Page 25 of Ransom for His Secret Son

Sandra’s sigh was quiet but still plenty audible. “I thought maybe if I understood, if I could make sense of some part of it, I could let it go.”

Brody swallowed hard, the ache settling deeper.

“I talked to Dr. Langley, too,” Sandra continued. “I asked him why he didn’t stop Miranda’s fertility treatments when she was diagnosed with cancer. I mean, he must have known about the cancer, right?”

Brody didn’t have the answer to that. At the time, Langley had denied it, had insisted that Miranda had kept the diagnosis from him, too.

And maybe that was true.

Miranda had certainly kept it from her own husband.

Still, it had never felt right that her fertility doctor wouldn’t have known about her current medical condition. Miranda had had so many tests before the treatments had started, and Brody couldn’t imagine that those tests hadn’t continued throughout the entire process.

“I thought maybe if I knew why, I could stop asking myself if there was something I could have done to save her,” his mother muttered.

He heard the soft moan that Remi made, and he could see the pain and sorrow in her eyes. Reminders that she hadn’t gotten that closure either.

Brody had to look away from Remi. He didn’t have the energy to take on her grief, too. Instead, he focused on what he needed to learn. “What did Dr. Langley say to you, Mom?”

“He refused to discuss it,” Sandra said, her voice hardening. “He got agitated, defensive. Told me it wasn’t my business and asked me to leave. I did, but I went back a couple more times not to just his new office but to the Sanderson clinic.” She paused. “Wait. You don’t think I had something to do with the stolen embryos?”

“No,” he was quick to assure her. “No,” he repeated, and Remi murmured the same thing.

Brody knew there was zero chance his mother would have done that. But maybe she had seen or heard something that could help them.

“Those times you were at the Sanderson clinic, did you ever cross paths with Grace Turner or Tarrant Eddington?” he asked. It was a long shot, but still, two years ago would have been about the time Grace’s embryos had been stolen.

“Grace Turner, Tarrant Eddington,” his mother echoed as if giving that some thought. “I’ve been reading about them on my phone since I put the baby in his bassinet. I remember when Grace was murdered and the stories came out about her ex stealing some embryo and trying to use their baby to force her into clearing his name. Such a horrible thing.” She hesitated. “That’s what’s going on now with you.”

It wasn’t a question, but Brody settled for making a sigh of agreement. His mother was obviously worried that this would end with his murder. Or Remi’s. But Brody couldn’t let that possibility play into this. Thankfully, Remi seemed to feel the same way or else she wouldn’t be here.

“Mom, you never saw Grace or Tarrant?” he pressed, needing to keep the subject on the investigation and not on the personal nightmare going on inside him.

“No, I never did. I’m certain of that,” his mother insisted. “But there are some photos in the articles I’ve been reading, and I’m pretty sure I saw Grace’s sister, Christina, there at the clinic. I believe she was going through fertility treatments as well.”

That got Brody’s attention. Christina had certainly never mentioned that, and it wasn’t in any of the records he and Remi had accessed on the woman.

“Why do you think Christina was going through treatments?” he asked.

“Well, I remember she had on one of those plastic wrist bracelets they used to put on Miranda when she’d go back for a procedure. Why?” she questioned. “Do you think it’s important that she might have been a client?”

It could be. In fact, it could be damn important. And his mind began to spin with a theory.

Remi had said that Christina had jumped at the chance to raise her niece after Grace had been murdered. On the surface, that was probably what a lot of people would have done, but there might be something beneath the surface that appealed to her.

“Thanks, Mom,” he said. “I need to go. I love you,” Brody added before he ended the call.

He stared at the phone long after the call ended, his mother’s words still echoing in his head. Christina had maybe been a patient at the fertility clinic. The pieces of the investigation shifted again, the puzzle twisting into something darker, something uglier.

Remi broke the silence first, her voice low but carrying that same sharp edge that had settled in Brody’s chest. “If Christina was a patient there, what if her treatments failed?”

“And what if she’s the one who stole Grace’s embryo to have a child?” he finished for her.

Remi nodded. “She had access, money and enough influence to cover her tracks. But if Tarrant found out—”

“He’d have leverage,” Brody finished.

Remi turned to face him fully now, her expression etched with fresh concern. “Tarrant could have found out about the baby and taken it.” She snapped her fingers as if something else had occurred to her. “And Christina’s obsession with Tarrant might not solely be about revenge. It could be about covering up what she did.”