Chapter 11: The Baby in the Next Hospital Room
Daniel drove straight to Rachel's office with the photograph on the passenger seat.
He didn't call Claire first.
He didn't call Marcus.
He wanted an explanation from someone who could separate fact from rumor, and Rachel was the only person he trusted to do that.
She studied the photograph beneath her desk lamp.
The hospital logo was visible in the corner, though the date had been partially obscured by a crease.
“Do you recognize this nurse?”” Daniel asked.
Rachel shook her head.
“No. But we can ask the hospital to preserve any relevant records through the appropriate legal process.””
“Does the photograph prove there were two babies?””
“No. It proves that someone photographed Claire with a nurse holding a newborn. We need more information before drawing conclusions.””
Daniel sat down heavily.
“Why would someone send this to me?””
“Possibly to frighten you. Possibly to direct your attention toward something real. We need to investigate both possibilities.””
Rachel placed the photograph in a protective sleeve.
“Do you know the date Lily was born?””
Daniel shook his head.
“Claire told me it was last spring, but she never gave me the exact date.””
Rachel checked the adoption records.
“April seventeenth.””
Daniel stared at the paper.
“That's the same week my mother told me Claire was recovering from a medical procedure.””
Rachel looked up.
“What procedure?””
“I don't know. Mom said Claire had been ill and needed privacy. I remember bringing groceries to her apartment, but she wouldn't let me come inside.””
“Was that before or after Lily's birth?””
Daniel calculated the dates.
“Before. Maybe two weeks before.””
Rachel made a note.
“Let's start with what we can verify.””
That afternoon, she contacted the hospital's legal department and requested information through the proper channels. Because the records involved multiple people and a child placed for adoption, access wasn't immediate.
Meanwhile, Daniel agreed to the supervised meeting with Lily, provided the adoptive parents still wanted to proceed.
Michael and Laura chose a family-services center with a child therapist present.
The meeting was scheduled for the following week.
For the first time, Daniel allowed himself to imagine what he would say to his daughter.
He practiced introducing himself in the mirror.
“Hi, Lily. I'm Daniel.””
He frowned.
Too formal.
“Hi, sweetheart. I'm your biological dad.””
Too much.
Eventually, he stopped rehearsing altogether.
“I don't want to scare her,” he told me over dinner.
“You won't if you let her set the pace.””
“What if she asks why I wasn't there?””
I put down my fork.
“Then you tell her the truth in words she can understand. You didn't know she existed. You didn't abandon her.””
Daniel nodded slowly.
“I need her to know that.””
On Wednesday morning, the hospital's legal department responded to Rachel's request.
There had been two births in adjacent rooms on April seventeenth.
One was Claire's.
The other belonged to a patient whose identity was protected by law.
That alone didn't establish a connection between the children.
But the hospital also confirmed that a newborn's identification bracelet had been reported missing during the shift.
The incident had been documented internally.
Daniel stared at Rachel.
“Are you saying the babies might have been switched?””
“I'm saying there was a reported missing bracelet. We don't know whether it was misplaced, removed, or connected to either child's records.””
“Could Lily have been given the wrong bracelet?””
“It's a possibility investigators can examine. But we cannot conclude that a mix-up occurred.””
Daniel stood.
“Then we need to find the other family.””
Rachel shook her head.
“We need to proceed through the hospital and the appropriate legal channels. We can't simply identify another family and approach them based on an anonymous photograph.””
Daniel sat back down.
For the first time, his hope had become tangled with fear.
What if Lily wasn't the baby Claire had given birth to?
What if the DNA test was correct, but the hospital records were wrong?
What if he had spent the past several days celebrating the possibility of a daughter who was connected to him in a way none of them understood?
Rachel arranged for the hospital to conduct a formal review of the records and for the relevant laboratory to verify the sample identification.
The next day, Marcus agreed to a recorded interview with the investigators handling the financial and adoption-related questions.
Daniel didn't attend.
He had decided that his relationship with Marcus was over, regardless of what the investigation revealed.
But Marcus requested one final conversation.
Daniel refused at first.
Then Marcus sent a message.
You deserve to know why I helped Claire. It wasn't only about the affair.
Daniel stared at the screen for a long time.
Finally, he agreed to meet Marcus at Rachel's office, with her present.
Marcus arrived looking exhausted. He wore no watch, and his hands shook as he placed a folder on the desk.
“I know you hate me,” he began.
Daniel didn't respond.
Marcus opened the folder.
“Claire told me she had discovered something about the fertility treatments. She said the clinic had made a mistake and that one of the embryos might have been genetically connected to someone else.””
Daniel frowned.
“What does that mean?””
“I don't know. She showed me a letter, but I never saw the original.””
“Why didn't you tell me?””
“Because Claire said she was afraid you'd blame her.””
Daniel leaned forward.
“You stole my money, Marcus. You lied to me. You helped her hide a child. Don't pretend you were trying to protect me.””
Marcus lowered his head.
“I wasn't protecting you. I was protecting myself.””
At least, Daniel thought, that was honest.
Marcus continued.
“After Lily was born, Claire told me the DNA test suggested you might be the father. I panicked. I thought if the adoption went through, the problem would disappear.””
“And the photographs?””
Marcus looked up sharply.
“What photographs?””
Daniel watched his face.
For once, Marcus seemed genuinely confused.
“I didn't send those,” he said.
“I swear.””
Rachel intervened.
“We'll record that statement and allow the investigators to assess it.””
Marcus nodded.
Then he pulled a second document from the folder.
“This is what Claire showed me from the clinic.””
Daniel examined it.
It was a patient consent form dated several months before the artificial pregnancy began.
The form referenced a frozen embryo transfer, but the patient identification number had been altered by hand.
Beneath it was a note stating that the clinic had been asked to review a possible discrepancy in the records.
Daniel looked at Rachel.
“Could this be connected to the hospital?””
“Possibly, but we need the clinic to authenticate the document.””
Marcus swallowed.
“There's something else.””
Daniel's expression hardened.
“What now?””
“Claire didn't come up with the fake pregnancy alone. Someone told her how to do it. Someone helped her obtain the belly, the clothing, and the medical paperwork.””
“Who?””
Marcus stared at the table.
“I don't know his full name. Claire called him Dr. Harris.””
Rachel's pen stopped moving.
“Did he work at the fertility clinic?””
“I think so.””
Daniel leaned forward.
“Why do you think that?””
“Because I saw his name on a clinic document. And because he told Claire something I didn't understand at the time.””
Marcus pulled a folded note from his pocket.
“He said that if anyone ever discovered what happened to the embryos, the clinic would have a much bigger problem than a fake pregnancy.””
Rachel took the note.
At the bottom was a telephone number and a name.
*Dr. Samuel Harris.*
She looked at Daniel.
“I'll verify his connection to the clinic and preserve the relevant records.””
Daniel's phone vibrated.
A message had arrived from the family-services center.
The supervised meeting with Lily had been postponed.
The adoptive parents had requested more time after receiving new information about the hospital incident.
Daniel read the message twice.
Then he looked at the photograph of Claire holding the newborn.
“Every time I get closer to my daughter,” he whispered, “someone moves the truth farther away.””
Rachel placed the documents in her folder.
“Then we find out why.””
And the following morning, the fertility clinic's director called her personally.
He had reviewed the patient identification number.
He said the number did not belong to Claire.
It belonged to another patient.
May you like
A woman whose name Daniel recognized immediately.
His former fiancée.
