The Family They Chose / Private Partners: The Family They Chose / Private Partners

Paul hesitated and held up the issue of the medical journal he’d been reading when she walked in.

“The institute is teetering on the brink of a public relations disaster. It’s a nightmare, Liv. A ticking time bomb that could explode in our faces if we don’t act fast and smart.”

She’d never seen her brother look so distressed, not in all the years since he’d picked up the Armstrong reins and started running the fertility institute that his father had dedicated his life to building.

“What’s going on?”

Paul cleared his throat. “This periodical ran a story saying that the institute used donor eggs and sperm to impregnate many wealthy couples.”

“Right, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s what you do here.”

Paul frowned. “They alleged that some of the couples were unaware of the substitutions. That they thought they were impregnated with their own sperm and eggs.”

A cold wave of shock slapped her, and Olivia’s blood turned to ice. That sounded exactly like what Derek had suggested she do. Except he’d told her. He hadn’t tried to do the substitution behind her back. Though he’d urged her to lie to her husband in exactly that same way.

Oh, my God. “Paul, forgive me, but I have to ask. Is the allegation true?”

Her brother pulled a face. “Of course it’s not true. I can’t believe you’d think for even one second that it would be.”

She felt queasy watching her brother in such distress. His identity was so closely tied to the institute that if one questioned the business practices, they were essentially questioning his personal integrity.

Paul took pride in his scrupulously clean record. Derek, however, was altogether another animal. It was amazing how twin brothers could be such polar opposites.

Slow simmering anger roiled in the pit of her stomach as Derek’s suggestion rang her ears. There was no way she could tell Paul that Derek had essentially offered her the same arrangement.

No, if she told him, World War Three would erupt.

Even so, the longer she thought about it, the more she wondered if there was, perhaps, some truth to the allegation … brought on by Derek’s doings.

Somehow, she managed to ask, “What are you going to do about it?”

Paul sighed. “It’s tricky. Right now, only two minor medical journals have run the story. None of the mainstream news outlets have picked up on it—yet. Our attorneys have threatened to slap the publishers with libel suits, because they presented no hard proof.”

Butshehad proof.Right from Derek’s mouth.

“The problem is,” he continued, “if we file, it’s likely to let the cat out of the bag. Reporters are always trolling the court dockets. They could easily get wind of the case that way.”

Olivia scooted forward in her seat. “They’re going to print a retraction, aren’t they? They have to, since they have no proof.”

Uncertainty clouded his expression. “That’s another dangerous catch twenty-two. On one hand, it would be vindicating to have them admit in the pages of their own journals they were wrong. However, they’d probably bury the retractions in a places where they would go unnoticed. Besides, rehashing only gives new life to the story. Every day that the story goes unnoticed by the mass media means there’s less of a possibility that it’ll be discovered and broadcast to the world. So, a retraction could do more harm than good in the long run.”

Olivia’s mind swirled with doubt over whether she was doing the right thing by keeping the secret from Paul. But no, no, she had to talk to Derek first. As she stood to go, she asked, “So, you’re not going to do anything except hope it’ll die a quick, silent death?”

Paul nodded.

“Unless the story explodes in the mass media. Heaven forbid, but if that happens we’ll slap libel suits on both journals faster than they can say shoddy reporting. In the meantime, we’re putting together a crisis PR plan that we hope we won’t have to use.”

“I’m with you on that,” she said as she edged toward the door. “I hope you don’t have to use it. Listen, I’m sorry this has happened. Please keep me posted, okay? But I have to go.”

Olivia glanced at her watch as she made her way through the institute’s empty halls. She had ten minutes until her appointment. Just enough time to have a chat with Derek.

So the institute had come under fire for egg swapping? And Paul was claiming it wasn’t true?

Paul, she knew, was as ethical and squeaky clean as they came. She couldn’t say that much for her other brother, though. If he smelled money or a way to feather the nest, the ethics line blurred.

Had he gone too far this time? From what Paul said it sounded as if this could set the institute up for a legal mess. It wouldn’t only tarnish the family name, it would destroy her father’s life’s work.

A thought struck her and she stopped in her tracks.

The scandal might even be big enough to affect Jamison’s career. Because in politics, every skeleton and scandal was fair game and fodder for mudslinging.

A scandal of this magnitude could seriously set back Jamison’s shot for the presidency. The realization nearly knocked the wind out of Olivia.

Strike one: Jamison’s mother had never been very fond of Olivia.

Strike two: Olivia hadn’t been able to give him children.

Even if he didn’t want them now, he would eventually. That’s what the Mallory family was all about. They were one big, boisterous, the-more-the-merrier kind of clan, and once Jamison worked through these fears, he’d realize the importance of a family.

If, heaven forbid, there was a strike three—an Armstrong family scandal—it could spell the end of their marriage.

She flung open Derek’s office door, walked in and closed it behind her.

He glanced up from his computer, peering at her over the top of his reading glasses, looking plenty annoyed.

“Well, come in, Olivia.” His voice was dark with indignity. “Make yourself right at home.”

She walked toward him.

“Have you been switching donor sperm and eggs, Derek?” Her voice held all the fury that had been bottling up over the months that she and Jamison had been apart.

Derek reared back in his chair, looking utterly confused. “Excuse me?”

She leaned in over his desk. “You heard me. Have you been switching donor sperm and eggs to keep wealthy clients at the institute?”

He blew out a breath between his pursed lips. “Are you talking about that ridiculous story that ran in that hack medical journal?”

He laughed, and something about the hollow sound convinced Olivia he was covering up something.

“I’m talking about the story that ran in those journals. A story with allegations alarmingly similar to the solution you offered me the last time I was here.”

He smirked. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous. There’s no similarities there whatsoever. Who told you about this, anyway?”

“Paul told me,” Olivia spat. “And he’s pretty upset over it. Have you been engaging in unethical practices? This could ruin the institute, Derek!”

“Olivia, I simply offered you a means of saving your troubled marriage. That’s all. There are no similarities between what that rag asserted and what I offered you. If I’d done what the journal suggested, then I wouldn’t have told you. I would’ve just relabeled the viable eggs with your name. Good grief, Olivia. What kind of monster do you take me for?”

She hated it when he talked down to her. But she wouldn’t let him intimidate her.