Beccy shifted in her chair, as if this was the first time she had given it serious consideration.
‘And what if I’m pregnant? I’ve been taking the fertility drugs and we’re supposed to do the first donor egg transfer in a month. Will you know by then if they’re safe?’
‘You might want to hold fire. I’m sorry. I wish I could offer you some reassurance but every couple is different. And to answer your question, under the terms of your surrogacy agreement, if a marriage is dissolved before a child is born to a surrogate who is not blood-related to the child, then the child, in theory, could be put up for adoption.’
‘But Luca would be the biological father. It would go to him.’
‘It’s up to the court’s discretion whether a child is better off with a single parent or a married couple. And please be assured there are many approved couples out there desperate to adopt a newborn.’
‘I couldn’t give the baby up to strangers!’
‘You could apply to keep it yourself, of course.’
‘Me? I don’t want another baby. I have two of my own; I don’t want one that isn’t related to me or my husband.’
‘Look, you’re probably right and this is all one huge misunderstanding. I’m just offering you the facts. It’s up to you how – or if – you want to proceed with the surrogacy process.’
A deflated Beccy sank into her seat as Noah and Luca returned with drinks and pastries. It was Noah who first noted her shift in mood.
‘Is everything okay?’ he asked.
‘It’s fine,’ said Beccy and offered a half-smile. But the way she barely nibbled her croissant left Jeffrey in no doubt that she had lost her appetite for more than just her pastry.
Slowly, he was dissembling everything they had built.
STORY: MP for Newcastle Stefan Galbraith resigned last night after it was revealed he had been cheating on his wife with three different women.
Galbraith, 37, who sits on the Government’s Ethics committee, made a brief statement apologizing and claiming he had made an error in judgement.
His affairs were exposed by members of Freedom for All, which has vowed to take to task all Government supporters of the Marriage Act for hypocrisy.
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Corrine
Corrine’s heart raced so fast she thought it might ruptureas the hand that grabbed her shoulder spun her around.
The light from her phone shone directly into a pair of distinctive bright-blue eyes, ‘David!’ she gasped. ‘Are you trying to send me to an early grave?’
‘The biometrics on the security cameras have stopped working so I couldn’t tell who it was,’ he said gruffly. ‘The others are waiting.’ He pointed to the ceiling.
Corrine made her way alone through another door, up a familiar wooden staircase that groaned with each step, through an empty kitchen and into the disused pub’s lounge. Dimmed lights and boarded windows prevented anyone outside knowing it was occupied. It had the air of an apocalyptic after-hours lock-in.
She took in the faces surrounding her. She was unsure how she might be received after what had happened to Nathan, a popular and frequent attendee. But they couldn’t have made her feel any worse than she did already. She counted thirty people standing or sitting around tables and a low hum of conversation. They were there for a shared purpose – to fight against the Sanctity of Marriage Act as members of an underground Freedom for All splinter group.
A familiar voice caught her attention. ‘Corrine, so glad you came!’ Yan said and gave her a brisk hug. ‘I’ve been worried. How are you?’
‘I still have a little bruising but the swelling has gone down,’ she replied, touching her lip. ‘It’s Nathan I’m concerned about. Have you heard anything?’
‘I think Ferdi is about to update us,’ she said as she pointed to a young man by the bar at the front of the room. His dirty blond hair was cropped close to his head and he wore a t-shirt advertising a band Corrine remembered from her youth but that he was far too young to know. In fact, she had years on most of the people there. What had happened to the fighting spirit of people her age? she wondered. The ones who had argued against foreign wars, protested Brexit and opposed the sell-off of huge chunks of the National Health Service? It had clearly skipped a generation. She could only hope her children would stand up and be counted if and when the time came.
‘It’s been a mixed week,’ Ferdi began. ‘While our Newcastle colleagues have had success in exposing Stefan Galbraith’s bigotry, our own attempt to bring Eleanor Harrison to task failed to yield the same results.’
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Yan told Corrine, loud enough for Ferdi to hear, making her blush.
‘No, no, of course not,’ Ferdi added quickly, but Corrine was unsure if he was paying her lip service. ‘But while the night didn’t go as we’d planned – through no fault of our team – at least there’s no evidence to suggest we were involved. And we plan to keep it that way.’
‘Why?’ asked David.
