Chapter 1 - THE BABY IN THE DARK
The maternity wing disappeared into complete darkness.
Claire heard Rebecca gasp beside her.
Then Ethan’s monitor screamed again.
“Mom!”
“I’m here.”
Claire reached blindly toward the bassinet.
Her fingers found the blanket.
Then the baby’s tiny hand.
He was still there.
Still warm.
Still breathing.
But the voice behind the service door had already planted something colder than fear inside her.
“The baby inside that bassinet is not Ethan Bennett.”
Claire turned toward the glass.
“Who said that?”
No answer came.
Only the wind hammering the building.
Rebecca activated the flashlight on Claire’s phone.
A narrow beam cut through the darkness.
The fake nurse was gone.
Claire stared at the open treatment-room door.
“She was right there.”
Rebecca pointed toward the service corridor.
A cream-colored sleeve vanished around the corner.
“She ran.”
Claire pressed the bassinet lock release.
Nothing happened.
The emergency system had frozen the wheels in place.
Then someone struck the service door from the other side.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The hooded woman pressed her face to the glass.
“Claire!”
Her voice shook.
“You need to listen to me.”
Claire rolled closer.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Laura Hayes.”
“Why do you have my son’s bracelet?”
Laura looked at Rebecca.
Her expression changed.
Pain crossed her face so quickly Claire almost missed it.
“Because eight years ago, my daughter was born in this building.”
“This wasn’t a maternity resort eight years ago.”
“No.”
Laura swallowed.
“It was Bennett Women’s Hospital.”
Claire froze.
Her husband’s family had owned Bennett Women’s Hospital.
Three years after Rebecca’s birth, it had been closed following a mysterious electrical fire.
The building had later been renovated into the private maternity retreat where Claire had chosen to deliver Ethan.
Her husband, Daniel Bennett, had insisted on it.
He called it family tradition.
Now Claire understood why that suddenly felt wrong.
Laura held up the bracelet.
“My baby was born at 2:16 a.m.”
Rebecca stared at her.
Claire felt her stomach tighten.
Rebecca had also been born at 2:16 a.m.
“What was your daughter’s name?”
Laura’s voice cracked.
“Emily.”
The emergency lights flickered once.
Then returned.
Red light flooded the corridor.
Claire looked down at Ethan.
His bracelet read:
ETHAN BENNETT.
03:42 A.M.
MEDICAL ID 771409.
Laura placed her duplicate bracelet against the glass.
ETHAN BENNETT.
03:42 A.M.
MEDICAL ID 771409.
Identical.
Rebecca whispered.
“How can two babies have the same hospital number?”
Laura answered through the glass.
“Because one of those bracelets was printed before Ethan was born.”
Claire slowly raised her eyes.
“What?”
“Someone created his identity in the hospital database six months ago.”
Claire felt the blood drain from her face.
Ethan was six hours old.
Yet according to Laura, someone had prepared his hospital bracelet half a year earlier.
A loud metallic crash came from the far corridor.
Rebecca grabbed Claire.
“Someone’s coming.”
Heavy footsteps approached.
Not one person.
Several.
Claire looked at the livestream indicator on her phone.
The security cameras were still broadcasting.
“Who can see this?”
“Anyone connected to emergency security.”
Laura shook her head urgently.
“That’s exactly what they want you to think.”
Claire stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“The cameras aren’t streaming outside.”
Laura pointed upward.
“They’re streaming downstairs.”
“To whom?”
Before Laura could answer, every monitor in the maternity wing suddenly changed.
Ethan’s medical screen disappeared.
A security feed replaced it.
Claire saw the underground parking garage.
Three black SUVs waited beside a service elevator.
Six people stood near them.
And beside the elevator was Daniel Bennett.
Claire stopped breathing.
Her husband was supposed to be seventy miles away.
Then Daniel looked directly into the security camera.
And said something Claire could not hear.
May you like
A second later, the words appeared as subtitles on the monitor.
GET MY SON OUT BEFORE CLAIRE LEARNS WHO REBECCA REALLY IS.
