Within twenty minutes, they were playing soccer.
Children are extraordinary that way.
Adults build wars around bloodlines.
Children ask who gets to kick first.
At one point, Leah fell.
Caleb immediately offered his hand.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
He helped her up.
Later, sitting on the grass, Caleb asked me, “Is Leah my sister?”
I looked toward Simone.
She looked at me.
Neither of us knew.
Genetically?
No.
Legally?
No.
Emotionally?
Maybe one day.
Leah answered for us.
“Kind of.”
Caleb shrugged.
“Okay.”
And that was that.
The first real break in the case came from a woman named
Evelyn Marks
.
She had worked at Greenhaven seven years earlier.
Embryology department.
Rachel found her living in Tennessee.
Evelyn agreed to a video interview.
She was sixty-one, with silver hair and nervous hands.
The moment Rachel said the names Maya Reed and Simone Ellis, Evelyn began crying.
“I wondered if someone would ever find out.”
