Chapter 3 - There Had Been Another Baby
Eleanor dropped into a chair.
Mark stared at the phone.
“What other baby?”
The caller laughed softly.
“You really don’t know.”
Rebecca moved closer.
“Who is this?”
Silence.
Then the man answered.
“Someone Eleanor buried before she buried the truth.”
Mark’s jaw tightened.
“Say your name.”
The line went dead.
Claire checked the caller ID.
Blocked.
Rebecca looked at Eleanor.
“What other baby?”
Eleanor stared at Ava.
Her face had lost all color.
Mark stepped toward her.
“Mom.”
Nothing.
“Mom.”
Eleanor’s shoulders collapsed.
“There was another child.”
Rebecca felt Ava move against her chest.
Mark whispered, “Mine?”
Eleanor nodded.
“A twin.”
Mark stepped backward.
Claire covered her mouth.
Rebecca looked between them.
“What happened?”
Eleanor’s voice broke.
“You were born six minutes apart.”
Mark stared.
“Boy or girl?”
“Boy.”
Mark sat down.
“What was his name?”
Eleanor cried.
“Michael.”
The name seemed to hit Mark physically.
Rebecca remembered something.
Mark had wanted to name their baby Michael if she had been a boy.
He had said he did not know why.
Only that the name had always felt familiar.
Rebecca’s stomach tightened.
“What happened to him?”
Eleanor wiped her face.
“I was told he died.”
“Told by whom?”
Eleanor looked toward the floor.
“Thomas.”
Mark’s adoptive father.
The man who raised him.
Thomas Vance had died five years earlier.
Mark’s hands curled.
“My father told you my twin died?”
“Yes.”
“And you believed him?”
“I was twenty-one. I had hemorrhaged after delivery. I woke up two days later.”
Rebecca’s anger shifted into something colder.
“What did you see?”
“One baby.”
“Mark?”
“Yes.”
“And Michael?”
“Gone.”
Claire sat down.
“Was there a death certificate?”
Eleanor stared at her.
“No.”
Mark’s face changed.
“No?”
“I asked. Thomas said the hospital handled everything.”
“What hospital?”
“St. Matthew’s.”
Claire immediately searched on her phone.
The hospital had closed twelve years earlier.
Mark looked at Rebecca.
“This is why the bracelet matters.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No. It explains the bracelet. It doesn’t explain why someone forged my signature.”
Eleanor flinched.
Rebecca held up the consent form.
“This gives you authority over Ava’s medical records and treatment decisions.”
Mark looked ashamed.
Rebecca turned to him.
“You signed this.”
He nodded.
“Why?”
“My mother said it was temporary.”
Eleanor snapped, “Because Ava may be at risk.”
“From what?”
Eleanor looked at the tracker.
“From whoever took Michael.”
Silence.
Rebecca stared.
“You think the person who took Mark’s twin twenty-four years ago is tracking my newborn?”
Eleanor nodded.
Claire looked unconvinced.
“Why now?”
Eleanor opened the folder.
Behind the forged consent forms was another document.
A genetic screening request.
Mark stared.
“You ordered DNA testing?”
“For Ava.”
Rebecca’s body tensed.
“You tested my baby without my consent?”
Eleanor looked at her.
“I tried to.”
“You tried?”
“The hospital refused because the authorization was incomplete.”
Mark looked at the forged signature.
Then at his mother.
“That’s why you made me sign.”
Eleanor’s eyes filled.
“I needed to know if Ava carried something.”
Rebecca’s voice dropped.
“What?”
Eleanor whispered, “A marker.”
Claire frowned.
“What marker?”
Eleanor looked at Mark.
“The same one both twins had.”
Mark stared.
“And why does that matter?”
Eleanor’s answer came slowly.
May you like
“Because the people who wanted Michael weren’t looking for a child.”
“They were looking for an heir.”
