Chapter 6 - Nora Had Delivered Two Daughters Nora remembered labor in
fragments.
Pain.
Bright lights.
A nurse telling her to breathe.
Victor arriving too late.
Then darkness after an emergency complication.
She woke twelve hours later.
A nurse placed Emily in her arms.
Nobody mentioned another baby.
Harris reviewed the surgical notes.
Several pages were missing.
Nora’s obstetrician had retired overseas.
The attending neonatal consultant was Malcolm Reeves.
Nora stared at the name.
“He was there.”
“Yes.”
Victor looked physically ill.
“Because of me.”
Nora turned.
“What?”
“Reeves knew you were family.”
“You think he targeted my delivery because I was related to you?”
Victor lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
Nora wanted to scream.
Instead, she asked the question that mattered.
“Where is my daughter?”
Nobody knew.
The transfer facility had closed five years earlier.
But the court record included a temporary name.
BABY BENNETT B.
And an identification number.
Harris traced it through archived insurance data.
The child had received treatment for six months.
Then the record changed.
A new name appeared.
Sophie Cole.
Nora froze.
Cole.
The same surname as Ethan.
Harris found a guardianship filing.
Melissa Cole had taken custody.
Nora stared.
“Ethan’s mother took my daughter?”
“According to this.”
Victor looked at Harris.
“Why?”
Harris kept searching.
Then he found a genetic note.
Sophie carried the Kane marker.
So did Ethan.
Reeves had kept both children under one guardian.
One was Adrian’s biological son.
One was Nora’s biological daughter.
Two branches of Victor’s family.
Two children with the same rare marker.
Nora felt sick.
“Research subjects.”
Harris nodded.
“That is what it looks like.”
Emily listened from the couch.
Nora had wanted her removed from the room.
Emily refused again.
This time Nora understood.
Secrets had already done enough damage.
She sat beside her.
“You have a sister.”
Emily’s eyes widened.
“Like a twin?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
Nora’s voice broke.
“I don’t know.”
Emily took her hand.
“We find her.”
Three words.
No drama.
No doubt.
Victor looked away to hide tears.
The search for Melissa Cole began.
Public records showed several addresses.
Then nothing after five years ago.
Sophie would now be seven.
The same age as Emily.
Nora studied the last school enrollment.
A private elementary school in Connecticut.
The emergency contact was not Melissa.
It was Adrian Kane.
Victor stopped breathing.
“My son?”
The address belonged to a small house outside Greenwich.
Security and investigators went first.
The house was empty.
But it had been occupied recently.
Two cereal bowls in the sink.
Children’s drawings on the refrigerator.
One showed two stick figures.
A tall man.
A little girl.
Above them:
DAD + SOPHIE.
Victor touched the paper.
Adrian had been raising Nora’s stolen daughter.
Nora’s emotions collided.
Relief.
Rage.
Confusion.
Then Emily noticed another drawing.
She pointed.
There were three figures this time.
DAD.
SOPHIE.
And UNCLE M.
Nora stared.
“Who is Uncle M?”
Victor knew.
“Malcolm.”
Reeves had not merely been hunting Adrian.
He had been close enough for Sophie to call him uncle.
May you like
And suddenly nobody knew whether Adrian had been hiding from Reeves—or
working with him.
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