“Are the babies yours?”

I looked through the office window at Emily, sitting beside the bassinet.

“I don’t know legally,” I said. “But yes.”

My mother began to cry.

“I blamed her,” she whispered. “I let that girl into my house. I let her comfort me while Emily was carrying my grandchildren somewhere alone.”

“Mom—”

“No. Don’t make it easier. I was cruel to her.”

I had no comfort to offer.

Cruelty had worn many faces that year.

Mine included.

“I’m coming,” she said.

“No,” I replied quickly.

“Michael—”

“Not tonight. Emily needs space. The boys need quiet. We’ve already overwhelmed her.”

For once, my mother did not argue.

After I hung up, I stood in the hallway for a long moment.

Then David appeared beside me.

“There’s one more thing you need to see.”

I turned.

He looked uncomfortable.

That frightened me more than anything else.

“What?”

He held out his phone.

On the screen was a still image from security footage.

A clinic hallway.

The timestamp was nearly two years old.

Before the divorce.

Before Ashley.

Before the lies.

Emily was visible near the front desk, signing paperwork.

And behind her, walking through the hallway in a white coat, was Paula Bennett.

But that wasn’t what made my heart stop.

At the far edge of the frame stood a man.

Gray hair.

Expensive suit.

Hand resting on a cane.

I knew him instantly.

My father.

Richard Carter.

My father had died six months before I divorced Emily.

At least, that was what I had believed.

I stared at the image until the hallway blurred.

“That’s impossible,” I said.

David’s voice was low.

“I thought so too.”

“My father was dead when Ashley came into my life.”

“This footage is from before that.”

“No. He was already sick then. He barely left the house.”

David zoomed in.

The man’s face sharpened.

Not enough for a court.

Enough for a son.

It was him.

My father.

Standing inside the clinic where my samples were stored.

Watching my wife.

I felt the wall against my back.

“What was he doing there?”

David hesitated.

“I don’t know yet.”

I looked through the glass again.

Emily sat beside two sleeping babies whose existence had already been stolen, altered, weaponized, and hidden.

Ashley’s final words came back to me.

Wait until you find out what your husband signed before he ever met you.

My husband.

Signed.

Before he ever met you.

I looked back at David.

“What did I sign?”

David didn’t answer.

He only handed me a second document.

It was old.

Scanned from a file.

My signature sat at the bottom, younger, sharper, unmistakably mine.

Above it was the title:

Carter Family Reproductive Trust Agreement.

My mouth went dry.

I had no memory of signing it.

None.

David’s face had gone pale.

“Michael,” he said, “according to this, your father had legal control over every stored sample connected to the Carter bloodline.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“No,” David said. “It doesn’t.”

Then his phone buzzed.

He looked down.

His expression changed.

“What?” I asked.

He read the message twice.

Then he looked at me.

“Ashley just posted bail.”

My blood went cold.

“She can’t have. She was arrested less than an hour ago.”

“She didn’t post it herself.”

“Then who did?”

David turned the phone toward me.

There was a name on the bail receipt.

A name that made the floor seem to drop beneath my feet.

Richard Carter.

My dead father.

From inside the office, one of the twins began to cry.