Chapter 2
For several seconds, I couldn't hear anything.
Not Diane.
Not the whispers around the dining room.
Not even Emma crying.
I could only stare at those seven words.
Emma must never find out who her real mother is.
My hands started shaking.
I looked at Jason.
“What does this mean?”
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
That scared me more than any answer could have.
“Jason.”
“Sarah, not here.”
I laughed once.
It came out broken.
“Not here?”
I held up the photograph.
“Your mother smashed a cake into our daughter’s face. I found divorce papers you already signed. I found a picture of you kissing another woman. And now somebody is saying I’m not Emma’s mother.”
My voice rose.
“Where exactly would you like to have this conversation?”
Several guests quietly began gathering their children.
Diane finally moved.
She reached toward the photograph.
“Give me that.”
I stepped back.
“Don’t touch me.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
Diane looked at Jason.
That one look told me everything.
They shared a secret.
A secret about my daughter.
My knees nearly gave out.
Emma wrapped both arms around my leg.
“Mommy?”
I immediately dropped beside her.
Frosting still clung to her hair.
A thin line of blood ran down her cheek.
I wiped it carefully.
“I’m right here, baby.”
She touched my face.
“Are you leaving?”
My heart shattered.
“No.”
I looked straight at Diane.
“Never.”
Diane folded her arms.
“You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
I stood.
Jason stepped between us.
“Mom, stop.”
“Oh, now you want her to stop?” I asked.
His jaw tightened.
“Sarah, please.”
“No. Tell me what this means.”
I showed him the back of the photograph.
He stared at it.
Then something strange happened.
Confusion crossed his face.
Real confusion.
“Where did this come from?”
“Your mother’s purse.”
He turned toward Diane.
“Mom?”
Diane’s confidence disappeared for half a second.
That was enough.
Jason took the picture from my hand and looked closer.
“Who wrote this?”
Diane said nothing.
“Mom, who wrote this?”
“I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
“From her.”
She pointed at me.
I almost lunged forward again.
Jason blocked me.
“Don’t.”
I stared at him.
“Move.”
“Sarah, Emma is watching.”
That stopped me.
I looked down.
Emma had both hands over her ears.
Her lower lip trembled.
My anger collapsed into guilt.
I picked her up.
“We’re leaving.”
Jason grabbed my elbow.
“Where?”
“A hospital.”
“It’s just a little cut.”
I turned slowly.
He released me before I said anything.
I took Emma’s coat.
My sister, Rachel, who had been standing near the hallway in complete shock, came toward me.
“I’m driving you.”
“I can drive.”
“No, you can’t.”
She was right.
My hands were shaking too badly.
Jason followed us.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Sarah, she’s my daughter.”
Diane made a sound behind him.
A tiny scoff.
Everyone heard it.
Jason turned around.
“What?”
Diane suddenly looked nervous.
“Nothing.”
“No. You reacted when I said she’s my daughter.”
“Jason.”
“What do you know?”
I froze with Emma in my arms.
Diane stared at the floor.
Jason walked toward her.
“What do you know about Emma?”
Diane whispered, “This isn’t the time.”
He grabbed her wrist.
“Tell me.”
His uncle stepped forward.
“Jason, calm down.”
Jason shook him off.
“Everybody keeps telling me to calm down while my entire life is sitting inside my mother’s purse.”
Diane’s eyes filled with tears.
But this time, they looked real.
“You were supposed to handle the divorce first.”
I felt my chest tighten.
Jason went still.
“What does the divorce have to do with Emma?”
Diane glanced at me.
“You promised me you’d get Sarah out of this family.”
Jason’s face hardened.
“I said I was considering divorce.”
“You signed.”
“You told me they were preliminary papers.”
I looked at him.
“Don’t you dare pretend you’re innocent.”
“I’m not.”
At least he admitted that.
His eyes dropped.
“I signed them.”
“Why?”
He looked at me.
Then Emma.
“Because I thought our marriage was over.”
My throat burned.
“You thought our marriage was over while we were planning our daughter’s birthday?”
“I was going to talk to you after the party.”
“How considerate.”
Rachel took my arm.
“Sarah. Hospital.”
I nodded.
Before I could leave, Diane said something that stopped all of us.
“The woman in the photograph knows.”
I turned.
“What?”
Diane pointed at the picture.
“She knows where Emma came from.”
Jason looked at the photograph again.
The woman was blonde, maybe thirty-five, wearing a dark green coat.
I had never seen her before.
Jason closed his eyes.
“Her name is Melissa.”
My stomach twisted.
“The woman you’re sleeping with?”
“I’m not sleeping with her.”
“You’re kissing her.”
“I kissed her once.”
Rachel muttered, “Oh, well, that makes everything wonderful.”
Jason ignored her.
“Melissa contacted me two months ago.”
“Why?”
He hesitated.
I already knew I wouldn't like the answer.
“She said she had information about Emma.”
My body went cold.
“You met another woman secretly because she had information about our child?”
“Yes.”
“And kissed her?”
He looked ashamed.
“It was complicated.”
“No. Complicated is assembling furniture without instructions. This is betrayal.”
Emma buried her face against my shoulder.
I stopped.
I wouldn't have this argument over her head.
“Send me Melissa’s number.”
“Sarah—”
“Send it.”
Diane rushed forward.
“No!”
Every eye turned toward her.
She looked terrified.
I had never seen Diane terrified.
Not once in eight years.
“Why not?” I asked.
“She’s dangerous.”
“Because she knows your secret?”
Diane's face changed.
There it was.
The truth.
Jason noticed too.
“What secret?”
Diane backed toward the table.
“You don’t understand what happened.”
“Then make us understand,” Jason said.
She shook her head.
“I did what I had to do.”
I felt Emma’s tiny fingers tighten around my shirt.
Something inside me knew we were about to hear something that could never be unheard.
Then Diane looked at Emma.
And whispered, “She was never supposed to come home with you.”
The room exploded with questions.
I couldn't breathe.
Jason shouted, “WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?”
But Diane was already crying.
“She was supposed to go to another family.”
My vision blurred.
I looked at Emma.
Four years old.
Brown curls.
Green eyes.
The little girl whose first fever kept me awake for three nights.
The child whose first word was Mama.
The baby I remembered holding in a hospital room.
“I gave birth to her,” I whispered.
Diane looked at me with pity.
“No, Sarah.”
My body turned to ice.
“Yes, I did.”
“You gave birth to a baby.”
“What?”
She started shaking.
“But that baby wasn’t Emma.”
Nobody moved.
I heard Rachel gasp.
Jason stumbled backward into a chair.
I stared at Diane.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“You’re lying!”
Emma began crying harder.
I held her close.
Diane wiped her eyes.
“There was a mistake at the hospital.”
Jason shook his head.
“No.”
“It wasn’t discovered until months later.”
“No.”
“And when it was…”
She couldn't finish.
I walked toward her.
“What happened to my baby?”
Diane looked directly into my eyes.
“I don’t know.”
My knees buckled.
Rachel caught me.
Emma screamed, “Mommy!”
I somehow stayed upright.
Jason stared at his mother.
“How do you know this?”
Diane’s lips trembled.
“Because the hospital called me.”
Silence.
“Why would they call you?” I asked.
She didn't answer.
Jason slowly moved toward her.
“Mom.”
Diane closed her eyes.
“Because Sarah was still recovering. You were working. I was listed as an emergency contact.”
“And you never told us?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Jason slammed his fist against the wall.
“FOR FOUR YEARS?”
Emma screamed.
I covered her ears.
“Stop!”
Jason looked instantly ashamed.
But I no longer cared about him.
I cared about one thing.
“Where is my biological daughter?”
Diane shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Who has her?”
“I don’t know.”
“What hospital?”
She named it.
St. Matthew’s.
The same hospital where Emma was born.
Where I had spent sixteen hours in labor.
Where nurses placed a bundled infant on my chest.
Except Diane was saying that somewhere between that moment and going home, everything changed.
I wanted to vomit.
Rachel whispered, “We need proof.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Diane.
“And I’m getting it.”
She grabbed my sleeve.
“You can’t.”
I tore my arm free.
“Watch me.”
“If you start digging, people will get hurt.”
I stared at her.
“Someone already hurt my daughter today.”
Diane shook her head wildly.
“You don’t understand. Melissa isn't trying to help you.”
“Then why is she involved?”
Jason spoke quietly.
“Because Melissa says she was a nurse at St. Matthew’s.”
My heart stopped.
“She worked the maternity floor the night Emma was born.”
I looked at him.
“And you didn’t think your wife deserved to know that?”
“I was trying to confirm it first.”
“For two months?”
His silence answered me.
I felt something inside our marriage die.
Maybe it had died before today.
Maybe I was only now seeing the body.
Rachel guided me toward the door.
“Come on.”
This time, nobody stopped us.
At the hospital, Emma needed three small stitches.
She was brave.
Braver than every adult at that party.
She held my hand and asked whether she could still have cake tomorrow.
I almost cried.
“Of course.”
“Without Grandma?”
I swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
After the doctor left, Rachel sat beside me.
“What are you going to do?”
I looked at Emma sleeping under a thin hospital blanket.
“DNA test.”
“And Jason?”
“Him too.”
Rachel nodded.
My phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
There was no greeting.
No name.
Only a photograph.
Two newborn babies sleeping in clear hospital bassinets.
Both had identification cards.
I zoomed in.
One read:
BABY GIRL MILLER.
My maiden name.
The second read:
BABY GIRL CARTER.
Below the photograph was a message.
If Diane told you there was a mistake, she lied.
My hands turned numb.
Another message appeared.
It wasn't a mistake.
They switched the babies on purpose.
May you like
Then a third.
And I know exactly where your daughter is.
