Part 2 — “Ask Your Wife What She Did With My Baby”
“Ask your wife what she did with my baby.”
The words came through the locked hospital door so clearly that Daniel felt as though the woman were standing beside him.
He turned slowly toward Claire.
She had gone completely pale.
Not the exhausted paleness he’d grown used to during months of treatment.
This was different.
This was terror.
“Claire,” Daniel whispered. “What is she talking about?”
Claire’s eyes stayed fixed on the door.
“Don’t let her in.”
Daniel looked down at the envelope still clutched in his hand.
DANIEL — ONLY OPEN THIS AFTER I’M GONE.
A minute ago, he’d been afraid to know what was inside.
Now he couldn’t imagine waiting another second.
He tore the envelope open.
“Daniel, don’t.”
He pulled out several folded pages.
And a photograph.
The photograph slipped from his fingers and landed faceup on the floor.
Daniel stared at it.
It showed Claire nine years earlier.
She was standing outside a hospital.
And in her arms was a newborn baby.
Emma.
But Claire wasn’t alone.
Standing beside her was the woman currently outside the door.
Daniel bent down and picked up the photograph.
On the back, someone had written:
Claire, Rebecca & Lily — October 17
Daniel read it again.
“Lily?”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Our daughter’s name is Emma.”
“I know.”
“Then who is Lily?”
Before Claire could answer, the woman outside spoke.
“Her name was Lily.”
Daniel’s stomach dropped.
The door handle moved again.
“Daniel,” the woman said, “please open the door.”
Claire grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Daniel looked at his wife.
“You told me Emma was born at St. Matthew’s.”
Claire said nothing.
“You told me you almost died during delivery.”
Nothing.
“You showed me pictures.”
“I can explain.”
“You told me I missed my daughter’s birth because I was overseas.”
“You did.”
Daniel’s voice rose.
“Then tell me what I’m looking at!”
Claire started crying.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“When?”
Her eyes moved toward the envelope.
“Before I died.”
Daniel recoiled.
“So I was supposed to find out after you couldn’t answer my questions?”
Another knock interrupted them.
“Daniel,” Rebecca called. “She’s going to lie to you again.”
Claire shook her head.
“You don’t know what she did.”
“And I don’t know what you did!”
The words hit Claire hard.
Daniel immediately hated himself for shouting at a woman who had just been told she had weeks to live.
But then he looked at the photograph again.
Nine years.
Whatever this was, Claire had hidden it for nine years.
Daniel walked to the door.
“Please,” Claire whispered.
He unlocked it.
Rebecca stood outside.
She looked to be around Claire’s age.
Her eyes were red.
In one hand, she held an old stuffed rabbit.
In the other was a folder thick with documents.
Two nurses stood several feet behind her, clearly uncertain whether to intervene.
Rebecca looked past Daniel.
The moment she saw Claire, her entire body stiffened.
“You knew I’d find you eventually.”
Claire’s voice was weak.
“You need to leave.”
“No.”
“Rebecca—”
“I buried an empty coffin because of you.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“What?”
Rebecca looked at him.
“She told me my daughter was dead.”
Daniel turned toward Claire.
Claire began shaking her head.
“It wasn’t like that.”
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“You told me Lily died.”
“I thought it was safer.”
“For who?”
“For her!”
Rebecca stepped toward the room.
Daniel blocked her.
“Stop.”
She did.
He looked between the two women.
“Nobody moves until someone tells me what happened.”
Rebecca held out the folder.
“Then start with this.”
Daniel took it.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Child: Lily Rose Mercer.
Mother: Rebecca Mercer.
No father was listed.
The date of birth was eight years and eleven months ago.
The same birthday Emma had celebrated her entire life.
Daniel’s hands started trembling.
“No.”
He flipped to the next page.
Hospital records.
Then a photograph of a newborn wearing a tiny identification bracelet.
MERCER, BABY GIRL.
Then another document.
A death certificate.
Same baby.
Same hospital.
Cause of death listed as complications following respiratory failure.
Daniel stared at it.
“If there’s a death certificate…”
Rebecca answered quietly.
“Then somebody wanted me to believe my baby was dead.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
Claire was crying silently.
“Tell him,” Rebecca said.
Claire looked at Daniel.
“I worked at that hospital.”
Daniel knew that.
Before they married, Claire had been a neonatal nurse.
“I remember.”
“Rebecca’s daughter was born prematurely.”
Rebecca’s expression hardened.
“Lily spent eleven weeks in neonatal intensive care.”
Claire nodded.
“She was very sick.”
“But she survived.”
“Yes.”
Daniel felt as if the floor were moving beneath him.
“Then how did we end up with her?”
Claire covered her face.
“Because Rebecca disappeared.”
“I DID NOT DISAPPEAR!”
The scream echoed down the hallway.
A nurse stepped forward.
Daniel raised his hand.
“Please. Give us a minute.”
Rebecca was shaking.
“They wouldn’t let me see my daughter,” she said. “They told me she’d had an emergency.”
Claire looked away.
“Then a doctor came into my room and told me Lily was gone.”
Daniel stared at Claire.
“You were there?”
Claire nodded.
“You knew?”
“I knew what Rebecca had been told.”
“And you knew it wasn’t true?”
Claire’s silence answered him.
Daniel stepped backward.
“Oh my God.”
“Daniel, please—”
“What did you do?”
Claire’s voice cracked.
“I took her.”
Rebecca started crying.
There it was.
The confession.
Three words that shattered nine years of Daniel’s life.
I took her.
Daniel sat down because his legs wouldn’t hold him anymore.
“You kidnapped a baby?”
“No.”
Rebecca laughed through her tears.
“What would you call it?”
Claire looked desperately at Daniel.
“There was more happening.”
“Then tell me!”
Claire looked at Rebecca.
“You never told him?”
Rebecca’s face changed.
For the first time since entering the room, anger gave way to uncertainty.
“Told him what?”
Claire swallowed.
“Who Lily’s father was.”
Rebecca froze.
Daniel looked between them.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Neither woman answered.
“Who was Emma’s biological father?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled with tears.
“He was dangerous.”
Claire nodded.
“He’d threatened Rebecca throughout her pregnancy.”
Rebecca lowered her eyes.
“He said if I ever tried to leave him, he’d take Lily.”
Claire continued.
“Two days before Lily was supposed to be discharged, he came to the hospital.”
Daniel frowned.
“How?”
“He wasn’t supposed to know where Rebecca was.”
“But he found her?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Claire’s breathing became heavier.
“He tried to get into the neonatal unit.”
Rebecca whispered, “He said he’d kill both of us before he’d let me raise his daughter without him.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Did you call the police?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Rebecca’s eyes hardened again.
“He disappeared before they arrived.”
Claire continued.
“That night, somebody tampered with the security system.”
Daniel felt cold.
“The next morning, Rebecca was gone.”
Rebecca shook her head violently.
“No. I was taken.”
Claire stared at her.
“What?”
Rebecca looked genuinely confused.
“I didn’t leave that hospital willingly.”
For the first time, Claire looked frightened for a reason that had nothing to do with being exposed.
“What are you saying?”
“I woke up somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“I didn’t know.”
Rebecca’s voice trembled.
“I’d been drugged.”
Claire’s mouth fell open.
Rebecca continued.
“When I finally got back to the hospital two days later, they told me Lily had died.”
Claire stared at her.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You never came back.”
“I DID.”
“I was told you’d abandoned her!”
The room fell silent.
Daniel slowly stood.
“Wait.”
He looked at Claire.
“You thought Rebecca abandoned the baby?”
“Yes.”
“And Rebecca thought the baby was dead?”
Rebecca nodded.
Daniel looked at both women.
“Then somebody was lying to both of you.”
Neither answered.
Claire suddenly seemed to forget her illness.
She sat straighter.
“The hospital administrator told me Rebecca had signed paperwork relinquishing custody.”
Rebecca stared at her.
“I never signed anything.”
“I saw the documents.”
“They were forged.”
Claire shook her head.
“They had your signature.”
“I never signed them!”
Daniel opened the folder again.
“Where are those papers now?”
Claire looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
“Who gave them to you?”
Claire hesitated.
And Daniel saw it.
Recognition.
“Claire.”
Her face had changed.
“Who?”
Claire whispered a name.
“Dr. Warren.”
Rebecca dropped the stuffed rabbit.
It hit the floor.
Daniel looked at her.
“You know him?”
Rebecca’s lips parted, but no sound came out.
Then she whispered:
“That was the doctor who told me Lily was dead.”
Nobody moved.
Claire’s monitor continued its steady rhythm.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Daniel looked down at the documents.
Something was wrong.
Claire had taken a baby she believed had been abandoned.
Rebecca had been told that baby had died.
And one doctor connected both stories.
“Where is Dr. Warren now?” Daniel asked.
Rebecca looked at Claire.
Claire looked terrified.
“He retired years ago.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
Claire frowned.
“What?”
“I found him.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Daniel stared at her.
“And what did he tell you?”
Rebecca’s face crumpled.
“He told me Claire didn’t steal my daughter.”
Claire stopped breathing.
Rebecca wiped her tears.
“He said somebody paid him to make Lily disappear.”
Daniel felt a chill run through him.
“Who?”
Rebecca looked directly at him.
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
“Why not?”
“Because he was scared.”
“Of Lily’s father?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
Daniel frowned.
“Then who?”
Rebecca reached into her coat.
Claire panicked.
“Daniel!”
But Rebecca wasn’t holding a weapon.
She was holding another photograph.
She handed it to him.
Daniel looked down.
The photograph appeared to have been taken secretly outside the hospital nine years earlier.
Dr. Warren stood beside a black car.
Another man was handing him an envelope.
Daniel couldn’t see the man’s face.
But he could see the watch on his wrist.
A silver watch with a cracked black dial.
Daniel knew that watch.
He had seen it hundreds of times as a child.
His father still wore it.
Daniel’s hands went numb.
“No.”
Claire looked at the photograph.
Then at her husband.
“Daniel?”
Rebecca whispered:
“Do you recognize him?”
Daniel couldn’t answer.
Because at that exact moment, his phone vibrated.
A text message.
From his father.
I’m downstairs.
Then another message appeared.
Don’t believe Rebecca.
Daniel stared at the screen.
A third message arrived.
And this one made him look toward the hospital-room door.
Take Claire and leave before she tells you who Emma’s real father is.
Daniel slowly raised his eyes.
“Rebecca…”
She looked at him.
He could barely force the question out.
“Who is Emma’s biological father?”
Rebecca stared at him for several seconds.
Then tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Daniel…”
She swallowed.
“That’s the part Claire never knew.”
Claire sat frozen in the bed.
Rebecca looked from Claire to Daniel.
And finally said:
“Your father.”
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