Chapter 63 Oh! Lara
Lara's pov
I was on my way to pick Ethan up from school.
My phone rang.
Margaret.
I answered it, putting it on speakerphone.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Just calling to check in. How's the manuscript coming?"
"Almost done. Two more chapters."
"Good. The publisher is excited about it. They think it's going to be huge."
I chuckled. "I hope so."
"Anyway, I have to run into a meeting, but let's catch up this weekend?"
"Sounds good."
We ended the call.
I turned left onto Maple Street. Ethan's school was only five minutes away.
The light turned green.
I continued on my way.
And then, suddenly, things happened so fast.
A car came speeding from the right side of the road.
Running the red light.
Coming straight for me.
I didn't even have time to scream.
I saw the car.
And the impact.
And then... nothing.
I don't remember anything.
I don't remember the sound of metal crushing metal.
I don't remember the airbag deploying.
I don't remember anything.
The first thing I remember is voices.
Distant.
Muffled.
"Ma'am? Ma'am, can you hear me?"
I tried to speak, but my mouth wouldn't move.
"We need to get her out. Now."
Hands on me.
Moving me.
Pain everywhere.
And then, again, nothing.
Damien's pov
I was in a meeting when my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I usually don't answer unknown numbers, but something compelled me to answer.
"Mr. Otto?"
"Yes?"
"This is County General Hospital. Your wife Lara Otto was in a car accident. She's being brought in now."
My world came to a standstill.
"Is she okay? Where's my son? Did my son go with her?"
"No sir. Just your wife. She's unconscious. You need to come immediately."
I took my coat and rushed.
Marcus was in the hallway. "What happened?"
"Lara had an accident. I have to go to the hospital."
"I'll drive."
We rushed to the car.
The entire drive was a blur.
Accident. Unconscious. Hospital.
These three words kept repeating in my mind.
What if she doesn't wake up? What if I lose her?
We arrived at the emergency room twenty minutes later.
I approached the desk.
"Lara Otto. My wife. Car accident."
The nurse looked up her information on her computer screen. "She's currently in surgery."
"Surgery? What kind of surgery?"
"Head trauma. Internal bleeding."
I felt as though I were going to pass out.
"How bad is it?"
"SIR, I don't have that information. Please sit down. The doctor will come speak with you."
I could not sit down.
I paced around the waiting room.
Marcus accompanied me.
Silent. Supportive.
An hour went by.
Then two.
Finally, a doctor emerged.
"Family of Lara Otto?"
I stood up. "That's me. I'm her husband."
"I'm Dr. Patterson. Your wife is currently stable but critical."
"What does that mean?"
"She's suffered a great deal of head trauma and internal injuries. We've stopped the internal bleeding. But the next 48 hours are critical."
"Will she wake up?"
"We're not sure. She's currently comatose."
"Can I see her?"
"Very soon. We're moving her into ICU."
I got to see her an hour later.
She looked so tiny in that hospital bed.
Tubes everywhere. Machines beeping. Bandages on her head.
I put a chair right next to her bed.
I took her hand.
"Lara, I'm here. I'm right here."
No response.
"You have to wake up. Please. Ethan needs you. I need you."
No response.
I stayed there for hours.
Just holding her hand.
Talking to her.
Begging her to wake up.
Day one passed,then day two,she didn't wake up.
Doctors did tests,did scans,did everything.
"The swelling in her brain has to go down," Dr. Patterson said.
"Until then, she won't wake up."
"How long will that take?"
"We don't know. It could be days. It could be weeks."
I didn't accept what they said.
"There has to be something you can do."
"We're doing everything we can, Mr. Otto."
On day three, things got even worse.
Her organs began shutting down.
Doctors called me into a room.
"Mr. Otto, your wife needs a bone marrow transplant."
I opened my eyes wide. "What? Why?"
"The trauma caused by the accident damaged her bone marrow," one of the doctors explained.
"She's not making enough blood cells."
"No blood cells? How can we fix that?"
"We're searching the donor registry right now."
"How do we do that?"
"We'll know soon enough."
"How soon?"
"We need a donor within 24 hours.”
I called everyone.Margaret. Marcus. Every friend we had.
"We need to find a bone marrow match for Lara."
Everyone got tested.But nobody matched.
I was sitting in the waiting room at midnight when a young doctor approached me.
"Mr. Otto?"
"Yes?"
"I'm Dr. Marcus Chen. I'm a resident here."
"Okay?"
"I heard about your wife's case. I got tested. I'm a match."
I stood up. "You're a match?"
"Yes. Perfect match actually. I can donate tomorrow morning."
"Why would you do this? You don't even know her."
He shrugged. "I'm a doctor. Saving lives is what I do."
I grabbed his hand and shook it hard.
"Thank you. Thank you so much."
"Don't thank me yet. Let's make sure the transplant works first."
The surgery was scheduled for 6am.
They took Dr. Chen in first. Extracted his bone marrow.
Then they gave it to Lara.
I waited outside the operating room.
Praying to whatever God would listen. God please let this work.Please let her live.
The surgery took six hours.
When Dr. Patterson came out, I jumped up.
"How is she?"
"The transplant was successful. Now we wait and see if her body accepts it."
"And if it does?"
"Then she'll wake up. Eventually."
Three more days passed.I stayed at the hospital.Didn't leave. Didn't go home.
Just sat by Lara's bed.
On the sixth day, she moved.
Just her finger. A tiny movement.But I saw it.
"Lara? Can you hear me?"
Her eyes fluttered.
"Lara!"
Slowly, her eyes opened.She looked at me. Confused.
"Damien?"
I started crying. "You're awake. Oh God, you're awake."
"What... what happened?"
"You were in an accident. You've been unconscious for almost a week."
She tried to sit up but winced.
"Don't move. You're still healing."
"Where's Ethan?"
"He's with Marcus. He's safe. He's been asking about you every day."
"I want to see him."
"Soon. The doctors need to check you first."
Dr. Patterson came in an hour later.
He examined her and ran tests.
"Well, Mrs. Otto, you're very lucky. The transplant saved your life."
"Transplant?"
"Bone marrow. You needed it because of the trauma."
"Who donated?"
"Dr. Chen. One of our residents. He volunteered immediately."
Lara looked at me. "Can I meet him? To say thank you?"
"Of course."
Dr. Chen came by that afternoon.
…..
"Mrs. Otto. Glad to see you awake."
"Dr. Chen. Thank you. For saving my life."
"Just doing my job."
He smiled. He had a kind face. Young. Maybe late twenties.
"Still. Thank you."
He left after a few minutes.
But something about him stayed with me.
Something I couldn't quite place.
Lara stayed in the hospital for another two weeks.
Recovering. Getting stronger.
Ethan visited every day after school.
He'd climb into her bed carefully. Hug her gently.
"I missed you, Mommy."
"I missed you too, baby."
Watching them together made my chest ache.
I almost lost her.
Almost lost everything.
Finally, they released her and we went home.Life slowly returned to normal.
Lara healed. Got back to her routine.
A few months later, she found out she was pregnant.
We were both shocked.
"How is this possible?" she asked. "The doctors said the trauma might have affected my fertility."
"I guess they were wrong."
She smiled. "I guess so."
Nine months later, Emma was born.
Beautiful. Perfect. Healthy.
Life was good.
Really good.
Two years later.
Emma was starting kindergarten.
I was filling out his enrollment forms when I realized something.
Family medical history.
I didn't know Lucas's medical history.
And I didn't know the history of whoever Lara was with that night at the hotel.
I stared at the blank form.
Should I leave it blank?
Or should I try to find out?
For Ethan's and Emma's sake. For his health.
They both deserved to know his biological background.
I made a decision.
I was going to find out who Ethan's biological father was.Even if the truth hurt.Even if it changed everything.
Ethan deserved to know.
I hired a private investigator the next day.
Gave him all the information I had.
The charity event. The date. The hotel.
"I need to know the biological father of Ethan.”
"This was seven years ago, Mr. Otto. That's going to be difficult."
"I don't care how difficult it is. Find out."
He took the case.
Two weeks later, he came back empty.
But I wasn't giving up.
I thought about it differently.What if Lucas wasn't the father?
And not Damien ?
But what if it was neither?
What if there was another explanation?
I started researching.
Late at night after Lara went to bed.
Reading medical journals. Articles. Case studies.
Then I found something.
Bone marrow transplants.
In rare cases, very rare cases, a woman who receives bone marrow from a male donor can develop chimerism.
Her DNA becomes a mixture of her own and the donor's.
And in extremely rare cases, that foreign DNA can affect reproductive cells.
My hands shook as I kept reading.
One in tens of millions.
But possible.
A woman could get pregnant and the child would carry the donor's genetic material.
Not from sex.
From bone marrow.
I needed to be sure.
I ordered a DNA test.
Took a sample from Ethan and Emma while he was sleeping.
Sent it to a lab along with my own DNA.
The results came back a week later.
I opened the envelope with shaking hands, and read the results.
Probability of paternity: 0%
I was not Ethan's biological father.
I already knew that.
But seeing it in writing hurt anyway.
The next thing is to find out about Lucas.
I called in a favor with a lawyer who had access to prison medical records.
"Can you find out if Lucas Ward is sterile?"
"Why would you need to know that?"
"Just find out. Please."
Two days later, he called back.
"Lucas Ward is sterile. Has been since he was sixteen. Childhood illness damaged his reproductive system."
So it wasn't Lucas.It wasn't me.That left one possibility.
Dr. Marcus Chen.
The bone marrow donor.
I hired another investigator."I need to find Dr. Marcus Chen. He was a resident at County General seven years ago."
It took three days.
"Found him. He's still in the city. Works at Memorial Hospital now. Chief of Emergency Medicine."
"Can you get me his photo? Current information?"
"Sure."
The file arrived the next day.
I opened it.
Looked at the photo.
Dr. Marcus Chen. Now in his late thirties. The same Dr. Marcus, our family doctor.Smiling at the camera.
And I saw it immediately.
Ethan's eyes. Emma's smile.
The dimple on his left cheek.
It was all there.
I sat at my desk staring at that photo for an hour.
This was Ethan's biological father.
A man who'd never touched Lara.Never even met her properly.
But his bone marrow had somehow created a child.
Science I barely understood.
But the evidence was clear.
I had all the proof.
DNA tests. Medical records. A geneticist's statement explaining the chimerism.
Everything in a folder.Now I had to decide.
Do I tell Lara?Do I tell Ethan?
Or do I bury this information and pretend I never found it?
I thought about it for days.What was the right thing to do?Keep the truth hidden?Or tell Lara everything?
She deserved to know.Even if the truth was insane.Even i
f it sounded impossible.Even if it meant I might lose her.
This was my chance to love her honestly.
To be completely transparent.No more secrets.No more lies,just truth.
Even if the truth hurt.
Even if it cost me everything.
I made my decision.I was going to tell her
tonight.
I put all the documents in the folder.
Made sure everything was organized.
Waited for Ethan to go to bed.
Then I asked Lara to sit down.
"We need to talk."
She looked worried. "About what?"
"About Ethan. About his biological father."
Her face went pale.
"What about him?"
I handed her the folder.
"I found him.”