“The child may have been conceived using embryos created by Kirsten and Connor during their marriage.”
Melinda covered her mouth.
I heard the baby babble softly in the stroller, a bright little sound that did not belong beside such a sentence.
My mind refused it.
Then accepted it.
Then refused it again.
“No,” I whispered.
Kenneth looked at me with quiet compassion. “I’m sorry.”
I turned to Melinda.
She was crying now, silently, tears slipping down her cheeks while she stared at the floor.
“Tell me it isn’t true,” I said.
She did not answer.
That was an answer.
Connor stood. “This is absurd. You’re trying to take my child because you couldn’t have one.”
The cruelty was familiar.
But this time, it did not cut the same way.
