Chapter 7
I stared at Rebecca.
“No.”
She held the envelope toward me.
“I kept it.”
My hands wouldn’t move.
Officer Bennett took it instead.
The postmark was three weeks old.
The handwriting on the front looked like Emily’s.
I knew that handwriting.
Birthday cards.
Christmas tags.
Notes left on my refrigerator.
But Emily had been dead for five years.
“This is impossible.”
Rebecca wiped her tears.
“I thought it was some cruel joke.”
“Who mailed it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said Emily.”
“The return name said Emily Bennett.”
My maiden name.
My sister’s name.
Daniel stared at the envelope.
“Maybe someone used her name.”
Rebecca nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Then why did you get a DNA test?”
She looked through Jenna’s window at Lily.
“Because there was a photograph inside.”
My throat tightened.
“Of Lily?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Taken at a playground.”
My stomach dropped.
Someone had been watching my daughter.
Rebecca continued.
“There was also a strand of hair sealed in a plastic bag.”
Officer Bennett immediately said, “You submitted that?”
“Yes.”
“To where?”
She named a private DNA laboratory.
“And it matched you?”
“Parent-child probability above 99.9 percent.”
I looked at Lily through the glass.
She had no idea her entire life was being discussed on the sidewalk.
“No.”
My voice broke.
“Sarah.”
Daniel moved toward me.
I stepped away.
“Don’t.”
Rebecca looked at me with pain.
“I’m not here to take her.”
I stared at her.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because the letter told me to come today.”
Everyone went silent.
“What?”
She reached into her coat pocket.
Another piece of paper.
Officer Bennett opened it.
He read aloud.
“September third. Four thirty p.m. Go to Sarah Carter’s home. The truth will finally be there.”
He looked at his watch.
4:39.
My skin crawled.
“This was planned.”
Daniel looked around the street.
“Someone knew Sarah would come home early.”
I turned to him.
“Did anyone know?”
He shook his head.
“Not me.”
“My flight changed this morning.”
“Who knew?”
“My assistant. The airline. Jenna because I texted her from the airport.”
Jenna opened the door.
“I told nobody.”
Officer Bennett scanned the street.
“Everyone inside.”
We moved into Jenna’s house.
Lily ran to me.
“Mommy!”
I picked her up.
Rebecca stopped breathing.
Tears filled her eyes.
She took one unconscious step forward.
Lily immediately clung tighter to me.
“Who’s that?”
I swallowed.
“This is Rebecca.”
Rebecca covered her mouth.
“Hi, Lily.”
Lily buried her face in my neck.
Rebecca’s shoulders shook.
I understood her pain.
And I hated it.
Because her pain threatened to rip my child from me.
Then I remembered Anna.
Somewhere else, another woman might be raising the child I gave birth to.
Pain did not belong to only one of us.
Officer Bennett asked Jenna to take Lily upstairs.
This time Lily resisted.
“I want Mommy.”
“I’m staying.”
I sat with her on the couch.
“Can you watch a movie with Miss Jenna upstairs?”
“Grandma won’t come?”
“No.”
Rebecca whispered, “Did Margaret hurt her?”
I looked at her.
“How do you know Margaret?”
Her face hardened.
“Because she visited me after my daughter supposedly died.”
Everything stopped.
“When?”
“At the hospital.”
Elaine spoke from the doorway.
She had arrived with the second officer.
Rebecca saw her.
Her face transformed.
“You.”
Elaine burst into tears.
“Rebecca.”
“You told me she was dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
Rebecca lunged.
Officer Bennett caught her.
“You told me my baby stopped breathing!”
“I’m sorry!”
“You let me bury an empty casket!”
I covered Lily’s ears.
“Upstairs. Now.”
Jenna carried her away.
Rebecca collapsed onto the couch, sobbing.
“I bought a tiny white dress.”
Elaine cried too.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
“You’re right.”
Rebecca looked at Margaret.
“And you.”
Margaret stared back.
“I did not take your child.”
“You came to my room.”
“I was checking whether you knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That your baby was alive.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“You knew?”
Margaret shook her head.
“I suspected.”
“Then why didn’t you tell her?”
“Because Richard threatened me.”
Rebecca laughed through tears.
“There it is again. Richard. The dead man who apparently made everyone evil.”
Margaret flinched.
Officer Bennett’s partner entered.
“Detectives are on the way.”
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone looked at it.
I answered on speaker.
“Hello?”
Static.
Then a voice.
Distorted.
Electronic.
“Sarah.”
My body went cold.
“Who is this?”
“You opened the door too soon.”
“What?”
“Your father told you not to.”
Daniel looked at me.
Officer Bennett motioned for silence.
I whispered, “Who are you?”
“You want Anna?”
My heart stopped.
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“With Melissa?”
A pause.
Then laughter.
“Melissa hasn’t had Anna for six months.”
Officer Bennett began typing quickly on his phone.
I stood.
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing.”
“Where is my daughter?”
Daniel grabbed my arm.
I pulled away.
The voice continued.
“Which daughter?”
I felt sick.
“Don’t play games.”
“You have one in your arms and one in your blood. Which one do you mean?”
Rebecca started crying again.
Officer Bennett gestured for me to keep talking.
“What do you want?”
“The blue folder.”
I looked at Daniel.
His face went white.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas stole what belonged to us.”
“Who is us?”
Static.
Then:
“Ask your husband what he found inside.”
I stared at Daniel.
The call ended.
“Daniel.”
He looked trapped.
“What was in the folder?”
“Hospital records.”
“What else?”
He said nothing.
“Daniel.”
“There was a list.”
“What list?”
“Names.”
“How many?”
“Seventeen.”
Officer Bennett looked up.
“Names of people?”
“Children.”
Elaine sat down heavily.
“Oh God.”
I turned.
“What?”
She covered her face.
“What?”
Elaine looked up.
“Richard wasn’t paying me for one baby.”
Nobody spoke.
My skin prickled.
“What are you saying?”
“He had been investigating the fertility clinic for years.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why?”
“Because he believed babies had been intentionally reassigned.”
“Reassigned?”
“Embryos. Newborns. Records.”
I stared at her.
“You mean switched.”
“Yes.”
“Seventeen children?”
“I don’t know.”
Margaret suddenly whispered, “Twenty-three.”
Everyone turned.
Daniel looked horrified.
“How do you know?”
She closed her eyes.
“Richard kept a ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“He called it the family book.”
“Family?”
Margaret looked at me.
“This was never about random babies.”
I felt cold.
“Then what was it about?”
“Money.”
Officer Bennett leaned forward.
“Explain.”
Margaret took a breath.
“Richard and two investors funded a private fertility program through shell companies.”
Daniel stared.
“My father owned part of the clinic?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t I know?”
“Because the program became illegal.”
“What were they doing?”
Margaret’s eyes dropped.
“Selecting families.”
I didn’t understand.
“For what?”
“Children.”
Rebecca stared at her.
“You sold babies?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Margaret whispered, “They matched wealthy couples who couldn’t have biological children with pregnancies created from other embryos.”
My stomach turned.
“Without the women knowing?”
“Sometimes.”
Elaine sobbed.
“Richard said everyone would get what they wanted.”
Rebecca stood.
“I wanted my daughter.”
Margaret looked away.
“And Sarah wanted hers.”
I felt like screaming.
“I wanted the child I carried.”
“Yes.”
“And somebody decided I shouldn’t have her?”
Margaret said nothing.
Daniel looked physically ill.
“My father was trafficking children.”
Officer Bennett’s partner stopped writing.
Margaret whispered, “He called it correcting mistakes.”
“I call it kidnapping.”
Rebecca stepped toward Elaine.
“Where was Lily supposed to go?”
Elaine looked at Margaret.
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Tell them.”
Elaine whispered, “A couple in Boston.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Richard had arranged for Rebecca’s biological child to be declared dead and transferred.”
Rebecca sobbed.
“Why did she end up with Sarah?”
Elaine wiped her face.
“Because I changed the plan.”
“You saved her?”
“I tried.”
“Why Sarah?”
“Because Sarah’s baby had disappeared.”
The room went silent again.
I whispered, “Who took her?”
Elaine shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Margaret whispered, “I do.”
I turned.
“What?”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“You said you didn’t.”
“I said I didn’t take her.”
“Then who did?”
Margaret looked at me.
“Emily.”
I stopped breathing.
“No.”
“Your sister took the baby.”
“No.”
“She discovered what Richard was planning.”
“No.”
“She took your biological daughter out of the hospital before the transfer could happen.”
“Then why didn’t she give her to me?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because she believed you were part of it.”
My heart shattered.
“What?”
“Richard convinced Emily that you had agreed to take Rebecca’s baby because Daniel couldn’t have children.”
“That’s insane.”
“Yes.”
“But Emily believed him?”
“For a while.”
I thought of my sister.
Her distance after Lily was born.
Her strange sadness.
Her refusal to hold Lily for more than a minute.
I had thought she was grieving a breakup.
Was she looking at Lily and believing I had stolen her?
“Where did Emily take my baby?”
Margaret whispered, “To Rachel.”
I covered my mouth.
Anna.
“Then Anna is mine.”
“Yes.”
I almost collapsed.
Daniel caught me this time.
I let him.
Only because my legs failed.
Then Officer Bennett’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His face changed.
“What?”
He ended the call.
“Melissa Ward has been found.”
I stood.
“Where?”
“In a hospital in Oregon.”
“Oregon?”
“She was admitted six months ago after an assault.”
My blood ran cold.
“And Anna?”
“Missing since the same night.”
Rebecca whispered, “Oh my God.”
Officer Bennett continued.
“Melissa regained consciousness last week.”
“What did she say?”
He looked directly at me.
“That the person who took Anna claimed to be the girl’s grandmother.”
Every eye turned toward Margaret.
She went white.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“It wasn’t me.”
