looked around the sophisticated living room. ‘You don’t exactly look like you’re being badly
treated.’
‘I’m not,’ she said. ‘Mr Baxter provides food and clothes and a doctor comes every day to check I’m OK. But it’s time . . . it was time yesterday . . . for
the baby to come. That’s why they moved me here.’ She held my gaze, and the horror in her eyes was totally genuine. ‘And when the baby is born, Mr Baxter is going to take him
away. Forever.’
15
Getting Out
‘Slow down,’ I said. ‘Are you saying Mr Baxter is looking after you until your baby’s born – then he’s going to
take
him?’
Natalia nodded. ‘I saw it happen before, with other girls. Mr Baxter calls it the Miriam Project after some woman in the Bible. He takes the babies as soon as they’re born to give to
childless couples. I’m the twenty-first girl.’
Miriam 21. I stared at her, bewildered.
This
was the explanation behind Allan’s suspicions – a surrogacy business.
‘Baxter pays a doctor to check on us and there are several nurses who stay with us in shifts,’ Natalia went on. ‘I’m waiting for the next nurse now. She’ll be here
soon. You see, my baby was due yesterday, so he’ll . . . it won’t be long until he’s born now.’
I gasped, remembering the ‘due’ date on the memory stick file. I thought of the other sticks with their ‘M’ numbers.
‘You’re saying Mr Baxter has done this with twenty other girls?’ I asked.
‘Yes.’ Natalia clasped her hands together. ‘He picks on girls away from home, who don’t have jobs or money . . . girls with no family. He offered me ten thousand pounds
to do IVF for him . . . to get pregnant.’
‘So you agreed to give up your baby,’ I said. ‘You actually agreed to do it?’
‘Yes, because I was desperate. I was all alone and it was awful, so I said yes, because back then the baby was just an idea. But now I can feel him moving inside me. I . . . I can’t
bear the thought he’ll be taken away from me.’
‘Where will Baxter take him?’
Natalia sniffed. ‘If it’s the same as the others, he’ll take the baby as soon as he’s born. He’ll have a couple all lined up, ready to pay. My friend Lana told me
how it works: the couple get a baby just a few hours old without having to travel abroad or do mountains of paperwork. There’re official-looking documents that say it’s all legal, but
it’s not . . .’
I couldn’t believe it. I’d stumbled across the whole story that Allan had been investigating. For a second I imagined how pleased he was going to be when I told him what I’d
found out. That editor he was working for at
The Examiner
– Matthew Flint – would surely be impressed too. Maybe my efforts would even help me get some kind of work placement
there. No. I shook myself. It was selfish of me to focus on what I could get out of Natalia’s suffering. My main priority should be to help her.
‘So you agreed to carry a baby before you were pregnant, but now you’d give up all the money if you could keep your baby?’
‘Yes.’ Natalia looked around her. ‘I know this place is all designer and everything, but I’ve been forced to live in flats like this since I was four months
pregnant,’ she went on. ‘There was another girl with me for a while, Lana, but they took her away and she promised she would call me, but I haven’t heard a thing. I don’t
know what’s happened to her.’
A shiver snaked down my back. ‘Why don’t you just walk out?’ I said.
Natalia rolled up her leggings to reveal a thick black ankle bracelet on her left leg. ‘Baxter put a tracker on me. If I leave the house, he’ll know. He’ll find me. Then
he’ll take the baby anyway. Maybe . . . maybe worse.’
‘Worse?’
‘At first he said if I ran away or talked to anyone, I’d lose the baby and all my money, but now that I can’t get hold of Lana, I . . . I . . . think maybe he killed her for
trying to escape.’
treated.’
‘I’m not,’ she said. ‘Mr Baxter provides food and clothes and a doctor comes every day to check I’m OK. But it’s time . . . it was time yesterday . . . for
the baby to come. That’s why they moved me here.’ She held my gaze, and the horror in her eyes was totally genuine. ‘And when the baby is born, Mr Baxter is going to take him
away. Forever.’
15
Getting Out
‘Slow down,’ I said. ‘Are you saying Mr Baxter is looking after you until your baby’s born – then he’s going to
take
him?’
Natalia nodded. ‘I saw it happen before, with other girls. Mr Baxter calls it the Miriam Project after some woman in the Bible. He takes the babies as soon as they’re born to give to
childless couples. I’m the twenty-first girl.’
Miriam 21. I stared at her, bewildered.
This
was the explanation behind Allan’s suspicions – a surrogacy business.
‘Baxter pays a doctor to check on us and there are several nurses who stay with us in shifts,’ Natalia went on. ‘I’m waiting for the next nurse now. She’ll be here
soon. You see, my baby was due yesterday, so he’ll . . . it won’t be long until he’s born now.’
I gasped, remembering the ‘due’ date on the memory stick file. I thought of the other sticks with their ‘M’ numbers.
‘You’re saying Mr Baxter has done this with twenty other girls?’ I asked.
‘Yes.’ Natalia clasped her hands together. ‘He picks on girls away from home, who don’t have jobs or money . . . girls with no family. He offered me ten thousand pounds
to do IVF for him . . . to get pregnant.’
‘So you agreed to give up your baby,’ I said. ‘You actually agreed to do it?’
‘Yes, because I was desperate. I was all alone and it was awful, so I said yes, because back then the baby was just an idea. But now I can feel him moving inside me. I . . . I can’t
bear the thought he’ll be taken away from me.’
‘Where will Baxter take him?’
Natalia sniffed. ‘If it’s the same as the others, he’ll take the baby as soon as he’s born. He’ll have a couple all lined up, ready to pay. My friend Lana told me
how it works: the couple get a baby just a few hours old without having to travel abroad or do mountains of paperwork. There’re official-looking documents that say it’s all legal, but
it’s not . . .’
I couldn’t believe it. I’d stumbled across the whole story that Allan had been investigating. For a second I imagined how pleased he was going to be when I told him what I’d
found out. That editor he was working for at
The Examiner
– Matthew Flint – would surely be impressed too. Maybe my efforts would even help me get some kind of work placement
there. No. I shook myself. It was selfish of me to focus on what I could get out of Natalia’s suffering. My main priority should be to help her.
‘So you agreed to carry a baby before you were pregnant, but now you’d give up all the money if you could keep your baby?’
‘Yes.’ Natalia looked around her. ‘I know this place is all designer and everything, but I’ve been forced to live in flats like this since I was four months
pregnant,’ she went on. ‘There was another girl with me for a while, Lana, but they took her away and she promised she would call me, but I haven’t heard a thing. I don’t
know what’s happened to her.’
A shiver snaked down my back. ‘Why don’t you just walk out?’ I said.
Natalia rolled up her leggings to reveal a thick black ankle bracelet on her left leg. ‘Baxter put a tracker on me. If I leave the house, he’ll know. He’ll find me. Then
he’ll take the baby anyway. Maybe . . . maybe worse.’
‘Worse?’
‘At first he said if I ran away or talked to anyone, I’d lose the baby and all my money, but now that I can’t get hold of Lana, I . . . I . . . think maybe he killed her for
trying to escape.’
Similar Books
