Who had performed the procedure?
My mother-in-law.
Had my husband known?
I didn’t know anymore.
That was the hardest answer of all.
Hours later, a detective came to the hospital.
He told me the substance was being analyzed and that the investigation had expanded beyond the incident at my house.
Then he placed a photograph on the table.
It was a page from the notebook.
I recognized my son’s name immediately.
But beneath it was another name.
A child born years earlier.
Then another.
And another.
Some entries had dates beside them.
Some had measurements.
Some ended abruptly.
One had a handwritten note beside it: “Family refused further observation.”
Another read: “Moved before completion.”
The detective watched my face.
“We are trying to identify every family connected to these records.”
I looked at the page.
“Why my son?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
“Your mother-in-law appears to have selected him before his birth.”
