The New York couple started to worry when an ultrasound revealed A.P. was carrying twin boys, according to their lawsuit, which was filed on July 1. Their IVF cycle was supposed to have produced only one male embryo. But the clinic’s staff dismissed their concerns until the boys were born. A.P. and Y.Z. are Asian, but the babies did not appear to be. DNA tests revealed the twins were not related to each other or to the New York couple—rather, one matched the Manukyans and the other matched the third couple. That’s when the Manukyans finally learned of their son. (CHA Fertility Center did not respond to requests for comment.)

“All of a sudden my brain went to, I didn’t get to bond with my baby. I wasn’t able to carry him. I wasn’t able to hold him. I wasn’t able to feel him inside of me,” said Anni, breaking into tears, in a video released by her lawyers. The Manukyans spent the next several weeks contacting lawyers and frantically trying to get their son back.

Meanwhile, the parents in New York had spent months anticipating the birth of their babies and now weeks caring for them. They too had gone through the expense and the pain of IVF because they desperately wanted children, and they did not want to give up custody of the boys, according to the Manukyans’ lawsuit. In May, however, a judge ruled in favor of the genetic parents.