Chapter 9
I did not rush to Chloe’s house.
Every part of me wanted to.
But Emily was watching.
She had already learned she wasn’t biologically ours.
I refused to make her feel replaceable.
So I sat beside her first.
“There might be another little girl connected to what Grandma did.”
Emily looked at me.
“My sister?”
I swallowed.
“Maybe.”
“Will you love her more because she came from your tummy?”
The question destroyed me.
I pulled Emily into my arms.
“No.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“You’ll still be my mom?”
“Forever.”
Only then did I agree to meet Anna Reynolds.
Detective Morales arranged it at the hospital.
Anna arrived with her husband, Peter.
Both looked terrified.
Chloe stayed with Anna’s sister.
Anna stared at me.
“You’re Sophie.”
“Yes.”
She started crying before sitting down.
“I knew this day would come.”
My stomach twisted.
“You knew?”
“Not everything.”
She explained that eight years earlier she had delivered a baby girl at St. Vincent.
The baby supposedly died after birth.
Same story.
Same hospital.
Same doctors.
Weeks later, Marcus Hale approached her brother Peter.
He claimed a mother had abandoned a newborn.
He offered a private adoption.
Anna and her husband had been grieving.
They agreed.
“Chloe arrived when she was three weeks old.”
My hands shook.
“And you never questioned it?”
Anna began sobbing.
“I did.”
Peter reached for her hand.
“She wanted records.”
“Marcus always had an excuse.”
Detective Morales placed the photos side by side.
Newborn Sophie’s baby.
Newborn Anna’s baby.
The matching identification numbers told the truth.
My biological daughter had been taken.
Anna’s biological daughter had become Emily.
I looked at Anna.
“We raised each other’s children.”
She covered her mouth.
I reached across the table.
Neither of us had done this.
Linda and Marcus had.
Daniel entered carrying DNA results.
His face was pale.
“It’s confirmed.”
Emily was Anna’s biological daughter.
Chloe was mine.
Anna cried.
So did I.
Then the cruelest question arrived.
“What happens now?”
Nobody answered.
We both loved the children we had raised.
We both had biological daughters living with another mother.
There was no solution that didn’t hurt someone.
Detective Morales finally said, “Family court will determine legal custody while the criminal investigation continues.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at me.
“We are not turning these girls into property.”
Anna stared at me.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we tell them carefully. We let them know each other. We don’t rip either child away overnight.”
Anna began crying harder.
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
Daniel sat beside me.
For the first time since this nightmare began, we agreed on something without argument.
Then the door opened.
A uniformed officer entered.
“Detective.”
He whispered something to Morales.
Her expression hardened.
“What happened?”
She looked at me.
“Linda escaped custody during transport.”
Daniel stood.
“How?”
“Someone created a medical emergency.”
“Marcus?”
“We believe so.”
My phone immediately buzzed.
A photograph appeared.
Chloe leaving school.
Taken minutes earlier.
Below it was a message.
YOU FOUND YOUR DAUGHTER.
NOW DECIDE WHICH CHILD YOU WANT TO KEEP.
I felt every drop of blood leave my face.
Then Anna screamed.
Her phone was ringing.
Chloe’s school.
She answered.
May you like
Her knees collapsed.
Chloe was missing.
