Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THERE
The room changed after Dr. Hale said Rebecca Vale’s name.
Until that moment, part of me had still wanted to believe Luke had done something reckless and stupid.
Something awful, but explainable.
The access card destroyed that hope.
“How does my husband have a fired nurse’s badge?”
Dr. Hale didn’t answer immediately.
Luke did.
“I found it.”
Eli looked at him.
“No, you didn’t.”
Luke’s jaw tightened.
Eli moved closer to me.
“You were talking to a woman.”
My skin went cold.
“What woman?”
“In the hallway.”
Luke stared at our son.
“Stop.”
Eli flinched.
I pulled him against me with one arm while keeping June close with the other.
“You don’t tell him to stop.”
Dr. Hale stepped forward.
“Eli, what did the woman look like?”
“She had blond hair.”
Camille exchanged a look with Dr. Hale.
“Rebecca is blond.”
Eli nodded quickly.
“She was wearing blue scrubs.”
Dr. Hale’s voice became quieter.
“Did you hear what they said?”
Eli thought.
“Dad said, ‘This wasn’t the deal.’”
Luke shut his eyes.
I felt something inside me break.
“What deal?”
“Claire.”
“What deal, Luke?”
He looked at June.
Then at Eli.
Then at the security officers.
“I need a lawyer.”
That was the moment my marriage ended.
Not when he switched the babies.
Not when he shoved Eli.
Not even when I learned he had been secretly meeting a former nurse.
It ended when our newborn daughter was lying against my chest and my husband decided protecting himself mattered more than telling me why she had been taken.
Dr. Hale ordered the entire maternity unit placed under restricted access.
Security began reviewing camera footage.
Police were called.
Luke was moved to a consultation room under guard.
Before they took him away, he looked at me.
“Claire, don’t believe everything they tell you.”
I stared at him.
“My ten-year-old son caught you carrying our newborn through a hospital hallway.”
His mouth opened.
I pointed toward the door.
“Go.”
He left.
Eli climbed carefully onto the edge of my bed.
“Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you mad at me?”
The question almost destroyed me.
I touched his face.
“Why would I be mad at you?”
“Dad said I ruin everything.”
My throat tightened.
“When?”
“This morning.”
I looked toward the closed door.
“What exactly did he say?”
Eli hesitated.
“He caught me following him.”
“What happened?”
“He told me to go back to bed.”
“And?”
“I said I was going to tell you.”
Eli looked down.
“He said if I did, you’d get sick because you just had surgery.”
I closed my eyes.
Luke had used my C-section to frighten our son into silence.
Camille pulled a chair closer.
“Eli, you did exactly the right thing.”
He nodded, but he didn’t look convinced.
A police detective arrived twenty minutes later.
Detective Mara Bennett was in her forties, with tired eyes and a voice that never seemed to rise.
She interviewed Eli with a child advocate present.
Then she spoke to me.
“Mrs. Marshall, has your husband ever discussed Nurse Rebecca Vale?”
“No.”
“Has he ever mentioned infant identification systems?”
“No.”
“Financial problems?”
That question caught me.
“What does money have to do with this?”
“We don’t know yet.”
I thought about Luke’s behavior during the last six months.
Late nights.
Phone calls outside.
A sudden insistence that we increase June’s life insurance after she was born.
No.
That wasn’t right.
The policy paperwork had arrived before June was born.
I looked at Bennett.
“He bought insurance.”
Her pen stopped.
“For June?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
Luke handled our finances.
Bennett’s expression gave nothing away.
“Did you sign anything?”
“A stack of papers.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
She wrote something down.
Then Dr. Hale entered.
“We found the camera footage.”
Everyone went silent.
“Can we see it?”
Dr. Hale looked at Detective Bennett.
The detective nodded.
A laptop was placed on the table.
The video began at 4:17 a.m.
There was Luke.
Pushing June’s bassinet down the hallway.
My hands started shaking.
At 4:19, a woman in blue scrubs stepped from a service corridor.
Rebecca Vale.
Luke handed her June.
I stopped breathing.
Rebecca placed June in another bassinet.
Then she pushed Hannah’s baby toward Luke.
Luke took Olivia.
The footage had no sound.
But their argument was obvious.
Luke pointed at June.
Rebecca shook her head.
Luke grabbed her arm.
She pulled away.
Then something happened that made Detective Bennett lean toward the screen.
Rebecca took an envelope from her pocket.
She shoved it against Luke’s chest.
He opened it.
Whatever was inside made him furious.
The video ended when they moved beyond the camera’s range.
“What was in that envelope?”
Nobody knew.
Then Bennett’s phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
“Where?”
She stood.
“We found Rebecca Vale’s car.”
Luke’s stolen access card wasn’t the only thing inside.
There was an envelope on the passenger seat.
And inside that envelope was a photograph of me holding June.
May you like
Across my face, someone had written three words in black ink.
SHE KNOWS NOTHING.
