something?” Madison asked as if she hadn’t a clue what had brought him here.
He opened the manila folder he’d brought with him. “I know you needed proof that your mother used the services at New Horizons.” He handed a sheaf of papers to her. “This is a transcript of her screening interview. It’s all there. Just read it.”
She took the papers. “Transcription? You mean the interview was taped.”
“Yes. The tapes were destroyed but the files still contain transcripts of the screening sessions.”
Her mind reeled. A lawyer. A new place to live. How could she deal with this, too? She felt like the slowest fish in the ocean—the sea horse. Bigger, more powerful fish were creating such turbulence in the water around her that she couldn’t get anywhere.
She forced herself to scan the first section, which established her mother, Jessica Connelly, was married and living in the small apartment complex that Madison knew had been their home until she was six months old. She glanced over additional information anyone could have discovered about her parents, then told herself to concentrate and read more slowly.
Nurse Avery: How long have you been trying to conceive?
Jessica Connelly: Nearly three years. We’ve been to fertility specialists and tried everything. That’s why I’m here. I want to be artificially inseminated.
Nurse Avery: I’ve looked over the doctors’ records. It seems your husband has a low sperm count. You may become pregnant but it could take more time than you’ve given it.
Jessica Connelly: We want a baby now. If I conceive again, we’ll have two children. If not, we’ll be happy with one.
Madison was convinced this so-called interview was bogus. She was an only child, but her parents had assured her that it was by choice. Still, she couldn’t help asking herself why a man like Paul Tanner would go to all the trouble to convince her that she had been the result of a sperm donation by a man needing a new liver unless Paul actually believed it was true.
She concentrated on the document before her while covertly studying him. He had a certain rugged appeal most other men lacked. Most assuredly, he was light-years away from Aiden Larsen. But then, Aiden had been a con artist in his own right. Looking back—as she had countless times since he asked for a divorce—Madison could see Aiden’s attraction to her had revolved around her ability to construct an online game. Once that had been accomplished, Aiden had become less interested.
What was Paul Tanner’s angle? What did he want? She’d done a search online and discovered what little he’d told her about himself seemed to be true. He was a homicide investigator who’d been shot in the line of duty. A Mike Tanner did have a private security agency. He must be Paul’s father, but what was in this for them?
Madison knew enough about the psychology of scam artists to know they hooked their “marks” by presenting some facts that could easily be verified. It still didn’t make his outrageous allegations true. She was her father’s daughter. It was possible that her mother had been to the fertility clinic but hadn’t gone through with the procedure.
She’d searched Google further for New Horizons, then used Lexis Nexis to take an in-depth look at the now-defunct clinic. They’d falsified data, claiming donors had Mensa credentials, and they’d charged for procedures patients hadn’t received. An avalanche of lawsuits had been filed and the clinic’s owners had left the country. There was no telling why her mother had a file at the clinic or why it had been altered to show she’d undergone the procedure.
She flipped through the pages, not really reading them. Zeke. The name exploded off the page with a boom that echoed in her brain. She backtracked and read the entire response, which had supposedly been transcribed from her mother’s exact words.
Jessica Connelly: Zeke really wants a son. He says he doesn’t care about the sex but I know how much he wants a boy. Zeke had asthma as a child. His mother refused to allow him to participate in sports and his father went along with her decision. Zeke always felt he missed out on the father-son bond other boys enjoyed. He wants a son to share ball games and fishing. You know, guy stuff.
Madison sucked in a stabilizing breath. Zeke. No one called Zachary Connelly anything but Zach or Zachary except her mother. When they were dating, she nicknamed him Zeke. She didn’t do it in public for some reason, but at home, especially when she was joking, Jessica Connelly called him Zeke.
This transcript might possibly be authentic. How else would they have come up with the unique nickname? This reinforced an earlier assumption. Her mother had consulted doctors at the clinic. It still didn’t prove Jessica Connelly had been inseminated there.
She glanced up and met Paul’s eyes. Her doubts didn’t show, did they? Her instincts told her this man would exploit any weakness. “How much did the inseminations cost?”
“They ranged from five to seven thousand dollars per session.”
A loud gasp exploded out of her like a grenade. “That’s a lot of money today. It was even more back then. My parents never had that kind of money, even when I was in high school and my father was at the top of his career. I couldn’t have gone to MIT without a scholarship.”
“True, but women were desperate to conceive and wanted those Mensa credentials. Your mother could have gone to the clinic—”
“Wait! You said my mother, not my parents. Why?”
He responded with a smile she couldn’t quite decipher. What about this seemed so amusing? “Keep reading.”
With a growing sense of unease, Madison directed her attention to the next page. It was the last page of the transcript.
Nurse Avery: Mrs. Connelly, the clinic requires an interview with every applicant’s husband.
Jessica Connelly: Why? I’m the one having the baby.
Nurse Avery: True, but New Horizons needs to be certain the baby is wanted, by both parents.
Jessica Connelly: What if I were a single mother?
Nurse Avery: Well, that would be different.
Jessica Connelly: I don’t see how.
God! thought Madison. The challenging note so obvious on the page seemed exactly like her mother. Jessica Connelly—now Jessica Whitcomb—always confronted people, demanding they explain themselves. The words on the page hit an invisible target she hadn’t known existed, a hollow place in her heart. She forced herself to keep reading.
Nurse Avery: In those cases, it’s the mother’s decision alone…to have a child using artificial insemination. Since she would be the sole parent, the clinic doesn’t require—
Jessica Connelly: I understand what you mean, but my case is different. My husband would rather be childless than use a sperm donor. I don’t feel that way.
For a moment, Madison was torn by the urge to close her eyes and imagine her mother. Her parents had been close…yet so different. Her father openly loved Madison in a way most fathers reserved for their sons. Zach Connelly had never mentioned sports but he’d always encouraged Madison to participate. No, more than encouraged, now that she thought about
