Chapter 5 - The Baby in the Photograph
I called the number back immediately.
It had been disconnected.
Marcus traced the call to an abandoned office near the waterfront, but the building had been empty for months. Whoever contacted me knew how to disappear.
The words stayed with me.
The baby she buried.
Celeste had never mentioned a pregnancy before we met. She had never spoken about a child. Yet the photograph in Hannah's apartment showed Nicholas holding Lily as a newborn.
I returned to the hospital.
Hannah was awake, watching Lily sleep.
“Did Nicholas ever tell you about Celeste?”
Her face tightened.
“Once. He said your family had made a terrible mistake trusting her father.”
“Her father?”
“Richard Rowan. He worked with your father years ago. Nicholas believed Richard had helped steal money from the organization.”
I remembered Richard Rowan as a polished businessman who died in a car accident when Celeste was nineteen. He had been under investigation for financial fraud, but the case disappeared after his death.
“What did Nicholas discover?”
Hannah hesitated.
“He found a birth certificate with Celeste's name on it. The document listed a baby girl born years before we met.”
“Did he know what happened to the child?”
“No. But he said Celeste had paid someone to alter the records.”
I called Margaret Ellis, the private investigator who had helped me uncover corruption in my legitimate businesses.
Within hours, she found an archived hospital record. Celeste had indeed given birth to a girl at nineteen.
The child had been declared stillborn.
But no death certificate had ever been issued.
There was also a sealed adoption inquiry filed three months later, withdrawn before the process could be completed.
I stared at the documents.
“Find out whether that child is alive.”
Margaret promised she would.
Then she sent me a second message.
The birth record names Victor Sloane as the emergency contact.
Victor had been my father's attorney.
He had been at Nicholas's funeral.
And he had helped arrange my engagement to Celeste.
I called him.
“Grant,” he answered warmly. “I was just reviewing the wedding contracts.”
“Did Celeste have a child before we met?”
His breathing changed.
Only slightly.
“Where did you hear that?”
“Answer me.”
Victor sighed.
“Some things are better left alone.”
“Not anymore.”
His voice hardened.
“Then ask Celeste why she chose you, Grant. It wasn't your money.”
He hung up.
Seconds later, Margaret sent a photograph of the original birth record.
The baby's name was redacted.
May you like
But the line marked father had not been erased.
It read: Nicholas Whitaker.
