Chapter 6: The Mother
Vanessa ran.
She made it three steps toward the backstage door before Harris blocked her.
“Move.””
“No.””
“I said move!””
“Sit down, Vanessa.””
She turned toward Stallone.
“Don’t listen to him.””
Stallone barely heard her.
He was staring at his brother.
“Come down here.””
The man descended slowly from the balcony.
Every step sounded impossible.
When he reached the stage, Stallone moved forward.
His brother stopped several feet away.
“You’re alive.””
“Yes.””
“I stood at your funeral.””
“I know.””
“You let me.””
“I had no choice.””
“There’s always a choice.””
His brother lowered his eyes.
“Not when children are the price.””
Stallone stared at him.
“You could have called.””
“They watched you.””
“Who?””
“The people who created this.””
Stallone grabbed the photograph from the trunk and held it up.
“You found Sophie six years ago.””
“Yes.””
“Where is she?””
“Safe.””
“That’s not an answer.””
“It’s the only answer I’m giving until we know who can be trusted.””
Stallone pointed toward Vanessa.
“You said she knows who Emily’s mother is.””
His brother looked at her.
“Ask her.””
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“This is ridiculous.””
Rebecca stepped beside the trunk.
“No. What happened in that hospital was criminal.””
Vanessa looked at her.
“You signed the paperwork.””
Rebecca recoiled.
“Because you lied to me.””
“And you still signed it.””
Harris stepped between them.
“What paperwork?””
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“The death certificate.””
Stallone looked at her.
“You certified Emily dead?””
“I was told she had been transferred after complications. The infant presented to me afterward had no pulse.””
Stallone felt sick.
“You saw a dead baby.””
“Yes.””
“But it wasn’t Emily.””
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.””
“Then whose baby was it?””
“I never learned.””
The theater fell silent.
Harris said, “Someone switched the infants.””
“Yes.””
“Why?””
Rebecca looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa’s composure finally cracked.
“I wasn’t responsible for that.””
Stallone stepped toward her.
“Then tell me what you were responsible for.””
Vanessa looked around the room.
There was nowhere left to escape.
“I delivered an envelope.””
“To whom?””
“A hospital administrator.””
“What was inside?””
“I don’t know.””
Stallone’s brother laughed bitterly.
“You knew.””
Vanessa snapped, “I knew later.””
“Then tell him.””
She looked at Stallone.
“It contained DNA results.””
Stallone frowned.
“Whose?””
Vanessa didn’t answer.
He repeated the question.
“Whose DNA?””
“Emily’s.””
“And?””
Vanessa’s lips trembled.
“Yours.””
Stallone stared at her.
“That proves she was my daughter.””
“No.””
Vanessa’s eyes dropped.
“It proved you were her father.””
Something about the wording made Rebecca suddenly look toward her.
Stallone noticed.
“What aren’t you saying?””
Vanessa whispered, “The mother wasn’t who you thought.””
“I didn’t even know Emily existed.””
“You did.””
“No.””
“You knew for three days.””
The statement struck him harder than anything before it.
“What?””
His brother stepped forward.
“She’s telling the truth.””
Stallone turned on him.
“You’d better explain.””
“Twelve years ago, you came to the hospital.””
“I don’t remember that.””
“You weren’t supposed to.””
His brother pulled an old digital recorder from his coat.
“I found this in a storage unit registered under Rebecca’s former name.””
He pressed play.
Static filled the theater.
Then Stallone heard his own younger voice.
“If the test is right, we protect the baby.””
Another voice answered.
His brother.
“And if they come after her?””
“Then nobody knows she’s mine until she’s safe.””
The recording stopped.
Stallone stared at the device.
“I said that?””
“Yes.””
“Why don’t I remember?””
Rebecca answered.
“You were injured the next night.””
Images flashed through Stallone’s mind.
A highway.
Rain.
Hospital lights.
A concussion doctors had called minor.
Several missing hours he had never questioned.
He looked at his brother.
“The car accident.””
“It wasn’t an accident.””
Harris immediately turned.
“Do you have evidence?””
“Enough to reopen everything.””
Stallone rubbed his forehead.
“And Emily’s mother?””
His brother looked toward Vanessa.
Vanessa shook her head.
“Please.””
“Say her name,” Stallone demanded.
Vanessa began crying.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
As if she had carried the name too long.
“Her name was Claire.””
Stallone froze.
Rebecca looked away.
Even Harris seemed to notice the change.
Daniel’s mother had been named Claire.
She had died years earlier.
Stallone stared at Vanessa.
“No.””
Vanessa nodded.
“Emily and Daniel had the same mother.””
The theater seemed to tilt beneath him.
“And Sophie?””
Vanessa whispered, “Claire too.””
Stallone stepped backward.
Three children.
One mother.
Years of falsified records.
A staged death.
A missing daughter.
A hidden daughter.
“Why would anyone erase Claire’s children?””
His brother opened another file.
“Because Claire discovered where the money was going.””
“What money?””
“Trust funds.””
Harris moved closer.
“What kind of trust funds?””
“Accounts created for the children.””
Stallone’s brother placed several statements on the trunk.
“Someone redirected millions through shell companies. If all three children legally existed, control of those accounts would eventually pass to them.””
Stallone looked at Vanessa.
“You were being paid from those accounts?””
She shook her head.
“I didn’t know where the money came from.””
“But you spent it.””
“Yes.””
“While my daughters disappeared.””
Vanessa covered her face.
“I thought Emily was dead.””
“And Sophie?””
Vanessa slowly lowered her hands.
“I knew Sophie was alive.””
Stallone’s expression hardened.
“You knew.””
“Yes.””
“How long?””
“Eight years.””
He turned away because looking at her became unbearable.
Then Harris’s phone rang.
He answered.
“Harris.””
His expression changed almost immediately.
“Repeat that.””
Everyone watched him.
“When?””
A pause.
“Send it to me.””
He ended the call.
“What happened?”” Stallone asked.
Harris looked at the group.
“The photograph taken three weeks ago at the train station wasn’t surveillance.””
Stallone frowned.
“What was it?””
“A message.””
Harris’s phone vibrated.
He opened the incoming image.
The same photograph appeared.
But investigators had enhanced the station window behind Sophie.
Something had been written in the reflection.
Four numbers.
A locker number.
Stallone’s brother suddenly moved closer.
“I never saw that.””
Harris enlarged the image.
Beneath the numbers was a sentence scratched backward into the glass.
*DAD, IF YOU FIND THIS, SHE LIED ABOUT EMILY.*
Stallone looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa stared at the message in horror.
Then his brother whispered, “There’s something else.””
Harris zoomed farther.
Sophie wasn’t alone in the reflection.
A young woman stood several feet behind her.
Same eyes.
Same dark hair.
Nearly the same face.
Stallone’s brother went pale.
“No…”
Stallone stared at him.
“What?””
His brother pointed at the second woman.
“I’ve been looking for her for twelve years.””
May you like
His voice barely carried.
“That’s Emily.””
