Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO STOLE MY WIFE'S NAME
Sophia Laurent had entered Ashford Medical Center pretending to be my wife.
That was what Rosa's statement suggested.
For the first time since reading Elena's letters, I felt my anger becoming something almost unbearable.
But I remembered Elena's warning.
No threats.
No private punishment.
Evidence.
Accountability.
The truth.
So I sat beside Rebecca and listened while Rosa explained everything she remembered.
She'd visited Elena during the hospitalization.
The nurses told her Elena was resting.
Rosa waited outside the room.
Then Sophia arrived.
She wore a cream coat.
Her hair was pulled back.
And she introduced herself to a staff member as Mrs. Marcus Hale.
Rosa recognized her immediately.
She knew about the affair.
She'd discovered Sophia's perfume on my jackets months earlier.
But she hadn't told Elena because she didn't want to cause more pain without evidence.
Now she watched Sophia enter the restricted maternity corridor.
Thirty minutes later, Sophia emerged carrying a white blanket.
A private security guard followed her.
Rosa asked what had happened.
Sophia told her Elena had suffered a miscarriage and needed privacy.
Then she threatened Rosa's job if she spoke about the visit.
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
Threats.
Money.
Silence.
The same tools I'd used for years.
And someone had turned them against my own family.
Elena sat motionless.
For a long moment, she didn't speak.
Then she asked, "Rosa, why didn't you tell me?"
Rosa began crying.
"I tried, sweetheart."
Elena frowned.
Rosa continued.
"I left messages. I called the house. Sophia told me you didn't want visitors."
Elena looked toward me.
I felt sick.
I'd believed Sophia when she said Rosa was causing trouble.
I'd fired the one woman trying to protect my wife.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
Elena closed her eyes.
"I know."
The investigation expanded.
Hospital security footage was recovered from an archived system.
Some recordings were missing.
Others had been overwritten.
But one clip remained.
Sophia entered a private elevator at 2:17 A.M.
A security guard accompanied her.
She held a small covered carrier.
The camera couldn't show what was inside.
But the timing was consistent with Rosa's statement.
Then Rebecca found another record.
A private pediatric transport request.
Destination: Ashford Children's Recovery Center.
Passenger: Infant female.
Mother: Elena Hale.
Authorization: S. Laurent.
I stared.
"Where is that center?"
Rebecca looked grim.
"It closed last year."
My heart sank.
"Then how do we find the child?"
"The records were transferred to another provider. We're tracing them."
For three days, Elena barely spoke.
I didn't pressure her.
I brought coffee.
Left when she asked me to.
And answered every question honestly.
Then Rebecca called.
She had located the successor institution's archived patient records.
One entry matched the transfer date.
The baby had been registered under a different name.
Amelia Laurent.
I stopped breathing.
Sophia's surname.
And according to the record, the child's legal guardian was Adrian Laurent.
Sophia's father.
Then Rebecca delivered the most astonishing detail.
The child was listed as living.
May you like
And her fifth birthday was approaching.
Our daughter might have been alive all this time.
