Chapter 3 - Harris Knew the Dead Child Nora took the photograph from
Victor.
The newborn was wrapped in a pale yellow blanket.
A hospital card beside the bassinet showed a date.
Seven years earlier.
Emily’s birth week.
Nora looked at Harris.
“Who is this baby?”
Harris sat down.
Victor’s voice sharpened.
“Answer her.”
The doctor rubbed his forehead.
“His name was Ethan Cole.”
Nora frowned.
“Who?”
“A newborn admitted to St. Catherine’s the same night Emily was born.”
Nora stared at the photograph.
“I delivered at St. Catherine’s.”
“I know.”
“What happened to him?”
Harris looked at Emily, then at Nora.
“He died.”
Emily lowered her eyes.
Nora immediately wished the child were not hearing this.
She asked the security guard to take Emily into the adjoining sitting
room.
Emily refused.
“I found it.”
Nora crouched.
“I know, sweetheart.”
“Then I want to know.”
Victor surprised everyone.
“So do I.”
Nora looked at him.
He softened.
“But your mother decides what you hear.”
Emily reluctantly went with the guard after Nora promised not to hide
anything important from her.
The moment the door closed, Nora turned back.
“Start from the beginning.”
Harris did.
Seven years earlier, St. Catherine’s experienced a temporary computer
outage during a storm.
Several newborn samples were processed manually.
Emily Bennett and Ethan Cole were among them.
Harris was a young attending physician.
He was not Nora’s obstetrician, but he was called into the neonatal unit
after Ethan suddenly deteriorated.
“What did he die from?”
“That was the problem.”
Harris looked at the photograph.
“The symptoms suggested a rare metabolic disorder. But the genetic
sample didn’t match the diagnosis.”
Victor frowned.
“What does that have to do with Emily?”
Harris hesitated.
“Because one sample was mislabeled.”
Nora’s pulse quickened.
“Whose?”
“We thought Ethan’s.”
“You thought?”
Harris nodded.
“The laboratory repeated the analysis. The second result was different.”
Victor stared.
“And?”
“The first sample was female.”
Nora went still.
Harris continued.
“Someone had accidentally processed a sample from a baby girl under
Ethan’s name.”
Nora whispered, “Emily.”
“I didn’t know that then.”
“When did you know?”
“Three months ago.”
The room changed.
Victor stepped closer.
“Three months?”
Harris nodded.
“I was asked to review archived neonatal records for a hospital audit.”
“And you discovered the sample belonged to Emily?”
“Yes.”
Nora’s anger rose.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because there was more.”
Of course there was.
Harris explained that the archived sample did not merely share Emily’s
sex and blood type.
A modern DNA comparison tied it to the Bennett family.
Nora stared.
“You tested my daughter’s DNA without permission?”
“No. The hospital ran a legally authorized audit on anonymized samples.
The identity appeared after old records were reconciled.”
Victor looked at the vials in the case.
“Then why is someone collecting new samples now?”
Harris shook his head.
“I didn’t authorize that.”
Nora looked at him.
“What was different about the old sample?”
Harris’s voice dropped.
“It carried a marker connected to the Kane family.”
Victor stopped.
Nora frowned.
“My daughter is related to Victor. That isn’t a secret.”
Harris looked at her.
“Not that kind of marker.”
He explained that Victor had participated years earlier in a hereditary
cardiac study.
His family carried a rare genetic variant.
Emily’s archived sample showed the same variant.
Expected.
But Ethan Cole’s second sample showed it too.
Nora stared.
“The dead baby?”
“Yes.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“That means what?”
Harris looked directly at him.
“It means Ethan Cole was biologically related to you.”
Victor took a step backward.
“That’s impossible.”
Harris continued.
“The probability of an unrelated match is extremely low.”
Nora stared at Victor.
Victor had no children.
At least, that was what he had always said.
Then Harris added the detail he had been afraid to say.
“The relationship estimate was not distant.”
Victor’s voice became almost inaudible.
“How close?”
“Close enough that Ethan could have been your grandson.”
Silence.
Victor’s hand found the back of the gold chair.
Nora watched his face.
For the first time in her life, Victor Kane looked old.
Then he whispered one name.
“Adrian.”
Nora froze.
Adrian Kane.
Victor’s only son.
May you like
The man Nora had been told died before Emily was born.
And suddenly the photograph was no longer about a stranger’s baby.
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