Chapter 2 - THE LETTER BENEATH THE FLOORBOARD
William survived.
Doctors treated a head injury, two broken ribs, and a dangerous drop in blood pressure.
He told police Evelyn struck him with a brass fireplace tool after he refused to surrender Anna’s letter.
Then she searched his study.
She took the lockbox, old clinic documents, and forty thousand dollars in cash.
Evelyn had prepared to run before the argument began.
While William remained hospitalized, investigators searched the Mercer house.
They found no copy of the letter.
However, a crime-scene technician discovered scratches beneath the study floor.
One hardwood panel lifted away.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
William had hidden a second copy.
The paper was yellowed.
The handwriting was neat but uneven.
Dear Mr. Mercer.
My name is Anna Whitmore.
I know your wife took my son.
The clinic told me my baby died, but the death certificate lists the wrong weight and time.
A nurse secretly told me a living boy left the nursery under your family’s name.
Please do not punish him for what the adults did.
I am not asking to take him without warning.
I am asking you to tell me he is alive.
The letter continued for three pages.
Anna described her son’s birthmark.
A crescent-shaped mark behind his left shoulder.
Matthew had the same mark.
She also wrote that she named him Jonah.
Matthew read the letter in the hospital family room.
He did not cry immediately.
He stared at the name.
“Jonah.”
I sat beside him.
“Does it feel familiar?”
“No.”
“That is the worst part.”
“It belongs to me, but it doesn’t.”
William asked to see Matthew.
Matthew refused at first.
Then Isla’s pediatrician explained that her bilirubin levels were improving.
The immediate danger had passed.
With me beside him, Matthew entered William’s room.
His father looked smaller beneath the white sheets.
“I am sorry,” William whispered.
Matthew placed Anna’s letter on the blanket.
“You read this.”
“Yes.”
“She begged you.”
“Yes.”
“And you stayed silent.”
“I loved you.”
“You loved having me.”
William closed his eyes.
The distinction hurt because it was true.
He claimed Evelyn threatened to accuse him of kidnapping if he spoke.
She reminded him that he signed false clinic papers.
She said both of them would go to prison and Matthew would enter foster care.
“She made silence sound like protection,” William said.
“You let her.”
“Yes.”
For once, he offered no excuse.
Detective Naomi Grant entered carrying new information.
The old maternity clinic had closed nineteen years earlier.
Its administrator, Evelyn’s uncle Howard Pierce, died shortly afterward.
But archived tax records showed regular payments to a facility called Greenfield House.
It was the same residential center where Anna had been confined.
Greenfield closed after allegations of patient abuse.
Most records were destroyed in a fire.
One patient transfer survived.
Anna Whitmore had been moved under a different surname.
Anna Bell.
The transfer destination was a private care home in Kentucky.
The facility still operated.
Matthew stood.
“We are going there.”
Detective Grant stopped him.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn withdrew money near that facility two hours ago.”
She had not fled randomly.
May you like
She was going to Anna.
And if Anna still possessed evidence, Evelyn intended to reach her first.
