“We have you marked with a green label and your file was in with another.” She sounded hesitant and the implications of what she was saying started to sink in.
“Did she sign the contract?”
I heard the rustling of papers as she looked through my file. My jaw was clenched as I waited for the shoe to drop. At this point, I was certain there was a major fuck-up on the clinic’s part.
“Mr. Cavanaugh.” Her voice sounded scared. “The contract is unsigned. I can set up a meeting between you and the mother of your child.”
“How is this possibly happening?” I ran my hand through my hair.
“I’m sorry, Sir. I don’t know what happened. Your code matched hers, and she was inseminated. Somewhere there was a glitch.”
“You think? This isn’t something that should be open to glitches. This is people’s lives we’re talking about.”
“I assure you, Sir, this has never happened before.”
“Set up the meeting with the woman, today.” I slammed the phone down on the hook without saying goodbye.
“Fuck,” I said into the open room before getting out of my chair to look out the large glass window in my office. This was such a mess and something I hadn’t planned for. Who the hell was carrying my baby?
There was a soft knock on the door before Betty poked her head in. “Mr. Cavanaugh?”
“Yes?” I said without turning around.
“Your ten o’clock is here.”
I took a deep breath and turned away from the window. “Thanks, Betty,” I said calmly, trying not to take my anger and frustration out on my employee. “Cancel all my other appointments for the day and schedule an emergency meeting with my lawyer as soon as possible.”
These people fucked up, and I was going to make them pay for it. I was going to make sure they never screwed up anyone else’s life again.
“Yes, Sir.”
I was distracted during my whole meeting, but I managed to get the gist of what the new client was looking for. I scheduled another meeting with them for next week and got them out of my office as soon as possible and went to talk to Betty.
“Did you get a meeting set up with my lawyer?”
“Yes. He can meet you at one o’clock. All your meetings for the afternoon have been cancelled. Is there something going on, Sir?”
“No, Betty. It’s a personal matter.” I didn’t want to tell anyone anything until after I spoke with my lawyer.
I went back into my office and stared out the window again, not really seeing anything. This plan to find a surrogate to have a child was crazy. I should have known better. Now, it was backfiring on me, and I had no idea what kind of mess I’d have to clean up after the fallout of all this.
“Phone call on line one,” Betty said, coming through the speaker again, and I moved to take the call.
“Cavanaugh,” I gritted out.
“Mr. Cavanaugh? This is Dr. Coulter from the New Hope Fertility Clinic. Let me start out by saying we are so sorry for the mix-up that happened. This has never happened before and I assure you, it won’t happen again. The receptionist that made the mistake has been dealt with, and we will be refunding all the fees you paid in using our clinic. We will also be helping you and the mother figure out what to do next.”
“When is my meeting with her?”
“We have yet to get in contact with her, Mr. Cavanaugh. She’s not answering her phone at this time, but we will keep reaching out to her.”
“Save your apologies, Dr. Coulter. They are wasted in this situation. Set up the meeting, anything other than that is unacceptable. Your office made a mess of this, and I’ve got to try to figure out how to clean it up.”
I hung up again, even more furious than I was before. How the fuck do you fix this kind of problem? The pregnancy was confirmed, I had a kid on the way and because the clinic dropped the ball, I had no idea what the hell to do next.
Fuck.
Chapter Three