Chapter 4: The Daughter Nobody Mentioned
“Mom! Mom, wake up!””
Darius dropped to his knees beside Gloria as she collapsed against the hospital chair. Her head struck the armrest, and her purse spilled across the floor for the second time that afternoon.
Brielle stepped back, one hand pressed against her mouth.
The note remained clenched in Darius's other hand.
Ask Gloria what happened to your first daughter.
A nurse rushed forward with a blood pressure monitor while Officer Reynolds called for medical assistance. Within seconds, Gloria was lying on the hospital bed beside Brielle, an oxygen sensor clipped to her finger.
“Her blood pressure is elevated,” the nurse announced.
“Everyone needs to give her some space.””
Darius stood motionless.
His first daughter?
He had been married to Brielle for ten years. Maya was their first child. They had never discussed another pregnancy, another baby, or another daughter.
At least, he thought they hadn't.
“Darius?”” Brielle whispered.
He turned toward her.
“Did you know anything about this?””
“No.””
“Think carefully.””
“I am thinking carefully!”” His voice cracked.
“Maya was our first child. You know that.””
Brielle stared at him for another moment, then looked toward Gloria.
The older woman had begun to stir.
Her eyelids fluttered. When she noticed Darius standing beside the bed, she immediately tried to sit up.
“Where's the note?”” she demanded.
Darius held it up.
“That's what you want to know?””
Gloria reached for it.
He pulled his hand away.
“Tell me about my first daughter.””
Her face crumpled.
“Darius, please.””
“No. You don't get to say please anymore. You don't get to tell us you're doing everything for the family. You don't get to faint every time someone asks you a question.””
“Watch your tone!””
The words came out automatically, carrying the authority she had used to silence him since childhood.
But this time, Darius didn't lower his eyes.
“You took my newborn daughter. You helped someone switch two babies. And now your own sister is claiming you've done this before.””
Gloria began crying.
“I never wanted you to find out like this.””
Brielle gripped the bedrail.
“Find out what?””
Gloria looked toward the ceiling.
“Twenty-nine years ago, I gave birth to a little girl.””
The room became painfully quiet.
Darius stared at her.
“What?””
“I was nineteen. Your father had just lost his job, and we were barely surviving. When I found out I was pregnant again, he told me another child would destroy us.””
“You told me I was your only child,” Darius whispered.
“You were the only child I raised.””
“That isn't what I said.””
Gloria turned her face away.
“The baby was born prematurely. She needed medical attention we couldn't afford. Your father insisted we place her with another family.””
Brielle's voice shook.
“So you gave your daughter away?””
Gloria nodded.
“Your father said we would have no future if we kept her. He arranged everything through a woman he knew. By the time I recovered, the baby had been transferred to another hospital.””
Darius took a step backward.
“Did you ever see her again?””
“No.””
“Did you know where she went?””
“I was told she had been adopted.””
“And you never searched for her?””
Gloria closed her eyes.
For a moment, the silence answered for her.
Then she whispered, “Your father made me promise not to.””
Darius laughed once, without humor.
“My father died twelve years ago. You had twelve years to find your daughter.””
“I was afraid.””
“Of what?””
“That she would hate me.””
Brielle shook her head.
“So instead, you decided to steal somebody else's daughter?””
Gloria began sobbing.
“I didn't think of it that way.””
“How did you think of it?”” Brielle demanded.
“As shopping? You wanted a boy, so you arranged to exchange one baby for another? You wanted to fill a hole in your life, so you decided another mother didn't deserve to keep her child?””
“I wanted to make things right!””
“With whose baby?””
Gloria had no answer.
Darius walked to the window. Below, cars crawled through the hospital parking lot, their headlights beginning to glow in the late afternoon.
He remembered his childhood home. His mother kept a small wooden box in her bedroom closet, locked with a brass key. Whenever he asked what was inside, she said it contained old family papers.
He had never questioned her.
Now he wondered what else she had hidden behind locked doors.
“Officer Reynolds,” Darius said, turning around, “I want every document in my mother's possession examined. Every phone call, every payment, every message involving Renee.””
“That's already part of the investigation,” the officer replied.
“But there's something else you should know.””
He opened a folder.
“Your mother's visitor badge was issued at 9:37 this morning. The nursery camera shows her entering the restricted corridor at 10:51.””
Gloria shook her head.
“I was only there for a minute.””
“Then explain why the camera shows you carrying a second hospital blanket when you left.””
Gloria's mouth fell open.
Officer Reynolds placed a photograph on the bedside table.
It showed Gloria walking through the corridor with a bundled infant.
Behind her was a woman wearing a gray coat.
Renee.
Darius stared at the image.
“That's my aunt,” he whispered.
“Yes,” Officer Reynolds said.
“And based on the footage, the two of you appear to have coordinated your movements.””
Gloria covered her face.
Brielle turned toward the door.
“I need to see my daughter.””
“We have officers searching for her,” Reynolds assured her.
“We're also tracing the vehicle and the phone found at the scene.””
“Then tell them to look harder!””
Her voice broke on the last word.
A nurse approached and quietly informed Brielle that she was medically stable enough to leave with assistance once the attending physician approved it.
Darius took his wife's hand.
“We'll go together.””
She looked at him.
“Promise me something.””
“Anything.””
“If we find our daughter, nobody—not your mother, not your aunt, not anyone—gets to decide what happens to her.””
“I promise.””
“And Maya will never be made to feel guilty for telling the truth.””
Darius squeezed her hand.
“Never.””
Across the room, Gloria whispered his name.
He didn't turn around.
“Darius, I need you to understand. I wasn't trying to hurt you.””
He finally looked at her.
“Then why did you do it?””
Gloria opened her mouth, but her phone began vibrating on the bedside table.
Officer Reynolds picked it up.
The screen displayed a message from an unsaved number.
*The girl has been moved. Stop searching, or you'll lose both children.*
Darius lunged for the phone.
“Call that number!””
Reynolds immediately signaled to the communications officer in the hallway.
But before anyone could respond, another message appeared.
This one contained a photograph.
Maya was sitting in the hospital waiting room, beside a vending machine.
A red circle had been drawn around her small face.
Underneath the image were six words.
*You have one hour to stop.*
Brielle screamed.
Darius turned toward the door, where Maya had been sitting with a hospital volunteer only minutes earlier.
May you like
The chair was empty.
And the volunteer was nowhere to be seen.
