Chapter 5
Rachel spent the night beside Mia.
Every time the child moved, Rachel woke.
Every sound in the house felt like a warning.
Daniel remained at St. Catherine’s under observation.
Dr. Vale had transferred him there rather than to the county hospital.
Rachel called twice.
Both times, she was told that Daniel had declined visitors.
She did not believe it.
At six the next morning, Mia opened her eyes.
“Are you still here?”
Rachel brushed hair from her face.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Aunt Claire said you would.”
“She lied.”
“Is Daddy coming home?”
Rachel hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Mia touched Rachel’s cheek.
“Daddy was scared at the hospital.”
“Can you tell me what happened there?”
Mia sat up, clutching her blanket.
“Aunt Claire said it was a surprise.”
“The day you went to the zoo?”
“We didn’t go.”
“Where did the elephant come from?”
“The hospital store.”
Rachel struggled to keep her expression calm.
“What happened when you saw Daddy?”
“He was in a white bed. He had a bandage.”
“On his head?”
Mia nodded.
“He looked at me funny.”
“What did he say?”
“He said, ‘Lucy, you came back.’”
The words sent a chill through Rachel.
“Then what happened?”
“Aunt Claire told me to hug him. Daddy cried. The doctor came in and made me leave.”
“Dr. Vale?”
“The man from yesterday.”
Rachel’s anger sharpened.
The doctor had seen Mia at the hospital.
He had known Claire brought her there.
And he had pretended to know almost nothing.
“Did Daddy say anything else?”
“He asked if Grandpa fixed it.”
“Fixed what?”
Mia shrugged.
Then her face brightened slightly.
“I know where the other red bracelet is.”
Rachel became still.
“What other bracelet?”
“The baby one.”
“Where?”
“Inside Ellie.”
Rachel had no idea what that meant.
“Who is Ellie?”
“My elephant.”
The stuffed toy was downstairs in Mia’s playroom.
Rachel took Mia’s hand, and they hurried down.
The gray plush elephant sat on a shelf.
Rachel turned it over.
A section of stitching across its belly looked uneven.
Someone had opened it and sewn it shut again.
Rachel found small scissors and carefully cut the thread.
Inside the stuffing was a sealed plastic bag.
It contained an infant hospital bracelet.
The printed name read:
Baby Girl Mercer.
Rachel sank onto the floor.
The date was Mia’s birthday.
A handwritten number appeared on the inside.
614.
The same room number written on Daniel’s bracelet.
There was also a small key.
And a folded note.
Rachel opened it.
The message was written in Daniel’s handwriting.
Rachel—
If you find this, my memory is worse than I admitted.
Do not trust Claire.
Do not trust Dr. Vale.
Go to St. Catherine’s, room 614.
Use the key before they move what is inside.
Tell Mia I’m sorry.
Rachel read the note twice.
Daniel had hidden the evidence inside Mia’s toy.
But when?
Before the neurological event?
After?
If he knew Claire and Dr. Vale were dangerous, why had he continued meeting them?
Why had he lied?
Rachel called her mother.
“Mom, I need you to take Mia.”
Her mother heard the fear in her voice.
“What happened?”
“I’ll explain when you get here.”
“I’m already leaving.”
Rachel helped Mia dress.
The child resisted when she learned Rachel was going somewhere without her.
“You promised you wouldn’t go.”
“I promised I wouldn’t leave you. I’m coming back.”
“Aunt Claire said that too.”
The sentence cut deeply.
Rachel knelt.
“I am not Aunt Claire. Grandma is going to stay with you, and I will call you every hour.”
“Are you going to Daddy?”
“Yes.”
“Tell him I’m Mia.”
Rachel pulled her close.
“I will.”
Her mother arrived twenty minutes later.
Rachel gave her strict instructions.
Keep the doors locked.
Answer no one except the police.
Call immediately if an unfamiliar vehicle appeared.
Then Rachel drove to St. Catherine’s.
During the two-hour trip, she tried to contact Daniel again.
No answer.
She called the sheriff’s office and asked for Deputy Harlan.
He was unavailable.
She left a message about the new evidence but did not mention the key.
She no longer knew whom to trust.
St. Catherine’s rose above the trees like a luxury hotel.
Inside, marble floors reflected soft golden lights.
A receptionist smiled at Rachel.
“I’m here to see Daniel Mercer.”
The woman typed his name.
“I’m sorry. We have no patient by that name.”
“He was transferred here last night.”
“Perhaps you have the wrong facility.”
“I don’t.”
The receptionist’s smile faded.
“Do you have a room number?”
“614.”
The woman stopped typing.
Her hand remained over the keyboard.
“Six fourteen is not a patient room.”
“What is it?”
“Administrative storage.”
Rachel placed Daniel’s bracelet on the counter.
The receptionist looked at it.
Then at Rachel.
“I need to call my supervisor.”
Rachel took the bracelet back.
“No.”
She walked toward the elevators.
“Ma’am, you cannot go upstairs.”
Rachel pressed the button.
A security guard moved from the lobby.
She stepped into the elevator just before the doors closed.
The panel listed six floors.
She selected six.
When the elevator opened, Rachel entered a quiet corridor.
No nurses.
No patients.
Only numbered doors and security cameras.
Room 614 stood at the far end.
Rachel tried the handle.
Locked.
She inserted the tiny key.
It turned.
The room beyond was not storage.
It was a private nursery.
A crib stood against one wall.
Children’s drawings had been taped beside it.
A shelf held toys for different ages.
The space looked as though someone had prepared it for a child who visited regularly.
Rachel saw photographs covering a desk.
Mia as a baby.
Mia at the park.
Mia sleeping in her car seat.
Some photographs had been taken from far away.
Others could only have been taken inside Rachel’s home.
Her stomach turned.
A file lay open beside them.
Subject: Amelia Mercer.
Genetic compatibility: confirmed.
Rachel picked it up.
The report showed several medical tests.
Blood type.
Tissue markers.
A DNA comparison.
Mia had been compared to someone identified only as Patient L.
Compatibility was listed as 98.7 percent.
A sound came from behind her.
The door closed.
Dr. Vale stood inside the room.
“You should not have come here.”
Rachel held up the file.
“What did you do to my daughter?”
“Nothing.”
“You tested her DNA.”
“With Daniel’s permission.”
“He didn’t have the right to hide it from me.”
“He believed it was necessary.”
“For what?”
Dr. Vale looked tired.
“Daniel did not collapse at the warehouse. He was attacked.”
“By whom?”
“We don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“He arrived with a serious head injury and a note in his pocket.”
“What note?”
“It said, ‘Lucy is alive.’”
Rachel thought of Daniel calling Mia by that name.
“Who is Lucy?”
Dr. Vale glanced at the crib.
“Daniel’s biological sister.”
“Elena’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
“The baby who was switched with mine?”
“No.”
Rachel stared at him.
Dr. Vale removed his glasses.
“Lucy was never switched.”
“Then what happened?”
“She was born sick. Daniel’s father believed she needed treatment Elena could not afford. He arranged for the hospital to record her death.”
Rachel’s skin prickled.
“She didn’t die?”
“No.”
“Where did she go?”
“To a private medical program funded by the Mercer estate.”
“In this room?”
“For part of her childhood.”
Rachel looked again at the drawings.
Some showed a man with silver hair.
Grandpa.
Others showed two girls holding hands.
“Where is Lucy now?”
“Missing.”
“For how long?”
“Three years.”
Rachel felt the pieces moving but not connecting.
“What does this have to do with Mia?”
“Lucy has a rare inherited disorder. Without treatment, she was not expected to survive past adolescence.”
“You tested Mia as a donor.”
Dr. Vale did not deny it.
Rachel’s grip tightened around the file.
“Mia is four years old.”
“No procedure was performed.”
“But someone planned one.”
“Daniel wanted to find Lucy first.”
“Why is Mia genetically compatible with her?”
Dr. Vale looked toward the photographs.
“Because Mia is not Daniel’s daughter.”
Rachel could barely speak.
“What?”
“She is Daniel’s sister.”
The door opened behind Dr. Vale.
Claire entered.
A hospital security guard stood beside her.
Claire’s eyes were red, but her voice was steady.
“You wanted the truth,” she said. “Now you have it.”
Rachel looked from Claire to the file.
“If Mia is Lucy—”
“She isn’t,” Claire replied. “Mia is Lucy’s twin.”
Rachel’s hands began to shake.
“That’s impossible.”
“Elena delivered twins that night.”
“No.”
“One was Lucy. One was the child your father-in-law sent home with you.”
Rachel backed into the desk.
She remembered Mia’s birth.
The emergency surgery.
The darkness.
Daniel placing the child in her arms.
Her husband had been twenty-eight years old when Mia was born.
If Mia was his half sister, his father had forced him to raise his own sibling as a daughter.
“Did Daniel know?”
“Not then,” Claire said.
“When did he find out?”
“Four weeks ago.”
Rachel thought of the note hidden inside the elephant.
Do not trust Claire.
“Why did Daniel warn me about you?”
Claire’s face tightened.
“Because his injury damaged his judgment.”
“No. He knew you were destroying evidence.”
“I was destroying evidence that could ruin Mia’s life.”
“You tried to leave her in a pit.”
“I panicked.”
“You threatened her.”
“I made a terrible mistake.”
Rachel stepped closer.
“You told her Daniel would go to sleep forever if she climbed out.”
Claire’s eyes flashed.
“Because whoever attacked Daniel is still watching us.”
“Who?”
Before Claire could answer, an alarm sounded.
The lights in the room changed from white to red.
Dr. Vale looked toward the hall.
“What is happening?”
The security guard touched his radio.
No voice answered.
Then smoke began pouring beneath the door.
Rachel’s phone rang.
It was her mother.
She answered immediately.
“Mom?”
A man spoke instead.
“You found room 614.”
Rachel went cold.
“Where is my daughter?”
May you like
The man laughed softly.
“Which daughter do you mean?”
