Chapter 8 - The Truth Claire Was Never Told
Claire read the sentence three times.
Then she looked at Adrian.
"What did they do to me?"
He didn't answer.
"Adrian."
"I don't know."
"Then find out."
She walked away before he could stop her.
For the first time, she wasn't thinking about Lily.
She was thinking about her mother.
Margaret Bennett had died when Claire was twenty-two.
She had raised Claire alone after her father disappeared when she was three.
She had worked double shifts as a hospital nurse, sacrificed vacations, and never complained about the small apartment they shared.
She had also refused to discuss the year Claire was born.
Whenever Claire asked, Margaret would say the same thing.
"Some parts of the past are better left buried."
Claire had always assumed it concerned her father.
Now she wasn't so sure.
Adrian sent Daniel to retrieve Margaret's old medical records.
The first discovery came that afternoon.
Margaret had worked at St. Catherine's Hospital during the year Lily was born.
Not as a nurse.
As a maternity ward supervisor.
The second discovery was worse.
On the night Lily was born, two infants had been transferred to different hospital rooms.
One was Lily Mercer.
The other was an unidentified newborn girl.
The transfer had been authorized by Vincent Mercer.
Claire stared at the document.
"Why would he have authority over newborn transfers?"
Daniel shook his head.
"He didn't. Someone forged the authorization."
Adrian examined the signature.
It belonged to a doctor named Samuel Reeves.
Dr. Reeves had died two years earlier.
Claire looked at the infant's record.
There was a handwritten note.
Female infant. Temporary placement requested. Mother: Rebecca Mercer.
"Temporary placement?" Claire repeated.
Daniel nodded.
"That's what it says."
Claire's voice trembled.
"Where did the baby go?"
Adrian looked at the next page.
It contained a single name.
Margaret Bennett.
Claire covered her mouth.
"No."
Adrian moved closer.
"Claire—"
"No. My mother would have told me."
He didn't argue.
He knew that the woman who had raised Claire was no longer alive to defend herself.
But the documents were real.
That night, Claire opened the small box she had kept since her mother's funeral.
Inside were photographs, a silver necklace, a few letters, and a folded hospital document she had never examined closely.
It was an adoption record.
Her own.
Claire's hands shook as she unfolded it.
The date matched the night Lily was born.
The mother's name had been left blank.
But a handwritten notation appeared at the bottom.
Biological mother: Rebecca Mercer.
Claire sat down.
She couldn't breathe.
For twenty-eight years, she had believed she was Margaret Bennett's biological daughter.
The woman who raised her had never mentioned adoption.
And now she was being told that her biological mother was the dead woman whose child she had spent four months caring for.
A woman whose lullaby she knew by heart.
A woman whose daughter trusted her.
A woman who might still be alive.
Adrian found Claire in the library.
The adoption record lay open on her lap.
He didn't speak immediately.
Instead, he sat beside her.
"Is it true?" she asked.
"I don't know everything yet."
"Am I Rebecca's daughter?"
"The records suggest it."
Claire stared at the floor.
"Then why did she leave me?"
Adrian's voice softened.
"Maybe she didn't."
She looked at him.
He continued.
"Rebecca was trying to protect someone. We know that much."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Claire wiped her eyes.
"I spent my entire life thinking I wasn't wanted by my father. My mother never explained why he disappeared. And now I'm supposed to believe the woman I thought was dead had another daughter hidden from her own family?"
Adrian reached toward her hand.
He stopped.
Then he let it rest beside hers.
"You don't have to believe anything tonight."
Claire looked at him.
For the first time, she noticed how exhausted he was.
He had spent a year mourning his wife.
Now he was discovering that the woman he buried might be alive.
And the woman he had hired to care for his daughter might be part of the same mystery.
At two in the morning, Daniel called.
He had located Emma Collins.
She was hiding at a motel outside Worcester.
Adrian drove there with two security men.
Claire insisted on coming.
They found Emma sitting on the floor of a dark room.
She looked terrified.
When she saw Claire, she began crying.
"You're Margaret's little girl."
Claire froze.
"You knew my mother?"
Emma nodded.
"She saved you."
"From what?"
Emma looked at Adrian.
Then she whispered:
"Rebecca gave birth to twins."
Adrian went still.
"Twins?"
Emma nodded.
"Lily and Claire."
Claire's knees weakened.
"But the hospital records—"
"Vincent paid a doctor to change them. Rebecca was told one baby had died. Margaret knew the truth and took Claire home to protect her."
Adrian's face hardened.
"Why didn't Rebecca tell me?"
"Because Vincent threatened both children."
Emma looked directly at Claire.
"Your mother was trying to keep you alive."
Claire's eyes filled.
"Where is Rebecca now?"
Emma opened her mouth.
But before she could answer, the motel window shattered.
A gunshot exploded through the room.
Adrian threw himself over Claire.
One of his security men shouted.
Emma fell backward.
And as the lights went out, Claire heard a familiar voice outside the door.
"Get the girls."
It was Vincent.
May you like
But Vincent was supposed to be in federal custody.
And he wasn't the only person who had come for them.
