"Within a month we were married, and I finally gave birth to the child."
Jack shook his head. "You gave birth to your own child."
She smiled bitterly. "No, it was Mary's. Martin did not keep his whole bargain with me—I was nothing more than his 'scrub wife' in every way."
"You think you gave birth to Mary's child."
Mrs. Kesserich turned on Jack in anger. "I've been wounded by him, day in and day out, for years, but I've never failed to recognize his genius. Besides, you've seen the girl, haven't you?"
Jack had to nod. What confounded him most was that, granting the near-impossible physiological feat Mrs. Kesserich had described, the girl should look so much like the mother. Mothers and daughters don't look that much alike; only identical twins did. With a thrill of fear, he remembered Kesserich's casual words: "... parthenogenesis ... pure stock ... special techniques...."
"Very well," he forced himself to say, "granting that the child was Mary's and Martin's—"
"No! Mary's alone!"
Jack suppressed a shudder. He continued quickly, "What became of the child?"
Mrs. Kesserich lowered her head. "The day it was born, it was taken away from me. After that, I never saw Hilda and Hani, either."