Chapter 6: The Second Baby
Thomas shoved the photograph into his pocket.
Ryan moved in front of Jasmine as footsteps approached the storage building.
Marcus appeared in the doorway wearing a charcoal suit, a white shirt, and the gold wedding ring Thomas had recognized in the photograph.
His expression was composed.
His eyes were not.
He looked at the open filing cabinet, the scattered papers, and the yellow wooden chair.
Then he looked at Thomas.
“You should have listened to me.””
Thomas stepped forward.
“You knew about this place.””
Marcus glanced at the brass key in his brother's hand.
“Of course I knew.””
“You knew Amelia was alive.””
Marcus's jaw tightened.
“Not for the entire time.””
“You paid Denise to hide her.””
“I paid someone to keep her safe.””
“Safe from whom?””
Marcus looked at Jasmine.
For a moment, something like grief crossed his face.
Then he looked away.
“From people who would have used her to destroy this family.””
Jasmine stepped out from behind Ryan.
“Stop talking about me like I'm an object.””
Marcus turned toward her.
“Jasmine—”
“My name is Jasmine. You don't get to call me anything else until you explain why my entire childhood was hidden from me.””
Marcus's expression hardened.
“You have no idea what you're asking.””
“Then tell me.””
He looked at Thomas.
“Can we speak privately?””
“No,” Thomas replied.
“Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of everyone.””
Marcus let out a slow breath.
“All right.””
He walked farther into the room, carefully avoiding the papers on the floor.
“Twenty-two years ago, your daughter became the center of a medical scandal. A private clinic had been conducting unauthorized procedures on children. Some of the records were falsified. Families were told their babies had died when they hadn't.””
Ryan stared at him.
“What does that have to do with Amelia?””
“Everything.””
Marcus pointed toward the photograph in Thomas's hand.
“Your daughter was born with a twin.””
Thomas felt the air leave his lungs.
“No.””
Marcus nodded once.
“Evelyn delivered two babies. A boy and a girl. The hospital recorded only one surviving child.””
Jasmine stared at the photograph.
“Which one was me?””
Marcus looked at her.
“You were the girl.””
“And Amelia?””
“The other baby.””
Ryan frowned.
“That's impossible. My mother gave birth to Amelia. There was never any mention of a twin.””
“Because someone changed the records.””
Thomas gripped the filing cabinet.
“Who?””
Marcus's silence was answer enough.
Thomas stepped toward him.
“Who changed the records?””
Marcus looked down.
“I did.””
Ryan's face twisted with disbelief.
“You?””
“I was working with the clinic's administrators. I thought I was helping them conceal a mistake. I was told the second baby had died during delivery.””
Thomas stared at him.
“And you believed them?””
“I was twenty-nine years old. I was frightened, and I made the worst decision of my life.””
“You were a grown man!””
“I know!””
Marcus's shout echoed through the building.
He immediately lowered his voice.
“I know what I did, Tom. I've lived with it every day.””
Thomas looked at the photograph again.
Two newborn babies.
Two children whose lives had been divided before either could open her eyes.
“If Jasmine was the second baby,” Thomas said, “why was she wearing Amelia's necklace?””
Marcus's face changed.
Because that was the question he had been trying to avoid.
He looked toward the door.
Then he looked back at Thomas.
“Because the necklace wasn't Amelia's.””
The room went silent.
Thomas stared at him.
“What did you say?””
“The necklace belonged to Jasmine. Evelyn had bought two identical pendants before the girls were born. One for each child.””
Jasmine touched the silver heart at her throat.
“Then why did you tell Denise to keep me hidden?””
Marcus's expression crumpled.
“Because the clinic's director discovered the twins were alive. He wanted to sell the information to a wealthy family that had been trying to adopt a child illegally. When I found out, I helped Patricia take you out of the hospital.””
Thomas shook his head.
“You just admitted you changed the records.””
“I did. To hide the fact that two babies had survived. I thought if one disappeared from the official records, the director couldn't claim both children belonged to the clinic.””
“And Amelia?””
Marcus's eyes filled with tears.
“I thought she was safe with Evelyn.””
Thomas stepped closer.
“Where is she?””
Marcus looked at Jasmine.
Then at the photograph.
Then back at Thomas.
“I don't know.””
Thomas grabbed his brother by the front of his suit.
“Twenty-two years, Marcus! You let me bury my wife believing she had failed to bring our daughter home. You let me search hospitals, shelters, and graveyards. You watched me fall apart, and you stood beside me at every memorial!””
Marcus didn't fight him.
“I know.””
“Then tell me where Amelia is!””
“I can't!””
Thomas shoved him against the filing cabinet.
“Can't or won't?””
Marcus's voice broke.
“Because I never found her!””
Ryan pulled his father back.
“Dad! Stop!””
Thomas released Marcus, breathing hard.
Jasmine stood motionless, her hand pressed against her pendant.
“If I was born with a twin,” she said quietly, “why did Denise only receive one baby?””
Marcus straightened his jacket.
“Because Patricia took you first. She was supposed to bring both babies to a safe house, but someone intercepted the second one.””
Thomas looked at the photograph.
The second baby wore a hospital bracelet.
He pulled the image from his pocket and turned it over.
On the back was a handwritten note.
*Baby B — transferred, 11:42 p.m.*
Below it was an address.
Not a hospital.
A residential street in Savannah.
Ryan took the photograph.
“Is this where Amelia went?””
Marcus shook his head.
“That's where I was told she went. I drove there the following morning. The house was empty.””
“Who lived there?””
“A woman named Eleanor Price.””
Thomas frowned.
“Eleanor Price?””
Marcus nodded.
“She worked at the clinic. She was the last person I saw with the second baby.””
Jasmine stepped forward.
“Is she alive?””
“I don't know.””
Thomas laughed bitterly.
“That's your answer to everything, isn't it? You don't know.””
Marcus looked at him.
“I deserve that.””
“You deserve prison.””
Marcus lowered his head.
“Yes.””
The admission stunned Ryan.
Marcus reached inside his jacket and removed a folded document.
“I brought this because I knew you'd find the files eventually.””
Thomas didn't take it.
“What is it?””
“A confession. Everything I did. Every document I altered.
Every payment I made to Denise. Every call I made to the clinic.””
He placed the papers on the cabinet.
“I was going to give this to the authorities if I found Amelia first.””
Thomas stared at him.
“Why didn't you tell me?””
“Because I was afraid you'd hate me.””
Thomas's face hardened.
“You let me think my daughter was dead because you were afraid I'd hate you?””
Marcus closed his eyes.
“I thought I could fix it before anyone found out.””
“And now?””
Marcus opened his eyes.
“Now I know I can't.””
Jasmine picked up the confession.
“Does this mention Patricia?””
“Yes.””
“Does it mention Eleanor Price?””
Marcus nodded.
“Everything.””
She scanned the first page.
Then she stopped.
Her face went pale.
“There's something else.””
Ryan leaned over her shoulder.
At the bottom of the second page was a paragraph about the night the twins were born.
At 11:42 p.m., Baby B was transferred to the residence of Eleanor Price. At 12:16 a.m., the transfer was reversed following instructions from the clinic director.
Thomas frowned.
“Reversed?””
Jasmine continued reading.
The infant was returned to the facility under a different identity. The original transfer records were destroyed.
Ryan looked up.
“So Amelia never made it to Savannah?””
Marcus shook his head.
“Not according to the records I found.””
Thomas stared at the paper.
“Then where did she go?””
Marcus swallowed.
“I believe she was adopted.””
Jasmine looked at him.
“By whom?””
Marcus didn't answer.
Thomas's voice turned dangerously quiet.
“Marcus.””
His brother looked toward the yellow chair.
Then he said, “The adoption file was sealed by a judge. But I found a payment record connected to the family who took her.””
Ryan felt his stomach tighten.
“What family?””
Marcus's eyes settled on Jasmine.
“I never told anyone this because I couldn't prove it.””
“Tell us,” Jasmine said.
Marcus took a shaky breath.
“The money came from a trust established by Evelyn's father. Your maternal grandfather.””
Thomas staggered back.
“My father-in-law died before the girls were born.””
“Exactly. His trust was supposed to fund their education. Instead, a large sum was withdrawn three weeks after the twins disappeared.””
Jasmine stared at him.
“So someone in my own family paid to make one of us disappear?””
Marcus nodded.
“I think so.””
Thomas rubbed his face.
Evelyn's father had been wealthy, controlling, and fiercely protective of his family's reputation. He had opposed her marriage to Thomas and had once threatened to disinherit her for marrying a man he considered beneath her.
But he had died before Amelia's disappearance.
His estate had passed to Evelyn.
And when she died, the remaining trust had been divided between Thomas and Ryan.
Thomas looked at the paperwork.
“Who had access to the trust?””
Marcus answered immediately.
“Evelyn's attorney.””
“Name?””
“Arthur Whitmore.””
Thomas froze.
Arthur had been Evelyn's lawyer for thirty years.
He had handled her father's estate, prepared her will, and managed the trust after her death.
He had also attended Amelia's memorial service.
He had stood beside Thomas and assured him that every legal avenue had been exhausted.
Ryan pulled out his phone.
“We need to call him.””
Thomas shook his head.
“Not yet.””
Jasmine folded the confession and held it tightly.
“Why not?””
“Because if Arthur is involved, calling him gives him time to destroy whatever remains.””
Marcus nodded.
“For once, your brother is right.””
Thomas glared at him.
“Don't mistake one useful answer for forgiveness.””
Marcus accepted the rebuke.
Then Jasmine noticed something tucked inside the back cover of the confession.
A small photograph.
She pulled it free.
It showed two young girls standing beside a woman outside a brick house. Both girls appeared to be about five years old. One wore a yellow dress. The other wore a blue sweater.
The woman in the middle had her arms around them.
Jasmine looked at the faces.
One girl had the crescent-shaped birthmark beneath her left ear.
The other did not.
On the back, someone had written a date.
*October 17, 2007. Three years after the disappearance.*
Thomas took the photograph with trembling hands.
“Where did you get this?””
Marcus stared at it in horror.
“I've never seen that before.””
Jasmine looked at the woman standing between the girls.
She recognized her.
Not from memory.
From the faded family photographs Denise kept in a box at home.
The woman was Patricia Bell.
But the girl in the yellow dress wasn't Jasmine.
And the girl in the blue sweater wasn't Amelia.
They were two different children.
Ryan looked at the date again.
“Dad, if this was taken three years after the twins disappeared…”
Thomas finished the thought in a whisper.
“Then somebody knew where both girls were.””
Marcus backed away from the photograph.
“No.””
Thomas turned toward him.
“What?””
Marcus stared at the image as if it had become something alive.
“That's impossible.””
“Why?””
Marcus's face drained of color.
“Because Patricia Bell died in 2006.””
Jasmine's fingers tightened around the picture.
“Then who took this photograph?””
Marcus looked at Thomas.
And for the first time since entering the storage building, he seemed genuinely terrified.
“Someone who knew that one of the twins had already been replaced.””
A sudden crash sounded outside.
Ryan spun toward the door.
The black SUV from Denise's street was parked beyond the gate.
Its headlights blazed through the open doorway.
A man stepped out, carrying a small object in his right hand.
Thomas recognized the scar across the man's knuckles.
Marcus whispered a name.
“Arthur.””
The man raised his voice.
“Step away from the documents.””
Thomas moved in front of Jasmine.
Arthur Whitmore stood in the doorway, his expression cold and his hand trembling around a pistol.
“You've all made a terrible mistake,” he said.
Then he looked directly at Jasmine.
“Especially you, little girl.””
He lifted the weapon.
“Because you're not the daughter they've been looking for.””
May you like
His eyes shifted to Thomas.
“*You're the reason the other one disappeared.*”
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