Request #275 From Jess

This book had a long title, like a full sentence, or one of those titles that goes “Title: A Longer Explanation Of Title With A Catchy Selection Of Words”.  I read it from the YA section in the early 2000s, no idea if it was recent or not though. It was about this female scientist who was working on photographing the moment of ovulation. She was the only woman in the industry at the time, and in a unique position to be able to use herself as a test subject. Her male scientist colleagues would have to find women willing to be test subjects and track their ovulation and be available to come to the lab at the exact right moment for the scientists to do the procedure of inserting this special camera to be able to see the moment an egg is released from the ovaries. So you can imagine that she was making alot more progress than they were. She somehow gets involved with this money guy who has bought or somehow gotten hold of the Shroud of Turin, the rag that supposedly was used to wipe the brow of Christ…..so it supposedly has Christ’s DNA on it. This money guy is somehow involved in the development of IVF and cloning. He has this trophy wife who is really sweet and kind of dumb and naive, and she takes a liking to the woman scientist, being the only woman in the industry. The scientist is a real cynic, and is kind of annoyed that this trophy wife is always hanging around and trying to befriend her, but it’s clear she’s quite lonely and she feels sorry for her being married to Mr Moneybags who treats her like she’s dumb, and they do strike up this sort of friendship. All Trophy Wife really wants is to have a family with Mr Moneybags, but either she’s infertile or he can’t have kids, the way she’s sad and feels she’s letting him down makes me think it’s her that can’t have kids, and all she wants is a family.  Via the research that Mr Moneybags is funding in fertility with Scientist Lady, I think Trophy Wife gets pregnant, and pretty soon after, Scientist Lady realises Mr Moneybags has impregnated his wife, not with his own sperm, but with DNA from the Turin Shroud. I think Trophy Wife realises as well because she turns to the Scientist for help, and I think she gives her an abortion because they both realise that him impregnating her with the descendant of Christ without her knowledge was a gross breach of trust and a stupid thing to do. That or it was just a miscarriage, but I do remember Trophy Wife turning to Scientist Lady for help because she trusts her and has no one else to turn to.