Chapter 5
“Take your hand off her.”
Patricia stared at me.
I had never hated anyone the way I hated her in that moment.
Not because of the switch.
Not yet.
Because Lily was afraid.
Patricia slowly removed her hand.
“I came to explain.”
Detective Reyes stepped forward.
“How did you enter?”
Patricia looked at him.
“Excuse me?”
“This is an active investigation. How did you enter this residence?”
“I have a key.”
Daniel stared at her.
“No, you don’t.”
“I made a copy years ago.”
My skin crawled.
“Get out.”
“Emily, listen to me.”
“Get out!”
Lily ran down the stairs and threw herself into my arms.
Patricia looked around the room.
Then she saw Rachel.
And Sophie.
For one second her expression collapsed.
She stared at Sophie with something almost like grief.
“You really do look like Daniel.”
Sophie hid behind Rachel.
I stepped between Patricia and the children.
“You don’t get to look at her.”
Patricia’s eyes filled.
“Emily—”
“You don’t get to say my name.”
Detective Reyes raised a hand.
“Mrs. Carter, I need you to remain here.”
Patricia stiffened.
“Am I under arrest?”
“Not at this moment.”
“Then I’m leaving.”
“If you leave, I’ll request officers detain you while we clarify several issues.”
She turned toward Daniel.
“Are you allowing this?”
Daniel laughed.
It was a hollow, horrible sound.
“Allowing?”
“Daniel, I did what I did because I loved you.”
Every person in the room froze.
Detective Reyes immediately said, “Mrs. Carter, before you say anything further—”
But Daniel interrupted.
“What did you just say?”
Patricia realized her mistake.
“I meant—”
“You did what you did?”
Silence.
Daniel stepped toward his mother.
“You switched our daughter.”
Patricia’s face twisted.
“You don’t understand what happened.”
“Then explain it.”
“You were thirty-two years old. Your company was barely surviving. Emily had nearly died giving birth. Then the doctors were whispering about surgeries and specialists and years of treatment.”
I felt as though she had punched me.
“So you stole my baby?”
“I saved your family.”
Rachel made a sound that was almost a sob.
“You stole mine too.”
Patricia looked at her.
“I never meant to hurt you.”
Rachel crossed the room.
Detective Reyes moved between them.
Rachel pointed around him.
“My husband worked two jobs when Sophie was sick!”
Patricia flinched.
“We spent nights sleeping in hospital chairs. We sold our house to pay bills. Mark died thinking Sophie was his daughter, and he loved her more than his own life.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
Rachel’s voice cracked.
“You gave me a sick child because you thought my family mattered less.”
Patricia looked away.
Rachel started crying.
“And you took my healthy baby.”
Lily buried her face against me.
I covered her ears.
This conversation should never have happened in front of either child.
“Megan,” I said.
My sister understood immediately.
She took Lily upstairs.
Rachel sent Sophie with them.
When the girls were gone, I turned back to Patricia.
“Now talk.”
She sat down.
Suddenly she looked older than her sixty-four years.
“I heard one of the nurses speaking to a doctor.”
“The letter says that.”
“The doctor said your baby might need immediate surgery.”
“So?”
“Daniel was overwhelmed.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You never told me.”
“Because I knew how you would react.”
“How?”
“You would have sacrificed everything.”
He looked disgusted.
“She was my daughter.”
“Exactly.”
Patricia reached for him.
He stepped back.
“I knew you would destroy yourself trying to save her.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“That would have been my choice.”
“You were my son.”
“And Sophie was my daughter!”
Patricia recoiled at the sound of Sophie’s name.
He continued.
“You decided she was disposable.”
“No.”
“You gave her away.”
“I gave her to good people.”
“You didn’t even know them!”
“I researched them.”
Rachel stared.
“What?”
Patricia pressed her lips together.
I whispered, “You researched Rachel before switching the babies?”
She looked at me.
“There were basic records.”
Rachel’s face turned white.
“You chose us.”
Patricia said nothing.
“You chose my family because we had good insurance.”
Patricia looked down.
Rachel’s knees buckled.
I caught her before she hit the floor.
“Oh my God.”
Rachel pushed away from me and paced.
“You didn’t randomly switch two babies.”
Patricia remained silent.
“You selected mine.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“Because Mark worked for the city.”
Patricia’s eyes closed.
Rachel understood.
“Government health insurance.”
Patricia began crying.
“I thought the baby would be cared for.”
“And you thought your son wouldn’t have to pay.”
“I was trying to protect him.”
Daniel walked toward the front door.
He opened it.
“Get out.”
Detective Reyes stopped Patricia before she moved.
“Not yet.”
Patricia looked at him.
He continued.
“You admitted involvement in intentionally switching two newborns.”
Her expression changed.
“I want a lawyer.”
“That is your right.”
She finally understood what she had done.
This wasn’t a family argument anymore.
This wasn’t something money or guilt could smooth over.
It was a confession.
Detective Reyes called for another unit.
Patricia stopped speaking.
Thirty minutes later, police escorted her outside.
Neighbors watched from their windows.
Daniel stood behind the curtain, staring at the woman who raised him being placed in the back of a police car.
I should have felt satisfaction.
I didn’t.
All I felt was emptiness.
Then my phone rang.
St. Matthew’s Medical Center.
A hospital attorney wanted to speak to me.
I almost hung up.
Then she said, “Mrs. Carter, there is another issue you need to know about.”
“What issue?”
“We began reviewing archived neonatal records this morning.”
I closed my eyes.
“And?”
“There were three female infants in that nursery section that night.”
I stopped breathing.
“What are you saying?”
The attorney hesitated.
“We cannot currently prove the switch involved only two babies.”
Daniel turned toward me.
Rachel grabbed the counter.
I put the phone on speaker.
The attorney continued.
“One set of records was altered more extensively than the others.”
My mouth went dry.
“Whose records?”
A pause.
Then she said a name.
“Baby Harper.”
Rachel shook her head.
“Who is that?”
The attorney answered.
“Olivia Harper. Born fourteen minutes before Lily and Sophie.”
I stared toward the ceiling, where the girls were upstairs.
“Where is she now?”
Another pause.
“That is what we are trying to determine.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“What does that mean?”
“It means the Harper family left Texas seven years ago.”
“Find them.”
“We are trying.”
“No,” Daniel said. “Find them now.”
The attorney lowered her voice.
“There’s something else.”
I wanted to scream.
There was always something else.
“What?”
“The infant listed as Olivia Harper was recorded as having died when she was nine months old.”
Nobody moved.
Rachel whispered, “Then why are you looking for the family?”
May you like
The attorney’s next words made every hair on my arms rise.
“Because the child who died may not have been Olivia Harper.”
