The Embryo Next Door
A Novel

About this book:

After four years of failed treatments and quiet heartbreak, Clara and Sam finally catch a break: a donated embryo, a successful transfer, and two precious pink lines on a test strip. They're pregnant. The baby they've dreamed of is the size of a poppy seed, its DNA belonging to an anonymous architect and engineer who chose life for their remaining embryos. For the first time, the future feels tangible—until a moving truck pulls into the driveway next door.

The new neighbors at Number 42 are warm, polished, and strangely familiar. She plays cello; he's a software engineer with a shellfish allergy. Their two sandy-haired children tumble across the shared lawn with the same hazel eyes Clara has memorized from a six-page donor profile. As the coincidence sharpens into something impossible, Clara is forced to navigate a minefield of medical ethics, fragile boundaries, and the terrifying question of who gets to claim a child before it's even born.

Wry, tender, and utterly of its moment, *The Embryo Next Door* explores the messy, miraculous collision of science and serendipity. It's a story about the families we make, the secrets we keep, and the neighbors who might just hold the missing pieces of your heart.