Chapter 5 - Three Days Old
Police took Nora upstairs in handcuffs.
I stayed in the tunnel with Lena.
She clung to my coat.
“Did she mean they took me when I was a baby?”
“I don’t know yet.”
That was the truth, and I hated how often I had to say it.
Mara joined us with a paramedic. The syringe contained a strong sedative. Enough to put an adult to sleep.
For a child Lena’s size, it could have stopped her breathing.
My anger became something cleaner than rage.
Purpose.
We moved everyone to the secure guest wing while detectives questioned Nora.
She refused to speak until they showed her the burner phone.
Then she asked for a lawyer.
But before her attorney arrived, she made one mistake.
She asked whether Daniel had been arrested yet.
The detective said, “Why would Daniel be arrested?”
Nora went silent.
That was enough to get a warrant moving.
Meanwhile, Mara dug through the private family report.
At 2:17 in the morning, she found a hospital transfer form.
Lena had been born at St. Vincent’s Medical Center under her biological mother’s real name: Rachel Monroe.
Three days later, the chart recorded an emergency transfer to a private neonatal facility.
The facility did not exist.
I stared at the form.
“Who signed the transfer?”
Mara turned the page.
Dr. Samuel Reeves.
And my mother.
There was also a notation beside my name.
FATHER UNAVAILABLE. NOT TO BE CONTACTED PER FAMILY COUNSEL.
I sat down.
I had been in London that week negotiating a merger.
My mother had insisted I stay there because Rachel had supposedly “left town and wanted no further contact.”
That was the story I had believed for ten years.
Mara said, “Rachel did leave town.”
“After giving birth?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She handed me a bank record.
Two million dollars had been transferred into Rachel’s account four days after Lena was born.
The sender was a Cole family holding company.
Lena saw the number.
“Did my mom sell me?”
Before I could answer, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman’s voice said, “No. I didn’t sell you.”
Lena went completely still.
The woman took a shaky breath.
May you like
“Ethan, it’s Rachel.”
