Chapter 167: Good Swimmers

Recent events had changed Giovanni’s perspective on quite a lot of things.

Unfortunately, they had also given him another reason to lose sleep.

He’d already been in bed for nearly an hour, yet despite the comfortable mattress and cool air circulating through the room, he kept tossing and turning.

There was simply too much on his mind.

Family and children, mostly.

And, strangely enough, all the medical options available to make that future possible.

For years, Giovanni had spent countless sleepless nights thinking about Mercer Group and everything he needed to build, protect, and expand. Tonight, however, he found himself thinking about who he might someday leave it all to.

Arturo’s death probably had something to do with it.

So did Tuscany.

His grandfather Alessandro had one son, Matteo, and Giovanni was Matteo’s only child. Unless something changed, the Mercer surname would end with him.

Alexander’s family wasn’t much different.

Alex was the only remaining son of his generation, which meant both the Mercer and Vance family lines were facing the same rather inconvenient problem.

Extinction.

Then Alexander had asked whether they wanted children.

That conversation had somehow turned into a surprisingly serious discussion about how many they wanted and what options they had.

Somewhere along the way, Giovanni had stopped thinking only about what he would leave behind someday.

Now he found himself wondering who he would leave it to.

He had Mercer Group, numerous properties and investments, along with the villa and vineyard in Tuscany. He also had more money than he realistically knew what to do with, and barring some spectacular financial catastrophe, considerably more would accumulate before he was old enough to seriously worry about dying.

That didn’t even include whatever properties and investments he and Alexander might acquire together after they were married.

What was the point of having so much if he couldn’t share it?

Giovanni finally gave up on sleeping and opened his laptop.

Then he stared at the search bar.

After several seconds, he typed:

Sperm freezing.

He frowned.

That sounded remarkably similar to putting meat in a freezer.

He tried again.

Sperm preservation for future children.

Better.

Apparently, the proper term was sperm cryopreservation.

Giovanni spent the next hour researching, and by the time he’d finished his second cup of coffee, he’d narrowed his options to several fertility centers within a reasonable drive of the city.

The first was attached to a large private hospital. It had an excellent reproductive medicine department, a full andrology laboratory, genetic counseling, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and long-term cryogenic storage.

Reliable and established.

Also incredibly busy.

The second was an independent fertility center specializing in assisted reproduction. Their services included fertility assessments for men, semen analysis, sperm cryopreservation, donor programs, IVF, and consultations for couples planning families through gestational surrogacy.

That last part immediately caught his attention.

The third facility was smaller and considerably more private. Their clientele apparently included executives, public figures, and other people who preferred not to encounter half the city while carrying a specimen cup down a hallway.

The baseline fees were higher.

Giovanni immediately moved the third facility higher on his list.

He compared accreditation and laboratory facilities before moving on to storage procedures and emergency backup systems. He checked whether frozen samples could eventually be transferred to another fertility facility if necessary, then reviewed every photograph of the building he could find online.

It appeared capable of surviving both artificial and acts-of-God calamities.

Good enough.

Then he looked at the actual process.

It was surprisingly straightforward.

There would be an initial consultation and a review of his medical and reproductive history, followed by the necessary screening and semen analysis. They would then process the sample and cryopreserve it for long-term storage.

Not particularly complicated.

The semen analysis was slightly more interesting.

According to what Giovanni was reading, the laboratory would evaluate several characteristics before freezing the sample, including concentration, motility, and morphology.

In simpler terms, they wanted to know how many sperm there were, how well they moved, and how many had a normal shape.

Giovanni’s attention returned to one word.

Motility.

How well the sperm moved.

So, swimming.

Interesting.

He continued reading.

Depending on the results and how many future children a patient hoped to have, the specialist might recommend banking more than one sample.

That immediately created another question.

Would it be better to store everything in one facility, or should they eventually keep samples in separate facilities as an additional precaution?

Giovanni opened another tab.

Then another.

Twenty minutes later, he realized he was researching the statistical likelihood of catastrophic cryogenic storage failure at three in the morning.

Perhaps that was enough.

For now.

He picked up his phone.

Alexander answered on the fourth ring.

"Gio?"

"Are you busy?"

"A little."

Giovanni glanced at the time.

Apparently, a little meant Alexander was still working at this hour too.

Good. At least he wasn’t waking him up.

"Do you want to freeze your sperm?"

Silence.

Giovanni checked the screen.

The call was still connected.

"Alex?"

"I heard you."

"Good."

"I was hoping I hadn’t."

Giovanni smiled.

"We’ve already discussed having children."

"Yes."

"We have the resources to preserve our options now."

Another pause followed.

"Did you wake up this morning and randomly decide to freeze your sperm?"

"No. I haven’t slept. I researched it first."

"Of course you did."

"I found three facilities."

"Of course you did."

"I prefer the third."

"Gio."

"Yes?"

Alexander sighed.

"Why are we freezing our sperm?"

That seemed obvious.

"Because we’re young and healthy now."

"And?"

"And neither of us knows exactly when we’ll be ready to have children."

Giovanni leaned back against the headboard.

They had talked about wanting them. They had even discussed the possibility of having two someday, but wanting children and being ready to bring one home weren’t necessarily the same thing.

There was no reason they couldn’t preserve their options while they had the chance.

"If we wait several years, we’ll be older," Giovanni continued. "This gives us something to work with later without forcing us to decide anything now."

Alexander went quiet.

This time, Giovanni waited.

"So basically," Alexander finally said, "you want us to put our younger sperm in storage."

"Yes."

"In case our older sperm disappoints us."

Giovanni considered that.

"That’s an unnecessarily insulting way of putting it."

"But accurate."

"Mostly."

Alexander laughed softly.

The sound made Giovanni smile.

"Fine. Send me the information."

"I already did."

Another silence.

Then Giovanni heard the faint vibration of Alexander’s phone.

"You sent it before asking me?"

"I was reasonably confident you’d agree."

"You’re impossible."

"You’re still going to read it."

"Yes."

"And?"

"And I’ll tell you what I think after I’ve read it."

Giovanni nodded, satisfied.

"Good."

He was about to end the call when Alexander spoke again.

"Wait."

"What?"

"If we’re both doing this, are they going to test the samples first?"

"Yes."

"For what?"

"Concentration, morphology, motility, among other things."

There was a short pause.

"Motility?"

"How well they swim."

Alexander went quiet again.

Giovanni immediately recognized the problem.

"Don’t."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You were about to."

"I was only thinking."

"Stop thinking."

Alexander laughed.

"You’re the one who called me at three in the morning to ask whether I wanted to freeze my sperm."

"It was a reasonable question."

"Apparently."

Giovanni could practically hear the amusement in his voice now.

Then Alexander asked, far too casually, "So we’ll find out whose swimmers are better?"

Giovanni smiled.

"Get some sleep, Alex. You’ll need your energy."

"For what?"

"To prepare your swimmers for defeat."

And just like that, what had started as a perfectly sensible conversation about preserving their future options had somehow become a competition.

He really should have seen that coming.

Giovanni ended the call before Alexander could say anything else.