Chapter 10 - THE NAME ON THE SECOND BIRTH RECORD
Police controlled the farmhouse twenty-three minutes later.
Samuel Greene was not among the men arrested.
Neither was Robert.
Blood covered part of the kitchen floor.
But there was no body.
Sofia stood outside wrapped in a blanket, holding her newborn son while Leo paced beside the ambulances.
Rebecca stared toward the fields.
“Robert disappeared again.”
Detective Hale approached.
“We found a blood trail.”
Sofia looked at him.
“Is it his?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Where does it go?”
“To the woods.”
“Then search.”
“We are.”
She looked ready to argue.
Hale softened.
“Every officer in the county is looking.”
Sofia looked down at her son.
A nurse checked him.
Healthy.
Mild dehydration.
Nothing serious.
By sunrise, brother and sister were back at Mercy Children’s.
Hope slept beside her twin brother.
Sofia sat between the bassinets.
One hand resting on each.
Emma stood beside her.
“So I have a brother?”
Sofia smiled through exhaustion.
“You do.”
“Can I name him?”
Leo laughed quietly.
“I think your mom gets some input.”
Emma considered this.
“Maybe Noah.”
Sofia looked at her son.
“Noah.”
The baby yawned.
Emma smiled.
“He likes it.”
For a few minutes, the nightmare loosened its grip.
Victoria remained in custody.
Her escape charges were added.
Investigators had enough evidence to reopen Robert’s staged death, the attack on Sofia, the kidnapping of Hope, and the financial crimes involving Bennett Development.
Samuel Greene was now the subject of a statewide manhunt.
Janet Greene remained missing.
Robert’s location was unknown.
But Sofia had both children.
For the first time in six days, that was enough.
Leo stood near the window.
“I canceled everything.”
Sofia looked up.
“The wedding?”
“The marriage license hadn’t been filed.”
“Good.”
He stared out at morning light.
“I thought yesterday was supposed to be the beginning of my life.”
Sofia looked at him.
“Maybe it was.”
He turned.
“Just not the life I thought.”
She nodded.
Leo hesitated.
“Do you think you’ll ever forgive me?”
Sofia looked at Emma.
Then the twins.
Then her brother.
“I don’t know.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
“But you can start by being here.”
“I can do that.”
“Without deciding what I should feel.”
He gave a tired smile.
“I’m learning.”
Rebecca entered quietly.
She looked ten years older than she had at the wedding.
“Can I come in?”
Sofia hesitated.
Then nodded.
Rebecca approached the bassinets.
When she saw Noah, she began crying.
“I didn’t know.”
“I believe you.”
Rebecca looked surprised.
Sofia continued.
“That doesn’t mean I forgive everything else.”
“I know.”
Rebecca touched the edge of Noah’s blanket.
“No more secrets.”
Leo almost laughed.
“In this family?”
Rebecca’s expression became serious.
“No.”
“I mean it.”
She removed a small key from her purse.
Sofia frowned.
“What is that?”
“Robert mailed it to me three weeks ago.”
Leo stared.
“And you’re mentioning this now?”
“I didn’t know what it opened.”
“Do you now?”
Rebecca nodded.
“The private vault at Bennett Development.”
Detective Hale entered behind her.
“We already searched the company.”
“Not this vault.”
Rebecca looked toward Sofia.
“Robert built it beneath the original headquarters.”
By afternoon, Hale obtained a warrant.
The vault was found behind an old records room.
Inside were property deeds.
Account ledgers.
Audio files.
Photographs.
And one metal box marked:
FOR SOFIA — IF THE CHILDREN SURVIVE.
Sofia’s hands shook as Hale opened it.
Inside was a letter from Robert.
And two birth records.
Hope Bennett.
Noah Bennett.
Twin A.
Twin B.
Sofia started crying.
Proof.
Her children had existed together from the beginning.
Then Leo noticed another page beneath them.
“What’s that?”
Hale lifted it.
A DNA laboratory report.
Sofia frowned.
“Why did Dad do DNA testing?”
Hale read silently.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He didn’t answer.
Leo grabbed the page.
Then froze.
Sofia stood.
“Leo?”
His face had gone white.
“Tell me.”
The test compared Sofia to both infants.
MATERNAL RELATIONSHIP:
HOPE BENNETT — 99.98% PROBABILITY.
NOAH BENNETT — 99.97% PROBABILITY.
Both children were hers.
Sofia exhaled.
“So what’s wrong?”
Leo turned the page.
A second test compared the twins to an unnamed paternal sample.
The result:
PATERNAL RELATIONSHIP EXCLUDED FOR INFANT A.
PATERNAL RELATIONSHIP CONFIRMED FOR INFANT B.
Sofia stared.
“That makes no sense.”
Twins with different fathers?
Detective Hale looked at her carefully.
“Rare, but biologically possible.”
Sofia shook her head.
“No.”
She knew who the father was.
Or she thought she did.
Her fiancé, Daniel Price, had died in Afghanistan seven months earlier.
Both babies were supposed to be his.
Leo looked at the document.
“Whose DNA sample did Dad use?”
Hale turned to the next page.
A name appeared.
Everyone went silent.
SAMUEL GREENE.
Sofia staggered backward.
“No.”
Rebecca covered her mouth.
Leo stared.
“Samuel is Noah’s biological father?”
Sofia shook her head violently.
“I never slept with Samuel Greene.”
“Nobody said you did.”
Hale’s voice became careful.
Sofia froze.
The room suddenly felt colder.
“What are you saying?”
Hale examined the dates.
“Your fertility clinic.”
Sofia’s face changed.
After Daniel’s deployment, they had frozen embryos because of his cancer treatment before he left.
She had undergone implantation eleven months earlier.
One embryo.
At least, that was what she had been told.
Sofia whispered:
“No…”
Hale continued reading.
“Your clinic was owned by a holding company.”
Leo already knew the answer would be bad.
“Whose?”
Hale looked up.
“Greene Medical Partners.”
Rebecca sat down hard.
Sofia looked toward Noah.
Her son.
Her baby.
Nothing changed how she felt about him.
Nothing could.
But someone had interfered with her pregnancy before Victoria ever pushed her car.
This had started long before the wedding.
Before the cliff.
Before the babies were born.
Leo grabbed the folder.
“There’s another page.”
A handwritten message from Robert.
Sofia,
If you are reading this, Samuel knows the children survived.
Do not assume the embryos transferred at the clinic were the ones you created with Daniel.
I discovered the truth too late.
There were three embryos transferred.
Sofia stopped breathing.
Three?
She had delivered twins.
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
Everyone stared.
A photograph loaded.
A newborn baby sleeping beneath a blue blanket.
On the baby’s wrist was a hospital bracelet.
BENNETT, SOFIA — INFANT C.
Sofia screamed.
“No!”
A message appeared beneath the photograph.
YOU FOUND THE TWO CHILDREN ROBERT WANTED YOU TO FIND.
IF YOU WANT THE THIRD, COME ALONE.
Another message followed.
This one contained a live location.
Then a final sentence:
AND SOFIA…
ASK YOUR MOTHER WHO DANIEL PRICE REALLY WAS BEFORE YOU TRUST ANYONE AGAIN.
Sofia slowly raised her eyes.
Rebecca had gone completely white.
Leo saw it.
“Mom?”
Rebecca backed toward the wall.
Sofia clutched her phone.
“What does Daniel have to do with this?”
Rebecca’s lips trembled.
“I promised your father I would never tell you.”
Sofia’s expression hardened.
“No more promises.”
Rebecca looked toward the photograph of Infant C.
Then at Sofia.
Finally, she whispered:
“Daniel didn’t die in Afghanistan.”
The room became silent.
Sofia stopped breathing.
Rebecca’s next words came barely above a whisper.
May you like
“He was working with Samuel.”
And before Sofia could ask anything else, every light inside the underground vault went out.
