A terrible sentence.

Accurate enough to destroy an illusion.

PART 12 — THE LEGAL PAPERWORK

There had been no bizarre “surro-adoption” document.

No private agency simply handing over a child.

Before Oliver’s birth, Julian and Chloe’s reproductive-law attorneys had arranged the legal parentage process applicable to the gestational-carrier arrangement.

Marissa was the gestational carrier.

The embryo had been created using Julian and Chloe’s genetic material.

She was not surrendering a baby she had unexpectedly decided to give away.