Dorothy pressed her fingers against the mattress.
“How is that possible?”
Emmett explained carefully. Grant and Colleen had undergone IVF treatment for years. Grant’s sperm count had been low but, according to early reports, not impossible. However, later clinic records from Whitfield Fertility showed his samples repeatedly failed viability standards. After multiple failed attempts, the clinic recommended donor sperm.
Colleen consented.
Grant did not.
The donor authorization form bore only Colleen’s signature.
Dorothy listened without interruption.
When he finished, she asked just one question.
“She knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she tell him?”
Emmett was silent for a moment. Then he said, “I found a journal entry.”
He read it over the phone.
The doctor told me Grant’s samples won’t work.
They recommended a donor.
I said yes.
I didn’t tell him because he would rather lose a family than lose his pride.
For the first time in my marriage, I made a choice that was mine.
Dorothy closed her eyes.
Colleen had not betrayed her husband with another man.
She had built her family in secret because the husband she had could not be trusted with the truth.