Chapter 4 - THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE THAT CHANGED HER NAME
Clara Hayes had never questioned her birth certificate.
Why would she?
It listed Nora Hayes as her mother.
Her father's name was blank.
Her birthday was September seventeenth.
She'd used that document for school registration, job applications, and every ordinary milestone of her life.
Now Casey Vane was asking whether the certificate might be false.
Clara sat across from him in a quiet office the following morning.
Between them lay three documents.
Her birth certificate.
An old hospital admission record.
And a photograph of Isabella Vane holding a newborn.
Clara stared at the image.
"That doesn't mean I'm her daughter."
Casey nodded.
"No."
"Babies look alike."
"They do."
"My mother raised me."
"Yes."
Clara looked at him sharply.
"Then don't act like a photograph proves anything."
Casey held her gaze.
"You're right."
That surprised her.
Most powerful men she'd encountered considered disagreement a personal insult.
Casey simply pushed the photograph aside.
"We need independent verification."
Clara folded her arms.
"And I get to decide whether I participate."
"Of course."
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Casey asked something unexpected.
"Did Nora ever explain why your father's name was missing?"
Clara looked down.
"She said he wasn't part of our lives."
"Did she give you a name?"
"No."
Casey nodded slowly.
Then he opened an old medical report.
"Isabella gave birth to a girl at Northbridge's private clinic twenty years ago."
Clara swallowed.
"What happened?"
"According to the records, the baby died after delivery."
She felt sick.
"And Isabella?"
"She disappeared nine days later."
Clara looked toward the photograph.
The baby was wrapped in a pale yellow blanket.
A small silver bracelet circled one wrist.
Her mother had kept a yellow baby blanket in an old cedar chest.
Clara remembered sleeping beneath it whenever she was sick.
Her chest tightened.
"There's something at my apartment."
Casey looked up.
"What?"
"A blanket."
He waited.
"It looks like that one."
Clara took out her phone.
She found an old photograph Nora had taken of the cedar chest.
The blanket was visible beneath several folded sweaters.
Casey stared.
The embroidered corner bore three small blue stars.
Exactly like the blanket in Isabella's photograph.
His expression changed.
"Clara..."
She shook her head.
"Don't."
He stopped.
She covered her face.
For twenty years, Nora Hayes had been her mother.
The person who kissed her scraped knees.
Worked double shifts.
Held her through nightmares.
And taught her to be brave when life became frightening.
Now someone was suggesting that Nora had been protecting a secret about her birth.
Clara wasn't ready to lose the woman she knew.
Even in memory.
Casey spoke quietly.
"Nothing we discover changes who raised you."
Her eyes filled.
"Then why does it feel like everything is changing?"
He didn't answer.
Because he didn't have an answer.
That afternoon, Clara contacted an independent family-law attorney.
With the attorney's help, she obtained copies of the original hospital records.
One page had been altered.
The infant's identifying number had been crossed out and replaced.
But beneath the correction, investigators could still read the original name.
ELIZABETH ISABELLA VANE.
Clara stared.
Then the attorney pointed toward another line.
A notation had been added six days after the birth.
TRANSFER AUTHORIZED BY NORA HAYES.
And beneath it appeared the signature of the doctor who had delivered the baby.
May you like
Dr. Richard Lang.
The same Richard who had managed Lucien and tried to take away the poisoned glass.
