Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE WALL
The nurse's name was Margaret Hale.
Her home had been sold after her death.
But the police discovered a storage unit still registered in her name.
Inside were boxes of medical records.
Photographs.
Letters.
And a cassette tape.
We played it.
Margaret's voice filled the room.
“I was told the second child was unwanted.”
Lauren covered her mouth.
Margaret continued.
“Diane said the baby would complicate the inheritance.”
My father stood frozen.
The tape continued.
“The baby was transferred to another hospital under a false identity.”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Transferred where?”
The recording named a hospital.
One in our hometown.
The same hospital where I had been born.
My father slowly sat down.
“No.”
“What?”
He looked at me.
“That hospital told us you were our only child.”
My world tilted.
The police searched the hospital archives.
They found a sealed record.
Two babies.
One mother.
One father.
My mother's name.
My father's name.
I wasn't the only child.
I had a sibling.
And Diane had known.
But the identity was missing.
Then the detective opened a final document.
A DNA comparison.
The missing sibling had been tested years ago.
The result was stored under a confidential patient number.
Rebecca stared at it.
“Who has access to this file?”
The detective listed three people.
One was the doctor from Lauren's case.
One was Diane's brother.
And the third was Ryan.
My husband.
I felt sick.
Ryan hadn't merely known about the family secret.
He had access to it.
He had been protecting it.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message arrived from Ryan.
You were never supposed to find your brother.
I stared at the screen.
Another message appeared.
And neither was I.
Then came a photograph.
A young man standing outside a courthouse.
He looked almost exactly like me.
May you like
Under the photograph was one sentence:
Ask your father why he gave him away.
