Chapter 7 - THE OTHER WOMAN
The fertility clinic records arrived two days later.
Rebecca asked me to sit down before she showed them to me.
I almost told her to stop doing that.
Every time someone asked me to sit, my life became worse.
The patient was not me.
It was a woman named Madison Vale.
Thirty years old.
Denver address.
Four procedures over seven months.
The financial guarantor listed on the account was Ryan Lawson.
I did not cry.
That surprised me.
Maybe betrayal had reached a point where my body no longer knew how to react.
“Who is she?”
Rebecca had already searched.
“Senior development manager at Lawson Advisory Group.”
Grant’s company.
Of course.
“How long has she worked there?”
“Three years.”
I laughed softly.
“Longer than I’ve been married.”
Rebecca did not respond.
The records revealed something worse.
Ryan had paid for embryo storage.
I stared at those words.
“Are you telling me my husband has embryos with another woman?”
“We don’t know whose genetic material was used.”
“His name is on the account.”
“Yes.”
My marriage suddenly rearranged itself in my memory.
The conferences.
The weekends Ryan claimed Grant needed him.
The unexplained hotel receipt in Boulder.
The perfume I had smelled on his winter coat.
I had asked.
Ryan told me Diane hugged him after wearing too much perfume.
Diane had laughed when I apologized for being suspicious.
They had all known.
I called Brooke.
“Who is Madison?”
Silence.
That was my answer.
“How long?”
“Claire.”
“How long?”
“About two years.”
My chest hurt.
“Before we started trying for a baby?”
“Yes.”
“Did everyone know?”
“Mom knew.”
“Grant?”
“Yes.”
“And you?”
“Not at first.”
“But eventually.”
“Yes.”
I looked across Rebecca’s office at the downtown skyline.
My penthouse was visible several blocks away.
The place where I had built a life with a man who apparently had another one running parallel to mine.
“Why would Ryan try to have a child with her?”
Brooke began speaking quickly.
“I don’t know if that’s what happened.”
“Then explain the clinic.”
“I can’t.”
“Try.”
“Madison had fertility issues.”
“And my husband paid?”
“Dad arranged some of it through Crestmont.”
My money.
Again.
I closed my eyes.
“Where is Madison now?”
“She hasn’t been at work since New Year’s.”
Rebecca contacted investigators.
They found Madison that evening at a hotel near Colorado Springs.
She agreed to meet only after her attorney was present.
The meeting occurred the next morning.
Madison entered the conference room wearing jeans, a gray sweater, and the expression of someone who had not slept.
She looked at my stomach.
Then away.
“I’m sorry.”
I hated how quiet her voice was.
“How long have you been sleeping with my husband?”
“Almost twenty-one months.”
There it was.
No denial.
No excuse.
“Did you know about me?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know we were trying to have a baby?”
She nodded.
My fingers tightened beneath the table.
“And you stayed with him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he told me your marriage was financial.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
“I know.”
She pushed a document toward me.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“What are you asking?”
“To believe me about something else.”
I looked down.
It was a clinic report.
Embryo transfer.
Positive pregnancy test.
Then a later report.
Pregnancy loss at eight weeks.
Madison’s eyes filled.
“Ryan told me the next embryo would be transferred after your baby was born.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“He said once you delivered, he would leave you.”
My skin turned cold.
“He said January seventeenth was the day everything would be settled.”
Again.
That date.
“Settled how?”
Madison swallowed.
“He said you were going to sign over control of your assets.”
“And if I refused?”
She looked toward her lawyer.
Then back at me.
“Ryan said his father had a contingency.”
“What contingency?”
“I asked once.”
May you like
Her voice became barely audible.
“He told me I was better off not knowing.”
