Chapter 4 - THE BABY WHO WASN'T HERS
No one spoke.
Rowan wiped tears from her face.
“My son disappeared five years ago.”
I looked at Julian.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Not Julian.”
“Then who?”
“My biological son was taken from the hospital.”
Aleric stared at her.
“When?”
“The night you married her.”
My blood ran cold.
“You're saying your baby disappeared five years ago?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Rowan looked toward Eleanor.
“Because Eleanor ordered it.”
Eleanor gasped.
“That isn't true.”
“You told me my son was sick.”
Rowan's voice trembled.
“You told me he died.”
I stared at Eleanor.
“But Julian is three months old.”
Rowan nodded.
“Exactly.”
The timeline was impossible.
Unless Julian wasn't three months old.
I turned toward Aleric.
“Get me the hospital records.”
He hesitated.
I raised my voice.
“Now.”
He grabbed his phone.
Within minutes, his expression changed.
“What?”
I took the phone.
The pediatric record had been created only eleven days earlier.
Julian's supposed birth certificate had been altered.
His medical history was fabricated.
Even his vaccination record was false.
I felt dizzy.
“Where did you get him?”
Aleric looked at his mother.
Eleanor finally broke.
“From a private adoption agency.”
Rowan laughed through tears.
“That's what you told him.”
Graham stepped forward.
“The baby was found abandoned.”
I looked at him.
“By whom?”
He didn't answer.
Then I noticed something.
A tiny scar behind Julian's left ear.
I had seen that mark before.
In an old photograph of Rowan's missing son.
I looked at her.
She covered her mouth.
“Oh my God.”
She moved toward the baby.
“No.”
Aleric blocked her.
“You're saying Julian is your son?”
Rowan nodded.
“I think he is.”
Then my phone vibrated.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
STOP LOOKING FOR THE TRUTH.
A second message followed.
OR THE BABY WILL DISAPPEAR AGAIN.
I stared at the screen.
Then another photograph arrived.
It showed a man holding a newborn.
His face was hidden.
But the date was clear.
May you like
Five years ago.
And the baby wore the same scar.
