Mariah Stewart - Cry Mercy

“Dr. Drake will see you now.”

“Thanks.” Nick smiled at the receptionist when he and Emme passed her, and she closed the door behind them softly.

“Dr. Drake.” Nick said, as he crossed the carpeted floor, his hand extended to the woman who stood next to a wide wooden desk. “Thank you so much for seeing us. I really appreciate it.”

“You said it was extremely important.” The woman was all business. Tall, in her midsixties, and blond going gray, Dorothea Drake motioned to them to sit before she leaned against the side of her desk. “Your names again?”

“Nicolas Perone. This is Emme Caldwell. I apologize for not calling for an appointment first, but we needed to see you today.”

“The extremely important part?” she asked impatiently.

“My niece, Belinda Hudson, has been missing for five months. I've gone through her phone records, and it seems she made a number of calls to this clinic last April. I was wondering if you could tell me the nature of her business with Heaven's Gate.”

Dr. Drake stared at Nick for a long moment, but before she could speak, he said, “If she had business with your clinic, as her legal guardian, I'd like to know what that business was.”

He stood and reached in his pocket. “Here. I have a picture of my niece. Maybe if you looked at it, it would refresh your memory.”

“No need, Mr. Perone. I remember your niece. She was here last spring.”

“Can you tell me why?”

“Since she wasn't seeking medical advice from one of our fertility specialists, and she wasn't undergoing any procedures, I don't see why not.” Dr. Drake moved behind her desk and sat, her arms resting on the desktop. “She was hoping we could give her some information, but unfortunately, in her case my hands were tied. I could not give her what she wanted. I don't think she really expected me to turn over the file.”

“What file?”

“Her mother's file.” Dr. Drake tilted her head to one side.

“Her mother's file?” Nick repeated.

“Yes.” Dr. Drake appeared to Emme to be slightly confused. “She came here hoping to find out who her donor was, but of course, I could not give her that information. Our donors are guaranteed anonymity unless they choose otherwise, and the name would not have been in the file, so access to it would not have helped her.”

“Wendy was the patient, not Belinda,” he said, as the truth became apparent.

“Yes. She bought several vials of sperm from us twenty or so years ago, as I recall.” She stared at Nick. “You were not aware of this?”

“I never knew how my sister conceived Belinda. I assumed it was a relationship that hadn't worked out.”

“I'm sorry. I assumed you knew.” Dr. Drake appeared flustered.

Emme's attention was drawn to a small booklet on the corner of the desk. FAQ: What if my child asks if he/she has siblings?

“Donor siblings,” she murmured, recalling the magazine in the reception area.

She touched Nick's arm.

“D.S.,” she said softly. “Donor siblings.”

Dr. Drake nodded. “Belinda said she was the spokesperson for her siblings. They were trying to track down their father and were curious about any-”

“Wait a minute.” Nick leaned forward. “What are donor siblings?”

“Children who were conceived using sperm from the same donor,” Dr. Drake explained.

“How many of these… donor siblings did she have?”

“I can't really say.”

“Is that privileged information?” he asked.

“I can't say because I don't know for certain. I know how many live births attributed to that particular donor were reported back to us, but you have to understand, not every woman who successfully conceived and gave birth reported that birth.”

“So you could have had fifty women receive sperm from the same donor, and maybe all fifty of them conceived and had a child, but maybe only thirty of them told you of their success.” Emme thought aloud. “There would be twenty more children out there who were half-siblings to the other thirty. Theoretically.”

Dr. Drake nodded. “Exactly. And keep in mind, some women bought more than one vial of sperm. They may have kept the extras in the freezer until such time as they wanted a second-or third-child.” She stood and began to pace. “It's not unheard of that a woman might give her ‘leftovers’ to a friend. Those children would not be in our network.”

“Is that legal?” Nick asked.

“I don't know of any law against it,” Dr. Drake replied.

“How would Belinda have discovered that she had these donor siblings?”

“The Internet holds a wealth of information, Mr. Perone. It's all in knowing where to look.” Dr. Drake picked up a pen and wrote something on a Post-it note. “Try this website. I think you'll be able to find what you're looking for there.”

She handed the note to Nick. “It's a website where children go to find their half-siblings.”

“Half-siblings?” Nick frowned.

“Certainly. These children may have had different mothers, but they had the same fathers.” Dr. Drake sat back in her chair. “What would you call them?”

“I don't know.”

“If the same man had fathered children by five different wives, what would you call the children?”

“Confused, most likely.”

Dr. Drake smiled weakly.

“Of course they'd be half-siblings,” Nick said.

“Because they had the same father but different mothers,” Dr. Drake pointed out the obvious. “The same applies to these kids. Same father, different mothers. Therefore, half-siblings. Donor siblings.” She tapped the pen on the palm of her hand. “Keep in mind that most of these children will never know who their father is. That one entire half of them is missing. Half of their history is unknown. They know their mother's side of the family, they can see what traits they've inherited from her. But at the same time, there's this great void that may never be filled, this great unknown about that other part of them. By connecting with their half-siblings-other kids just like them, who were conceived with sperm from the same father-perhaps they can fill in some of those blanks.”

“All of their mom's family is tall and blond, but they're short and dark haired,” Emme thought aloud. “They'd want to know where that dark hair came from.”

“Exactly.” Dr. Drake nodded. “They see certain traits that they all share, possibly, and by knowing each other-”

“They'd know a little something about their father. A means to fill in some of the blanks. To understand where they came from, who they are,” Emme said thoughtfully. She understood exactly what questions Belinda and the other donor siblings might have, because her entire life, she'd been asking the same ones. In her case, however, there was no website she could go to, no half-siblings she could locate, to help fill in the blanks of her own story. They simply simmered and bubbled under the surface.

“Right again, Miss Caldwell.”

“So Belinda went on this website, and she asked-” Nick still appeared puzzled. “What would she have asked? How would she know her half-siblings from kids who were conceived from another donor's sperm?”

“You'd have to know the sperm donor's number,” Dr. Drake told him. “In this case, it would be Donor 1735.”

“How would they know the donor's number?” Emme asked.

“The number is no secret. The mothers would have had those. That's the only way the donors are identified. It's a number assigned by the clinic so we know which vial to give the clients. As a matter of fact, it's written right on the vial. The potential mothers choose their prospective donors by the traits they'd like passed on to their children. Dark hair or light, blue eyes or brown, tall or short. Some women want the donor to have a similar ethnic background, some are looking for athletes with high IQs.”