AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s going to be a huge story and I want you to write it. You know The Anderson Clinic and you’ll be able to see inconsistencies in the story.”
I’m breathing so fast, as if I’ve come from racing, and trying to hide it from Amelia. My mind is a whirlwind of confusion. I clench and unclench my hands. Do I tell Amelia that I know the whole story? Oh, God. I’m going to throw up all over my boss’s desk.
“Are you okay?” Amelia asks. “You look pale.”
“I’m good, thanks. Just shocked, that’s all.” What a disaster. “So, this couple, why are they coming forward now?”
Amelia shakes her head. “We haven’t put that question to them. We don’t want to scare them off and in any case, who cares? If their story checks out, I for one don’t care for their reasons. They could have gone to any other publication. They came to us. You don’t kick a gift horse in the mouth.”
I nod as if I understand. What impact will this have on Jace and the clinic? This story will get out, whether we’re the ones who publish it or not. Whether I’m the one who writes it or not.
“We’ll need some time to check their story out. Can you help?” Amelia asks.
I stare at her blankly.
“You must have contacts at the clinic, someone who can discreetly tell you whether these people were ever patients at the clinic.”
My heart beating rapidly, I think fast. “We need the name of the woman who was the surrogate. She’s the one who was a patient at the clinic. The records would be under her name.” I hold my breath and wait for Amelia’s response.
She’s thoughtful for a moment. “You’re right. I’ll see whether we can get them to give us a name. I’ll keep you posted.”
Relief floods through me. I feel as if I’ve dodged a live bullet and I can’t wait to leave Amelia’s office. I’m so frightened that I can barely breath. The walls feel as if they’re closing in and Amelia’s office seems smaller than usual.
“Okay, that’s that,” she says and I shoot to my feet. She stands up as well. “This is big, Olivia and if we play our cards right, we’ll stand out in history for breaking the biggest story of the year.”
Her excitement is palpable.
I feel sick. I nod vigorously. “It is big.” I move to the door.
“I’ll talk to you soon and keep those articles coming. You’re doing a good job and if I haven’t told you, your writing is superb. It’s warm and different, especially with human interest stories. I didn’t know why I never picked on that before,” she says.
A grin pulls at my lips. This is what I’ve been waiting to hear ever since I started working at the magazine. But my grin is fake. All I care about right now is Jace and the clinic. Yes, a mistake happened and naturally, they kept it away from the public but in doing so, they left themselves vulnerable to having their hard-won reputation destroyed.
“Thank you,” I manage to tell Amelia. “I’ll talk to you soon.” I shut the door and hurry out, not lingering in my beloved work place.
The trembling starts when I’m safely in my car. I grip the steering wheel with hands damp from sweat and stare unseeingly ahead. This is a nightmare. I can’t say no to interviewing the couple. Amelia will simply assign another writer.
As soon as it’s published, Jace, Ivy, and Alec will know that I’m the source of the original information. There’s nothing I can say that can convince them otherwise. I’d do anything not to hurt Jace or his family but at this point, I simply don’t know what to do.
I wait until I calm down, then I turn the ignition key and shift the gear to drive. I miss Jace but I’m glad that I turned down the invitation for dinner. He would know instantly that there was something wrong with me.
I go home and settle in front of the TV with a glass of red wine to watch Jace’s interview. I’m a few minutes early and I try to work out various options. There are none. There’s nothing I can do to protect the people that I’ve come to love and respect.
The show starts and I turn my attention to the panel as they are introduced. Jace comes on looking relaxed and as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. He rakes a hand through his hair and the gesture almost reduces me to tears with its familiarity.
The topic of discussion is the errors that happen in fertility clinics. Jace doesn’t speak as much as the other four panelists, two of whom also head their hospitals.
I cringe when he’s asked point-blank if a mistake has ever happened at the clinic. I hold my breath, willing him not to say something that will incriminate him later. Prove him to be a liar.
“Mistakes happen in all fertility clinics,” Jace says solemnly. “We’re all human and we do our best to put systems in place to ensure that these mistakes don’t happen. Our core business, however, is to help our patients make families. Men and women who wouldn’t have families otherwise. It is not to devastate and disappoint our patients. I’m sure I speak for all my colleagues when I say that.”
Chapter 30: Jace
I leave the TV station mentally exhausted after we were shown a clip of a woman whose face is hidden giving an interview of how she was given sperm different from the one she chose. She realized this when she gave birth to a blue-eyed blond baby while she and the donor she had picked both had brown eyes and black hair.
Of course, there could be numerous explanations for that but nobody wants logical explanations. As I told Olivia, these things are like a rolling ball when they start. They pick up more and more dirt along the way. It’s frightening to think of what tomorrow will bring.
I get in my car and sit in the darkness. The Anderson Clinic is not innocent. No fertility clinic is. We make mistakes but we learn from them. Our biggest error was when they used Alec’s sperm with Ivy but that worked out perfectly. It brought them together but it could have gone very wrong. I shudder every time I think about it. The chances of that leaking are next to none. Fewer than ten people know about it, including the family, and now Olivia. I make a mental note to tell Olivia to delete the story she wrote about Ivy and Alec. It doesn’t matter if there are no names and the clinic was not mentioned. As good a piece as it was, I’ll feel better if it doesn’t exist.
