Free Death's Door by Meryl Sawyer Page B

Larsen and his wife control the other half. I can’t do anything without their approval.”
    “I’m aware of the situation.” He didn’t add that he knew her ex had tried his damnedest to take the company away from her during the divorce. But she wasn’t just pretty and smart, she was a fighter. “This isn’t about your company, it’s about you.”
    “Me?” Her response was a hollow echo in the high-ceilinged room.
    “Yes. My father’s firm was hired to track you down.”
    “Me? Why on earth—”
    “Someone wants to meet you,” Paul replied, easing into what he knew would be a bombshell.
    “Who? Why can’t they just pick up a phone and contact me? I’m not hard to find.” The words came out in a heated rush. Shetook a deep breath and added, “What’s going on? Something’s not right.”
    “There’s no easy way to tell you this, so I’m just going to say it straight out. This man might be your biological father. We’ve been doing the verification for him. That’s how we found you.”
    “What?” She surged to her feet once more. “You can’t be serious.”
    “You’re aware of sperm banks.” Paul expected a puzzled look, but instead hostility was etched on her face like a death mask.
    “Of course,” she shot back without taking a breath. “So?”
    “That’s how you were conceived.”
    “My parents never used a sperm bank. They were totally in love. My mother was devastated when my father died. If they’d used a sperm bank, they would have told me.”
    Paul knew he wouldn’t score any points by reminding Madison that her mother had married less than a year after her father’s death. He couldn’t see a way to sugarcoat this, and he sensed she was the type of woman who would appreciate directness. “According to my research, your mother was artificially inseminated at the New Horizons Fertility Clinic.”
    “No way!” she shouted. The retriever shied to one side as if expecting a blow. “My mother would have told me.”
    You’d be surprised, he wanted to respond. Being a cop had proved to him that unimaginable things could happen. “Are you sure?”
    “Positive.” She lowered herself to the sofa again and reached down to stroke the head of the frightened dog.
    Paul reached inside the jacket of the lightweight sport coat he was wearing and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. He handed it to her. “Is this your mother’s signature?”
    Brows knit, she scanned the photocopy. “It appears to be her signature. It’s hard to say for sure.” She thrust the paper back at him. “So? She might have visited a clinic. That doesn’t mean—”
    “She received sperm donations from donor 8374 on two separate occasions. I can show you documentation to prove it.”
    Madison stared at him, her intense eyes calling him a liar. “That’s ridiculous. I look exactly like my father. Ask anyone. I have his personality, too.”
    He waited, giving her time to absorb the news. “The insemination dates are just over nine months before you were born.”
    “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen the so-called documentation.”
    She had the same stubborn streak the rest of her biological family shared, but he didn’t mention it. “I’ll have copies of it within the week.”
    “Why don’t you have them now?”
    “New Horizons was an unusual facility. They specialized in Mensa donors. Men with high—”
    “I know what Mensa is. Eggheads. You have to have a high IQ score.”
    “You were invited to join, weren’t you?”
    She tossed her head and flung her hair over one shoulder. “Who would want to hang out with a bunch of nerds?”
    He kept his smile to himself. His file on Madison told him a lot about her but there was nothing like an interview to reveal personality. She had attitude in spades, just like the rest of the bunch.
    “Don’t you want to know more about donor 8374?”
    “No. I don’t. There’s an explanation for this mistake. That donor is not my father.”
    “He was a