Chapter 5 - The Insider's Confession“Where is my baby?!” Melissa shrieked, clawing at the wall, her hair wild and face tear-stained. “Where did they take her?!”
“Who took her, Melissa?!” Martin yelled, running forward and grabbing her by the shoulders. “Who took Lily?!”
“A nurse!” Melissa sobbed, collapsing onto her knees. “A nurse in blue scrubs said she was taking Lily to the pediatrics room for a mandatory blood pressure check! I turned my back for thirty seconds to grab my purse—and when I looked back, the crib was empty!”
Martin immediately barked orders into his radio. “Lock down the building! Block all vehicular exits! We have a Child Abduction in progress at Willow Creek Reproductive Medicine!”
Alarm sirens began to blare throughout the facility. Flashing red emergency lights reflected off the polished floorboards.
I didn’t wait for the police. My maternal instinct roared to life with a fierce, blinding intensity. I ran straight down the restricted staff hallway toward the lab laboratories where the embryos were kept. If someone was trying to wipe evidence or escape with the baby, that was where they would go.
I rounded the corner of hallway C and slammed through the double doors of the embryology lab.
Standing near the cryogenic storage tanks was a young woman in blue scrubs, holding tiny Lily wrapped in a blanket, while frantically typing on a terminal. Beside her stood Dr. Harrison, holding a metal transport cooler.
“Step away from the baby, Harrison!” I screamed, grabbing a heavy brass paperweight from a desk and holding it up like a weapon.
Dr. Harrison jumped, dropping a set of keys. “Clara! Stay back! You don’t understand what’s happening here!”
“I know exactly what’s happening!” I spat, stepping forward, eyes locked on the nurse holding my child. “You swapped the sperm samples during my IVF cycle! You used Richard Ashford’s frozen material instead of Brett’s, created the embryos, stored them under my name, and then helped Eleanor steal them!”
, Nurse Sarah—the young woman holding Lily—began to cry, her body shaking. “He made me do it, Mrs. Bellamy! Dr. Harrison threatened to revoke my medical license! He said Eleanor Ashford would destroy my family if I didn’t swap the vial codes!”
“Shut up, Sarah!” Harrison yelled, his face turning purple with rage.
“No!” Sarah sobbed, holding Lily gently against her chest. “I won’t cover for you anymore! Eleanor paid Dr. Harrison two million dollars to use Richard Ashford’s preserved sperm sample with Clara’s eggs! They needed a child with Richard’s exact DNA to secure the trust funds before the deadline next month!”
“Give me the child, Sarah,” Harrison snapped, reaching out to grab Lily.
“Don’t you dare touch her!” I yelled, leaping forward and swinging the brass paperweight with all my strength.
It struck Harrison square on the shoulder. He groaned in pain, stumbling back against the heavy cryogenic tank. The impact loosened the pressure valve on nitrogen tank #3.
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A loud hiss filled the room as thick, white clouds of freezing nitrogen gas began pouring out across the floor!
CHAPTER HOOK: The gas rapidly filled the lab, blinding us and dropping the room temperature toward freezing. Through the dense fog, I heard the sound of glass shattering—and Dr. Harrison’s desperate scream as he grabbed for the main container holding all remaining embryonic samples!
