Chapter 10: The Baby Bracelet
I watched the video three more times.
Each time, I hoped I had misunderstood.
Each time, the same thing appeared.
The hospital bracelet.
The tiny white band around a newborn’s wrist.
And the name written across it.
*Lily Lane.*
My hands started shaking.
“No…”
Daniel looked up from the chair beside the window.
“What is it?””
I turned the phone toward him.
His face changed as soon as he saw the screen.
“Who is Lily?””
I looked at him.
“I don’t know.””
But deep inside, something felt wrong.
Not unfamiliar.
Wrong.
Like a memory buried too far down was trying to reach the surface.
Detective Harris arrived twenty minutes later.
I handed him the phone without saying a word.
He watched the video.
Then he watched it again.
“Where did you get this?””
“Someone sent it.””
“Vanessa?””
“I don’t know.””
He looked at the screen.
“The hospital bracelet is real.””
My stomach dropped.
“What does that mean?””
“It means this footage was taken in a hospital.””
I stared at him.
“Obviously.””
“No,” he said quietly.
“I mean the hospital.””
He paused.
“The same hospital where you were born.””
The room went silent.
My mother covered her mouth.
“How do you know?””
Detective Harris pointed at the background of the video.
“There’s a logo on the wall.””
I looked closer.
A small symbol.
A blue circle.
I recognized it.
The hospital where I had been born.
The same place my daughter was now being monitored.
My heart began racing.
“Why would Vanessa have a video from my birth?””
Nobody answered.
Because the answer was terrifying.
Daniel stood.
“I’m going to find her.””
I looked at him.
“No.””
He stopped.
“I need to fix this.””
“You can’t fix everything.””
His face fell.
I looked back at Detective Harris.
“What is Vanessa trying to tell me?””
The detective looked thoughtful.
“Maybe she wants you to discover something.””
“Like what?””
He glanced at the video.
“Like who Lily Lane was.””
My mother suddenly stood.
“Wait.””
Everyone turned.
She looked pale.
“There was another baby.””
The room froze.
“What?””
My mother’s eyes filled with tears.
“When you were born…”
She looked at me.
“You weren’t the only child in that room.””
I felt like the air disappeared.
“What are you saying?””
She sat down slowly.
“There was a baby girl born the same night.””
My fingers tightened around the blanket.
“Lily?””
My mother nodded.
“I don’t know.””
“Mom.””
Her voice broke.
“I was told not to ask questions.””
“By who?””
She looked toward the door.
Then whispered:
“Your father.””
My heart sank.
My father.
The man I had never known.
The man connected to Victoria.
The man who apparently knew more about my life than I did.
Detective Harris asked:
“Mrs. Carter, what happened to the other baby?””
My mother looked at me.
“I don’t know.””
A silence followed.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
Everyone looked at him.
The screen showed a message.
From Vanessa.
He opened it.
One sentence.
*You finally found the bracelet.*
Daniel’s face went white.
Another message appeared.
*Now ask Sarah why she was chosen instead of Lily.*
I felt a cold wave pass through me.
Chosen?
Chosen for what?
The phone buzzed again.
A photo appeared.
It was Vanessa.
Standing outside the hospital.
Holding something.
A baby bracelet.
And beneath it was a message.
*Your mother lied to you.*
I looked at my mother.
She started crying.
Because she knew.
She knew there was something she had never told me.
Something about the night I was born.
May you like
Something about another baby.
And something about why Victoria Lane had spent my entire life searching for me.
