The contract was too good to pass up, or at least it seemed that way before we got started. I was a 19-year-old young woman with poor job prospects. I'd had a baby I ended up putting up for adoption when I was 16, thus proving my ability to carry a healthy baby to term and making me eligible for a surrogacy gig. That's how I met Shaun and Elise, a couple in their early 40s that had been searching for some time for the right surrogate to carry their babies.
It would be triplets implanted in me via IVF, was the first big stipulation. Also, I had to live with them for the entire 9 months, implantation to birth. I'd have my own apartment within their house, they promised. This cohabitation condition would've worried me more, but it was offset by the fact that they were promising me an all-expenses-paid 9 months of entirely free living. For these special conditions, the contract said they'd pay me three times the normal surrogacy rate: I'd bring home well over $100K after taxes.
Extra-contractually (because not-so-legally), I was to be a sexual companion to either or both of them throughout the pregnancy. All consensual, of course, but we'd basically be a throuple during my gestation. Should I abide by this, there'd be another $50K under the table for me. It took some consideration, but this was an amount of money I just couldn't turn down, despite my misgivings about triplets, cohabitation with strangers, and sexual promises. I could get through 9 months of all this, I figured.
I moved out of my apartment, got implanted with triplets, and moved into Shaun's and Elise's house. The apartment they'd constructed for me was a giant red flag which, in retrospect, I should've run away from immediately. How could I leave, though, when I was carrying three of their babies? It was a studio apartment, just a modest bedroom and tiny bathroom, made entirely of glass, plexiglass, and other see-through materials. I was to have no privacy whatsoever during this pregnancy. They told me it was so that they could keep an eye on my behavior, as I was, after all, responsible for the gestational health of their children. It felt a lot more like I was in a zoo or a prisoner than having my behavior monitored, though.