she said, accepting his hand.
“All right, Felicia, and I am John. Please come in.”
Felicia followed John into his office. The large mahogany desk that was placed in the center of the room sat in front of a large window and was surrounded by wall-to-wall law books, several of which she recognized from Farrah’s office. A long leather sofa sat to the right of the desk, a wooden, glass-topped bar by its side. Felicia took a seat in one of the high-backed leather chairs that faced his desk. John took a seat behind his desk and pulled out a thick file folder from his desk drawer.
“Are you sure I can’t get you anything to drink? Coffee...water?”
“No, thank you,” she replied, tamping down her impatience. “I’d just really like to know what this is all about. I don’t understand why Valerie would give me anything, let alone make me the sole beneficiary to her estate.” Her brows knit together. “We haven’t seen each other in years. Our careers went in different directions, and mine taking me halfway across the world made the Sunday brunch catch-up sessions we talked about having after graduation impossible. I haven’t even spoken to her since she and Harry got married.”
John’s face was tense. “I understand you have questions and I’ll do my best to explain as much as I can.” John exhaled. “About a year ago, Valerie came to me for help.”
Felicia leaned forward in her chair. “What kind of help?” she asked, a tad of curiosity coursing through her. “Sorry, I’ll let you finish.”
John’s mouth twisted up. “She wanted me to redraft her will. Something she’d been planning ever since she’d received that settlement from Harry after their divorce. Well, as part of that process, she told me a rather interesting story.”
“Like what?”
“You were aware of her several bouts with ovarian cancer, bouts that she overcame, right?” he asked, his oval-shaped face void of expression.
“Yes, of course.”
“And you were part of the group of friends that helped her through her first recovery?”
“That’s true,” she said.
“I understand you all organized blood drives, donated hair for wigs. and some even participated in a couple more dramatic actions, like the guys making sperm donations.”
Felicia offered a small smile as bittersweet memories came to mind. She wondered what the efforts of several of their friends had to do with the present. “We were young medical students...impulsive, I guess. But that was such a long time ago. What does any of that have to do with whatever this is about?”
“Everything, actually. You see, someone’s act of kindness was taken advantage of, and I’m here to make things right,” he confessed. “As right as I can, anyway.”
Felicia’s frown deepened. “How so?”
“By making sure my client’s wishes are adhered to without anyone getting hurt, especially you.”
“Me? What are you talking about?” Felicia said as an uneasy feeling besieged her, much like when she had to deliver bad news to world leaders.
“I’m going to make sure that what Valerie wants you to have remains yours. Her bequest is rightfully yours on every level.”
Felicia questioned, “Rightfully mine?”
“I’d better start from the beginning. After the divorce and that large sum of money landed in her account, Valerie was ready to start a new life. She finally had the financial freedom to do it, too.”
Felicia offered a knowing nod. “She always wanted that, to have the ability to afford to do and go wherever she wanted.”
“Growing up in the foster care system is hard on anyone, but for Valerie it just seems like it was especially rough on her, although she rarely talked about it with me,” John said, pushing the folder to the side.
“With me, either. She always said what happened, happened, and it’s best to let skeletons stay buried.” Felicia felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow for her friend, who’d died two months ago. While that was not unusual, she hated that the cancer Valerie had once beaten had taken her old friend. Felicia sat in silence while John continued.
“In spite of the divorce, Valerie wanted to become a mother. She wanted to have a child to share her new life with,” he said with a hint of sadness in his voice. “Her career was going well. She had her health, so she just knew this was the next logical step for herself, even if she had to do it alone.”
“She was always fearless like that,” Felicia offered.
“Do you remember when Valerie went to that reproductive clinic and had her eggs harvested and stored?”
“It was just before her first chemo and radiation treatments started.” Felicia’s remorse was mounting. “She wanted to make sure she could have her own children. Valerie spent every dime she’d earned that summer before, as well as the money she’d made from the two jobs she’d held, just to pay for the procedure. She refused any help I offered.”
John scratched his head. “Unfortunately, when Valerie went back to the clinic to have her eggs fertilized and implanted, she found out that only four were viable, which meant she only had two shots at having her own child.”
“Oh, no, I bet she was devastated. Valerie had been adamant about having a biological child. But transferring two good embryos into her uterus at her age would give a forty to fifty percent chance that at least one embryo would result in a live birth.” Felicia released a pained sigh. “She wanted a baby that looked like her, a connection that she herself never had.”
“That’s putting it mildly. The clinic went through a lot of changes after Dr. Dan Ambrose took over.”
“Dan Ambrose?” she asked, swiping at a piece of hair that had fallen into her eyes. “I don’t recognize the name, but I’ve been working out of the country these past couple of years.”
“He’s a fertility specialist that became the clinic’s administrator about four years ago. When Valerie found out she only had a couple of chances at making her dreams come true, she took matters into her own hands to ensure she had her perfect donor.”
“A perfect sperm donor?” she asked, her face tense.
John raised his right hand to halt any further query on her part. “Her words, not mine. Valerie asked...well, paid Ambrose a million dollars to help her make that happen. She had the money and that quack Ambrose was more than happy to take a lot of it off her hands.”
“I don’t understand what any of this has to do with me,” she said, more confused than ever.
John rose and went over to the bar and poured himself a drink. Felicia saw a slight tremor of John’s right hand as he poured the gold liquid into not one but two glasses. That certainly was an ominous sign. He returned to his desk, placed both in front of him and zeroed in on Felicia’s face.
“The donor sperm she used was that of a man she’d been secretly in love with since she was a medical student. The same man her best friend had been in love with—the man who had rejected
