Chapter 2 - THE CHILDREN SARAH NEVER KNEW EXISTED
Sarah was taken to the hospital.
Bruised ribs.
Swollen shoulder.
No major internal injury.
Leo appeared unharmed.
That was all she cared about until Helen placed three photographs on the bed.
A little girl.
A boy.
Another little girl.
Sarah stared at them.
“What is this?”
Helen sat beside her.
“When you and Daniel went through IVF, you were told only one viable embryo remained.”
“Leo.”
Helen shook her head.
“There were four.”
Sarah’s face went numb.
“No.”
“I verified the original embryology records.”
Sarah looked at the photographs again.
The oldest girl had her eyes.
The boy had Daniel’s jaw.
The youngest looked so much like baby pictures of Sarah that she had to look away.
“What happened to them?”
“They were transferred.”
Sarah’s voice disappeared.
“To who?”
“Three separate gestational carriers.”
“Without me knowing?”
“Yes.”
Sarah clutched Leo closer.
The children had names.
Sophie Reed, four.
Ethan Cole, three.
Ava Torres, eighteen months.
All genetically Sarah and Daniel’s.
All raised by families who believed the embryos came through legitimate donor arrangements.
Sarah whispered:
“They stole my children.”
Helen’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Then Agent Marcus Reed entered.
“We have another issue.”
Sarah looked up.
“Sophie disappeared from her home this morning.”
Sarah’s heart stopped.
“What?”
Her adoptive parents woke to find their contracted caregiver and Sophie gone.
Security footage showed a black SUV linked to the Carter Family Foundation.
Sarah looked toward the hospital doorway.
Daniel stood there under escort.
She raised Sophie’s photograph.
“How long have you known?”
His face collapsed.
“Sarah—”
“How long?”
“Three years.”
Everything inside her went silent.
Three years.
Daniel had watched her mourn failed pregnancies.
Watched her cry after the clinic told her there were no embryos left.
And said nothing.
“You knew I had a daughter.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“Nothing.”
Sarah laughed once.
Broken.
“That’s exactly what you did.”
Marcus stepped between them.
“We need to find Sophie.”
Daniel looked toward him.
Then toward Sarah.
“If Mother took her…”
“Where?”
Daniel hesitated.
Sarah’s expression hardened.
“Where would Eleanor take my daughter?”
Finally:
May you like
“The lake house.”
👉 Daniel had hidden Sophie’s existence for three years—and now the only place she might be found was a Carter property no one had used in almost a decade.
