Chapter 4 - CODE PINK
Doors locked throughout the maternity floor.
Alarms sounded.
Nurses moved with terrifying speed.
Detective Bennett ordered Luke secured.
I held June against me.
“Is someone taking another baby?”
Camille checked my door.
“Stay inside.”
“What about Eli?”
“He’s with the child advocate.”
“I want him here.”
“I’ll bring him.”
She left.
Luke stood between two officers.
He looked terrified.
“This is Rebecca.”
Bennett turned toward him.
“How do you know?”
“Because she said there would be two.”
Silence.
My heart seemed to stop.
“Two what?”
Luke looked at me.
“Babies.”
I wanted to get out of bed and hit him.
My body wouldn’t let me.
Bennett stepped close to him.
“Explain.”
“Rebecca told me two infants had been selected.”
“Selected for what?”
“She never said.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I thought they were going to fake records for private placements.”
Bennett’s voice turned icy.
“You helped tamper with newborn identification bands.”
“I know.”
“No.”
She leaned closer.
“You know you got caught.”
An officer’s radio crackled.
“Possible suspect in east stairwell.”
Bennett ran.
Camille returned with Eli.
He rushed to me.
“Mom!”
I held him carefully.
“You’re okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Did anybody touch you?”
“No.”
Camille locked the door again.
Minutes later, shouting erupted outside.
Then silence.
Bennett returned with another officer.
They had caught a woman wearing hospital scrubs.
It wasn’t Rebecca.
It was a stranger carrying forged credentials.
She had been attempting to enter the newborn nursery.
“What does this have to do with June?”
Bennett looked at Luke.
“That depends on whether he finally tells us the truth.”
Luke lowered his head.
“There’s a list.”
“What list?”
“Pregnant women.”
My skin crawled.
“How many?”
“I saw twelve names.”
Bennett asked, “Was Claire on it?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect her to believe that?”
“I swear.”
Bennett ordered Luke removed.
As he reached the door, Eli spoke.
“Dad.”
Luke stopped.
Eli’s face was different now.
Older somehow.
“Were you going to bring June back?”
Luke couldn’t answer.
Eli’s eyes filled.
“That’s what I thought.”
Luke was taken away.
That night, June slept in a bassinet positioned against my bed.
Camille personally checked every nurse who entered.
I couldn’t sleep.
At 1:08 a.m., Bennett returned.
She carried a folder.
“We identified the second suspect.”
“Who is she?”
“Her name is Dana Mercer.”
“Does she know Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“They worked together at another hospital six years ago.”
My stomach tightened.
“Were babies taken there?”
Bennett paused.
“Three infant identification incidents were reported.”
“And?”
“All were classified as clerical errors.”
I stared at her.
“They weren’t errors.”
“We’re reopening them.”
She handed me a sheet.
It contained twelve names.
The list Luke had described.
Mine was number eleven.
Hannah Cole was number twelve.
But something beside my name caught my attention.
A handwritten notation.
C.M. — PRIOR CONNECTION.
“What does that mean?”
“We don’t know.”
I kept staring.
Prior connection.
“I’ve never met Rebecca.”
“Maybe it isn’t Rebecca.”
“Then who?”
Bennett opened another folder.
Inside was a photograph of a man.
Gray hair.
Thin glasses.
Expensive suit.
My body went cold.
I knew him.
“That’s Dr. Adrian Keller.”
Bennett watched my reaction.
“You recognize him.”
“He delivered Eli.”
Ten years earlier.
Before we moved.
Before Luke changed jobs.
Before any of this.
Dr. Keller had delivered my son.
Bennett slowly closed the folder.
“And six years ago, he worked at the hospital where Rebecca Vale and Dana Mercer had their first identification incident.”
I looked down at Eli.
He was asleep beside me.
Then I understood why Bennett was staring at him.
“No.”
She said nothing.
“Don’t.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
May you like
But she had to ask.
“Are you certain Eli is biologically your son?”
