## **Chapter 12: The Daughter Who Should Not Exist**
Claire’s final fertility treatment had ended seven years earlier.
Doctors told her the embryos failed to develop.
Nathan remembered sitting beside her in a private consultation room while she stared at the physician’s hands rather than his face.
The physician explained that none of the embryos were viable for transfer.
Claire did not cry until they reached the parking garage.
Afterward, she refused to attempt another treatment.
The clinic closed two years later following a financial scandal.
Its majority investor had been Bell Strategic Holdings.
Marcus had controlled the facility.
Laura claimed one embryo survived.
She said Marcus showed her a girl approximately six years old living with a foster family outside Hartford.
He referred to the child as Emily.
According to Laura, the girl had Nathan’s eyes and Claire’s distinctive birthmark behind her left ear.
Claire carried the same crescent-shaped mark.
“Where is she?” Claire asked.
“I don’t know,” Laura said. “They moved her often.”
“Did you meet her?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“Last month.”
“What did Marcus tell you?”
“That Evelyn stole the embryo because she didn’t want you controlling Nathan through a child.”
Evelyn denied it immediately.
They questioned her at the police command center inside Grand Central.
“I knew nothing about a surviving embryo.”
Claire searched her face.
“You knew about Laura for thirty years.”
“I am telling the truth now.”
“You don’t know how.”
Nathan looked toward Ethan.
“Can we verify the clinic records?”
“Not through the public database. Most files were destroyed during closure.”
“Most?”
“An off-site reproductive tissue registry may contain transfer codes.”
Laura provided a number Marcus forced her to memorize.
C-1904-H.
May you like
Ethan submitted it through law-enforcement channels.
The result identified a frozen embryo created from genetic material belonging to Nathan Cole and Claire Hale
