Chapter 5 - Emily Held Adrian’s Missing Key Nobody moved toward Emily.
Nora made sure of that.
“Sweetheart, put it on the table.”
Emily did.
Victor stared at the brass disk.
“I’ve never seen that before.”
Harris leaned closer.
“It’s not electronic.”
Victor frowned.
“Then how is it a key?”
Harris noticed a pattern of microscopic holes.
“Optical encoding.”
Project Lantern had used physical encryption tokens before secure cloud
storage became common.
The disk likely paired with a reader.
Nora looked at Emily.
“How did you find it?”
“It fell into the corner.”
“When?”
“When the case opened.”
Victor shook his head.
“I didn’t see it.”
Emily shrugged.
“You were yelling.”
Victor looked ashamed.
“I’m sorry.”
Emily accepted the apology with a seriousness that made Nora’s heart
ache.
Harris photographed the disk but did not touch it.
Then Victor’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He put it on speaker.
Malcolm Reeves spoke.
“Emily is very observant.”
Nora’s blood ran cold.
Victor’s face hardened.
“You were watching.”
“Listening.”
Everyone looked at the recording module.
Reeves laughed softly.
“Thank the child for finding what you failed to find for eight years.”
Victor’s voice became ice.
“Where is Adrian?”
Silence.
Then Reeves answered.
“Alive the last time I saw him.”
Victor gripped the table.
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
Nora immediately thought of Ethan Cole.
The dead newborn.
“Was Adrian at St. Catherine’s?”
Reeves paused.
Harris looked at Nora.
That pause was an answer.
Victor demanded, “Was Ethan his son?”
Reeves laughed.
“You’re finally asking useful questions.”
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
Victor closed his eyes.
Nora saw grief move through him.
A grandson had existed.
A grandson had died.
And Victor had never known.
Reeves continued.
“Adrian discovered what Lantern had become. He tried to expose us.”
“Us?”
Reeves ignored the question.
“He copied the research archive and separated the access credentials.”
Harris looked at the disk.
“One piece.”
Reeves heard him.
“Correct, Doctor.”
Harris went still.
Reeves knew he was there.
“Where’s the other piece?” Victor asked.
Reeves answered.
“With the child.”
Nora pulled Emily closer.
“No.”
Reeves laughed.
“Not that child.”
Silence.
Victor frowned.
“Ethan?”
“He was never the only baby involved.”
The call ended.
Nora stared at the phone.
Harris immediately searched the old hospital records.
Ethan Cole’s mother had been listed as Melissa Cole.
Address incomplete.
No father named.
Melissa disappeared from the record after Ethan’s death.
Harris found one more newborn admitted that night.
A girl.
No name.
Transferred within hours.
The file was restricted.
Nora leaned over his shoulder.
“Why?”
“Court order.”
“Can you open it?”
“Not legally.”
Victor nodded.
“Then we do it legally.”
For once, nobody argued.
An attorney began the emergency request.
Hours later, investigators obtained the archived transfer record.
The baby girl had been moved to a private pediatric facility.
Her mother’s name was not Melissa Cole.
It was Nora Bennett.
Nora stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
Emily looked up at her mother.
Nora could barely breathe.
Seven years earlier, she had delivered one baby.
Emily.
At least that was what she had been told.
The file said otherwise.
TWIN DELIVERY.
INFANT A: FEMALE.
INFANT B: FEMALE.
Nora grabbed the table.
Victor stood.
Harris whispered, “Nora…”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Emily stared at her.
“Mommy?”
Nora looked at her daughter.
Then back at the record.
Emily had been born with a twin sister.
May you like
And somebody had removed that child from the hospital before Nora ever
knew she existed.
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