CHAPTER 16 — THE WRONG CHILD
Claire stared at the little boy standing in front of her.
Same pale face.
Same dark eyes.
Same small dimple near the left corner of his mouth.
He looked exactly like Noah.
But Daniel’s question echoed in her mind.
Why did Dad call me by another name?
“What name did he call you?” Claire asked.
The boy hesitated.
“Elias.”
Celeste pushed herself upright against the carriage wall.
Her face went pale.
Claire turned toward her.
“You know that name.”
Celeste said nothing.
Claire knelt and gently brushed the boy’s hair away from his right ear.
Noah had a tiny crescent-shaped scar there.
He had gotten it when he fell against the edge of a coffee table at three years old.
The scar was not there.
Claire pulled her hand back.
The boy saw the fear in her eyes.
“Mom?”
Claire’s chest tightened.
She wanted to deny what she had seen.
She wanted to gather him into her arms and pretend that the darkness, the train and the second child had never existed.
Instead, she asked him something only Noah should know.
“What did I give you on your seventh birthday?”
The boy looked confused.
“A bicycle?”
Noah had received a wooden telescope.
The train shook violently as it curved through the tunnel.
Claire caught the boy before he fell.
He wrapped both arms around her.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “She told me you would be angry if I forgot.”
Claire looked at Celeste.
“Who is he?”
Celeste lowered her eyes.
“The son you were told had died.”
The words struck harder than any physical blow.
Claire could not breathe.
“I never had another son.”
“You gave birth to twins.”
“No.”
“You were unconscious for almost fourteen hours after the delivery. Margaret controlled the hospital. She controlled the doctors, the nurses and every document that left the building.”
Claire shook her head.
“Noah was my only baby.”
“He was the only baby they allowed you to take home.”
The boy stepped away from Claire.
“My name really is Elias?”
Celeste looked at him.
Her expression changed.
For the first time, Claire saw genuine tenderness on her face.
“Yes.”
“Then why did you call me Noah?”
“Because Margaret told you to answer to that name.”
The carriage lights flickered.
Through the window, the second train appeared again.
Daniel stood beside the other boy.
This time, the child lifted his shirt sleeve.
A red thread bracelet was tied around his wrist.
Claire had made that bracelet for Noah three weeks earlier.
Her real son was on the other train.
But the child beside her was also hers.
A son stolen before she had ever been allowed to hold him.
Claire pulled Elias into her arms.
“You did nothing wrong,” she whispered. “Do you understand me?”
His body trembled.
“Are you still my mom?”
Claire held him tighter.
“I should have been from the beginning.”
A loud metallic sound thundered beneath the carriage.
The train began gaining speed.
Celeste looked toward the front of the train.
“We have less than nine minutes.”
“Until what?”
“The tracks divide beneath the river.”
Claire looked through the black window.
“Where does one track go?”
“To the final station.”
“And the other?”
May you like
Celeste’s voice became almost inaudible.
“It ends inside a sealed wall.”
