The Family They Chose / Private Partners

When they hung up, a chill seemed to permeate the air. Something wasn’t right. Despite how she tried to blame her uneasiness on nerves over her appointment with Dr. Demetrios, Olivia knew she was justified being upset with Jamison.

Couldn’t he even spare five minutes to call her himself?

At least he still planned to be home this evening, and she had a doctor’s appointment to get ready for. Right now she needed to use every ounce of energy to prepare herself for the news Chance Demetrios had waiting for her.

News that was going to change her life … one way or another.

Olivia paused in the threshold of Paul’s office and knocked lightly on the door frame. Her brother scowled up at her from the open magazine on his desk, Northeastern Journal of Medicine. When he saw her, he closed the magazine and changed his expression in a flash.

“Well, hello! Look who it is.” His voice rang with cheer, and if she hadn’t seen the annoyance on his face a moment ago, she might have believed nothing was wrong.

“I’m a little early for my follow-up with Chance, and I thought I’d stop by and say hi,” she said. “I don’t mean to disturb you.”

He drummed his fingers on his desk.

“Of course you’re not disturbing me. Come in. Please.” He gestured toward the chair in front of his desk.

“What are you reading?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

“It sure looked like something judging by the way you were scowling. Is everything okay?”

He breathed an exasperated sigh and raked a hand through his curly, dark hair. In that moment of letdown, she could see the dark circles under his brown eyes. He looked exhausted.

Olivia reached out across the desk and touched his arm. “What is it, Paul?”

He shook his head. “I might as well tell you now, because it’s likely to come out in the near future.”

Paul hesitated and held up the issue of the medical journal he’d been reading when she walked in.

“The institute is teetering on the brink of a public relations disaster. It’s a nightmare, Liv. A ticking time bomb that could explode in our faces if we don’t act fast and smart.”

She’d never seen her brother look so distressed, not in all the years since he’d picked up the Armstrong reins and started running the fertility institute that his father had dedicated his life to building.

“What’s going on?”

Paul cleared his throat. “This periodical ran a story saying that the institute used donor eggs and sperm to impregnate many wealthy couples.”

“Right, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s what you do here.”

Paul frowned. “They alleged that some of the couples were unaware of the substitutions. That they thought they were impregnated with their own sperm and eggs.”

A cold wave of shock slapped her, and Olivia’s blood turned to ice. That sounded exactly like what Derek had suggested she do. Except he’d told her. He hadn’t tried to do the substitution behind her back. Though he’d urged her to lie to her husband in exactly that same way.

Oh, my God. “Paul, forgive me, but I have to ask. Is the allegation true?”

Her brother pulled a face. “Of course it’s not true. I can’t believe you’d think for even one second that it would be.”

She felt queasy watching her brother in such distress. His identity was so closely tied to the institute that if one questioned the business practices, they were essentially questioning his personal integrity.

Paul took pride in his scrupulously clean record. Derek, however, was altogether another animal. It was amazing how twin brothers could be such polar opposites.

Slow simmering anger roiled in the pit of her stomach as Derek’s suggestion rang her ears. There was no way she could tell Paul that Derek had essentially offered her the same arrangement.

No, if she told him, World War Three would erupt.

Even so, the longer she thought about it, the more she wondered if there was, perhaps, some truth to the allegation … brought on by Derek’s doings.

Somehow, she managed to ask, “What are you going to do about it?”

Paul sighed. “It’s tricky. Right now, only two minor medical journals have run the story. None of the mainstream news outlets have picked up on it—yet. Our attorneys have threatened to slap the publishers with libel suits, because they presented no hard proof.”

But she had proof. Right from Derek’s mouth.

“The problem is,” he continued, “if we file, it’s likely to let the cat out of the bag. Reporters are always trolling the court dockets. They could easily get wind of the case that way.”

Olivia scooted forward in her seat. “They’re going to print a retraction, aren’t they? They have to, since they have no proof.”

Uncertainty clouded his expression. “That’s another dangerous catch twenty-two. On one hand, it would be vindicating to have them admit in the pages of their own journals they were wrong. However, they’d probably bury the retractions in a places where they would go unnoticed. Besides, rehashing only gives new life to the story. Every day that the story goes unnoticed by the mass media means there’s less of a possibility that it’ll be discovered and broadcast to the world. So, a retraction could do more harm than good in the long run.”

Olivia’s mind swirled with doubt over whether she was doing the right thing by keeping the secret from Paul. But no, no, she had to talk to Derek first. As she stood to go, she asked, “So, you’re not going to do anything except hope it’ll die a quick, silent death?”

Paul nodded.

“Unless the story explodes in the mass media. Heaven forbid, but if that happens we’ll slap libel suits on both journals faster than they can say shoddy reporting. In the meantime, we’re putting together a crisis PR plan that we hope we won’t have to use.”

“I’m with you on that,” she said as she edged toward the door. “I hope you don’t have to use it. Listen, I’m sorry this has happened. Please keep me posted, okay? But I have to go.”

Olivia glanced at her watch as she made her way through the institute’s empty halls. She had ten minutes until her appointment. Just enough time to have a chat with Derek.

So the institute had come under fire for egg swapping? And Paul was claiming it wasn’t true?

Paul, she knew, was as ethical and squeaky clean as they came. She couldn’t say that much for her other brother, though. If he smelled money or a way to feather the nest, the ethics line blurred.

Had he gone too far this time? From what Paul said it sounded as if this could set the institute up for a legal mess. It wouldn’t only tarnish the family name, it would destroy her father’s life’s work.

A thought struck her and she stopped in her tracks.

The scandal might even be big enough to affect Jamison’s career. Because in politics, every skeleton and scandal was fair game and fodder for mudslinging.

A scandal of this magnitude could seriously set back Jamison’s shot for the presidency. The realization nearly knocked the wind out of Olivia.

Strike one: Jamison’s mother had never been very fond of Olivia.

Strike two: Olivia hadn’t been able to give him children.

Even if he didn’t want them now, he would eventually. That’s what the Mallory family was all about. They were one big, boisterous, the-more-the-merrier kind of clan, and once Jamison worked through these fears, he’d realize the importance of a family.

If, heaven forbid, there was a strike three—an Armstrong family scandal—it could spell the end of their marriage.

She flung open Derek’s office door, walked in and closed it behind her.

He glanced up from his computer, peering at her over the top of his reading glasses, looking plenty annoyed.

“Well, come in, Olivia.” His voice was dark with indignity. “Make yourself right at home.”

She walked toward him.

“Have you been switching donor sperm and eggs, Derek?” Her voice held all the fury that had been bottling up over the months that she and Jamison had been apart.

Derek reared back in his chair, looking utterly confused. “Excuse me?”

She leaned in over his desk. “You heard me. Have you been switching donor sperm and eggs to keep wealthy clients at the institute?”

He blew out a breath between his pursed lips. “Are you talking about that ridiculous story that ran in that hack medical journal?”

He laughed, and something about the hollow sound convinced Olivia he was covering up something.

“I’m talking about the story that ran in those journals. A story with allegations alarmingly similar to the solution you offered me the last time I was here.”

He smirked. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous. There’s no similarities there whatsoever. Who told you about this, anyway?”

“Paul told me,” Olivia spat. “And he’s pretty upset over it. Have you been engaging in unethical practices? This could ruin the institute, Derek!”

“Olivia, I simply offered you a means of saving your troubled marriage. That’s all. There are no similarities between what that rag asserted and what I offered you. If I’d done what the journal suggested, then I wouldn’t have told you. I would’ve just relabeled the viable eggs with your name. Good grief, Olivia. What kind of monster do you take me for?”

She hated it when he talked down to her. But she wouldn’t let him intimidate her.

“Would you please explain where the eggs you offered me came from? Whose eggs are they?”

He looked at her as if she had two heads. As if this was painfully simple and she should understand. “They’re donor eggs. Ovum we paid for so we could help women like you who can’t produce eggs of their own. Pardon me for trying to help you.”

His words were a low blow even if they were true. He must’ve seen it in her face because he softened his tone.

“The ones I offered you are from our ‘egg bank’ and are absolutely free and clear. They do not ‘belong’ to anyone but the future recipient.”

He regarded her for a moment with piercing brown eyes. The longer he stared at her, the smaller Olivia felt.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything. But I still don’t understand why you implied there should be so much secrecy around giving me the eggs? Changing the files so that everyone thought they were mine rather than donor eggs? I mean, Derek, come on, you have to admit the allegations in the exposé mirror your offer.”

Derek sighed and rolled his eyes.

“There is no similarity whatsoever. The secrecy was simply for your and Jamison’s benefit—for privacy. As I said, I was just offering you away to save your marriage and a means of keeping up appearances. Now, if you don’t mind, I have to get back to work.”

He got up, walked to the door and opened it.

Olivia exited his office. When the door clicked behind her, she was in greater turmoil than when she’d entered.

She dialed Jamison’s cell, but got his voice mail. Again.

She was tired of pretending their marriage was solid. Would having a baby actually save their troubled relationship? For the first time ever, she wasn’t so sure.

She heard footsteps down at the end of the hall and looked up. It was Chance Demetrios. The man with the results. The answer that was key to the rest of her life.

“There you are.” His voice was maddeningly neutral. Neither happy nor sad. “I got your test results back. Why don’t we go to my office and discuss them.”

They walked in silence. Olivia was glad he didn’t try to make conversation, because she was still suffering aftershock from the conversation with her brothers.

“I have news,” he said. “And I have better news. Where would you like me to start?”

Olivia sighed. “Give me the better news first. I think I need to start in a good place.”

When Chance nodded, Olivia noticed that he looked solemn. Her gut clenched and she laced her hands protectively over her belly.

“When I was reviewing your file, I saw something I’d overlooked. Apparently, the doctor you saw before I arrived at the Armstrong Institute harvested and flash-froze a couple of emergency stashes of your eggs.”

Olivia tensed. So Derek had gone through with the egg transfer after all, even though he hadn’t mentioned it earlier. She hadn’t really given him a chance to get a word in.

“I’m guessing that despite his not indicating it in your file, the doctor must have suspected there was a problem with egg production since he had the foresight to freeze thirty eggs. That gives us enough for three more in vitro procedures.”

Three more.

Suddenly, with a breath-stealing blow, it dawned on her where this conversation was going.

“What’s the other news you mentioned?”

She braced herself, knowing what he was going to say and feeling queasy because of it.

“I’m sorry, Olivia.Your tests prove that your ovaries have stopped producing eggs. I hate to be so blunt, but if you want to have a baby, I suggest that we start the procedure as soon as possible since you’ll need to be on the hormones for about three weeks before we can fertilize your eggs and implant the embryos. Would you like to start the hormones today?”

Tongue-tied and shaken, she stared at him. She hadn’t been prepared to act this quickly since she thought they’d simply be discussing the test results.

“So, you’re saying I don’t have any time to waste?”

Dr. Demetrios rubbed his chin with one hand as he regarded her.

“I suggest you not let too much time pass. But if you need to think about it, or perhaps discuss it with your husband, we can start the hormones on your next visit. It’s up to you.”

Why was she hesitating?

Why was she so conflicted?

The need to have a child had driven her here today—without her husband. Was it her conscience, or simply self-doubt making her waver? She wanted a baby more than anything. Yet a little voice deep inside her was whispering that if she walked out that door without setting the process in motion today, it might be hard to come back.

Dr. Demetrios smiled at her. “What would you like to do, Olivia?”

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