could prove then.”
“What records?”
“Emily and Mark Lawson’s embryo batch.”
Emily listened through a secure video call.
“Why mine?”
Elaine looked ashamed.
“Your case involved a labeling anomaly.”
Emily’s hands went cold.
“What anomaly?”
“Two storage straws carried partially overlapping identification numbers. One belonged to you. The other belonged to a patient using the clinic’s private donor program.”
“Who?”
“Legally, I cannot disclose the patient without authorization.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“If a child may have resulted from the error, disclosure will be court-ordered.”
Elaine nodded.
“I preserved a private copy because I feared records would be altered after the acquisition.”
“Do you still have it?”
“Yes.”
The file showed that six embryos were created from Emily’s eggs and Mark’s sperm.
A seventh embryo entered the batch inventory two weeks later.
Its genetic-source field was sealed under the donor program.
Someone manually reassigned it to Emily’s patient number.
The change occurred the night Mark and Madison visited.
Emily’s vision blurred.
“Did Mark add the embryo?”
“The audit shows his temporary visitor credential near the terminal, but Madison’s administrator code made the change.”
“Why would she put someone else’s embryo into my batch?”
Elaine hesitated.
“She may have intended to remove one of yours and replace it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
The final transfer procedure used three embryos.
According to official records, all belonged to Emily and Mark.
According to Elaine’s preserved file, one selected straw may have contained the reassigned donor embryo.
Baby C was the most likely result because her neonatal blood marker differed from Noah’s and Lily’s.
But the warning message claimed the first switch happened before transfer.
That suggested the laboratory records might not reflect the actual contents of any straw.
Only DNA could establish relationships.
Emily requested Mark join the next legal conference.
He appeared on a screen from his attorney’s office.
For the first time since the hospital, husband and wife saw each other.
Mark looked exhausted.
Emily looked pale but steady, Grace asleep against her shoulder.
His eyes filled at the sight of the baby.
“Is she okay?”
“You lost the right to ask me casually.”
Mark lowered his gaze.
“I’m sorry.”
“You turned off your phone.”
“I know.”
“You signed property papers while I was bleeding.”
“I didn’t know you were bleeding.”
“You knew I was in the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about the emergency authority.”
“I knew Madison added medical documents. I did not understand the neonatal transfer language.”
“You chose not to understand.”
Mark closed his eyes.
Emily continued.
“Why were you in the fertility clinic with her three years ago?”
“She contacted me after our first failed transfer.”
“Why?”
“She said Franklin had mishandled part of our batch.”
“And you did not tell me?”
“She claimed one of the embryos might not be viable because of a storage error.”
“So you entered the laboratory?”
“I wanted to see the records.”
“Did you change them?”
“No.”
“Did Madison?”
“I did not see her do it.”
“Did you know she added another embryo to our file?”
Mark’s silence answered.
Emily held Grace closer.
“What did she tell you?”
Mark’s voice broke.
“That the embryo came from a private donor who had withdrawn from treatment. She said using it could improve our chances.”
Emily stopped breathing.
“You allowed a stranger’s embryo to be transferred into me without my consent?”
“I did not know it would be selected.”
“You allowed it into the batch.”
“I was desperate.”
“For a child?”
“For you to stop falling apart.”
The cruelty of the answer entered the call.
Emily had grieved every failed cycle. Mark had interpreted that grief as inconvenience.
He accepted an illegal solution to end the discomfort.
“Who was the donor?” Emily asked.
Mark looked away.
“I never knew.”
Rebecca watched him carefully.
“You are lying.”
Mark’s attorney touched his arm.
Mark pulled away.
“Madison said the donor was connected to her family.”
Emily’s heart pounded.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you sleep with Madison before that night?”
The conference went silent.
Mark looked at Emily.
“Yes.”
Not eighteen months ago.
Not after the marriage had supposedly failed.
Three years earlier, while Emily endured injections and surgeries, Mark had already returned to Madison.
“Could the embryo be hers?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily stared at Grace.
The baby opened her eyes.
If the embryo came from Madison’s genetic material, then Grace might be Mark and Madison’s biological child carried unknowingly by Emily.
Mark seemed to understand the possibility at the same moment.
His face collapsed.
“No.”
Rebecca ended the conference before he could say more.
Hours later, preliminary DNA results arrived.
Noah and Lily were biologically related to Emily and Mark.
Grace was not biologically related to Emily.
The paternal result remained incomplete due to a sample-processing issue.
Emily read the report without moving.
Grace slept in her arms.
Lauren knelt beside her.
“She is still yours.”
Emily pressed her face against the baby’s hair.
“I know.”
But somewhere beyond Sterling’s gates, another woman might be looking for the child created from her body.
May you like
And Madison might already know exactly who that woman was.
👉 DNA proved Grace was not Emily’s biological child, while the unresolved paternal test threatened to reveal whether Mark and Madison had made Emily carry their baby.
