Detective Cole glanced at the other officer.
I recognized the name.
Caroline had been reported missing eight days before Emily vanished.
Her photograph had appeared beside Emily’s on the news.
Two separate disappearances.
Except they had never been separate.
“Caroline sent the letter,” Cole said.
Emily nodded.
“She included test results. Embryo records. My signature from the destruction form.”
“Not at first.”
Emily opened her dirty jacket.
A flash drive had been sewn inside the lining.
“I met her.”
“Where?”
“What did she tell you?”
“Bellweather had been doing it for years.”
The clinic targeted families with stored embryos.
Sometimes the parents ordered them destroyed.
Sometimes they stopped paying storage fees.
Voss marked those embryos as discarded.
Then he sold them.
Not through legal adoption.
Not through approved donation.
Through private arrangements with wealthy clients desperate for children.
Others did not.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Emily’s face went pale.
