CHAPTER 23 — THE WOMAN IN THE DELIVERY ROOM
Claire stared at the screen.
Her mother, Evelyn Bennett, had been dead for five years.
Yet there she was.
Standing beside Margaret on the night Elias disappeared.
Daniel looked at Claire.
“Did your mother know you had twins?”
“She told me Noah was the only baby.”
The video had no sound.
Margaret pointed toward the two newborns.
A doctor wrapped one child in a blue blanket.
The other in white.
Evelyn took the child in white.
Claire stepped closer to the screen.
“No.”
Evelyn carried the infant from the room.
Margaret remained behind and signed a document.
Celeste stood in the corner wearing a nurse’s uniform.
Claire turned toward her.
“You were there.”
Celeste nodded.
“Your mother did not take Elias for Margaret.”
“Then why did she take him?”
“To save him.”
Claire laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“She saved him by letting me believe he was dead?”
“Margaret planned to remove one child permanently. Your mother overheard her speaking with the doctor.”
“Why didn’t she call the police?”
“The police commissioner was already being paid by the Vale family.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because Margaret threatened Noah.”
Claire looked at Elias.
Celeste continued.
“Evelyn took Elias to a safe house. She planned to expose everything after you recovered.”
“What changed?”
“Victoria found them.”
The video skipped forward.
A new recording showed a small house outside the city.
Evelyn held Elias.
Victoria entered with two men.
Evelyn tried to escape through the back door.
One man took the baby.
Victoria handed Evelyn an envelope.
“What was in it?” Claire asked.
“Photographs of you and Noah. Margaret wanted Evelyn to understand that she could reach either of you at any time.”
Claire covered her mouth.
“My mother spent the rest of her life knowing my child was alive.”
“She searched for him.”
“Did she find him?”
Celeste looked at Elias.
“Yes.”
Elias lifted his head.
“The gray room.”
Celeste froze.
“What did you say?”
“I remember a gray room. A lady came when it rained. She gave me a wooden bird.”
Claire’s mother had carved small wooden birds.
One still sat beside Claire’s childhood bed.
“She visited you?”
“Three times,” Celeste said. “Maybe four. I allowed it until Margaret discovered what I was doing.”
Claire looked at her.
“You raised him.”
Celeste nodded.
“Margaret placed him with me because I had helped falsify the hospital documents. She knew I could never go to the police without confessing my own crime.”
“Why did you help her?”
“My younger brother owed money to the Vale network. Margaret promised to keep him alive.”
“And did she?”
“No.”
The monitor displayed another file.
EVELYN BENNETT — VEHICLE INCIDENT.
Claire’s eyes locked on the date.
The date of her mother’s death.
Daniel opened the file.
A report appeared showing that Evelyn’s brakes had been cut.
The signature authorizing the operation belonged to Victoria.
A sound came from the platform.
Noah’s train was arriving.
Claire turned toward the door.
But the train that entered the station was empty.
Noah was gone.
On the center seat rested his red plastic key.
Beside it was a fresh wooden bird.
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Carved into its side were four words:
CHARLES VALE IS ALIVE.
