Chapter 5: The Woman in the Hospital Photograph
James wanted to hit something.
He wanted to tear the house apart, break every locked door, and drag the truth out of Victoria one piece at a time.
Instead, he forced himself to breathe.
His children were somewhere outside the nursery, and every second he wasted brought them closer to whoever had arranged the agreement.
“Where are Lily and Noah?”” he demanded.
Victoria stood at the top of the stairs, gripping the railing.
“I didn't take them.””
“Then tell me who did!””
“I don't know.””
Emily emerged from the hallway, leaning against the wall for support.
“She does know,” she said.
“She just doesn't want to tell you.””
Victoria turned on her.
“You've been lying to James since the day you arrived.””
“I found the contract because you left it in your car!””
James stepped between them.
“Enough. Both of you.””
He looked at Victoria.
“Did you arrange for someone to remove the babies from the house?””
“No.””
“Did you know someone was coming?””
She hesitated.
It lasted less than a second.
But James saw it.
“Victoria.””
“I thought they would contact me first.””
“Who?””
“The Harpers.””
Emily let out a bitter laugh.
“Stop calling them that. The Harpers never existed.””
Victoria's mouth fell open.
James stared at his sister.
“What do you mean?””
Emily limped toward the study.
“Show him the files,” she told Victoria.
“Or I will.””
Victoria didn't move.
Emily looked at James.
“The company paid for the procedure using a series of shell accounts. I traced some of them to a private security firm. The name on the paperwork was Northbridge Family Services, but there's no legitimate agency registered under that name.””
James followed her into the study.
Emily lowered herself into the leather chair and rubbed her wrists.
“Three weeks ago, I received an email from an anonymous account. It contained a scan of a contract with Victoria's signature. At first, I thought it was fake.””
“Why would someone send it to you?””
“Because I work in insurance compliance, James. I know how to follow suspicious financial transactions. Someone wanted me to investigate the clinic.””
“Who?””
“I don't know. Every email came through an encrypted account.””
James pulled the memory card from his pocket.
“There's a company payment agreement here.””
Emily nodded.
“That was only the beginning. I found three transfers from Northbridge to Dr. Shaw's private accounts.
The first was made six months before your wedding. The second was made two weeks before Victoria's final fertility appointment.””
James froze.
“Six months before our wedding?””
Emily nodded.
“That's when I realized the arrangement might have started before you even met her.””
He looked at the door.
Victoria had followed them into the study.
She stood silently beside the bookshelves.
“Is that true?”” he asked.
Victoria looked down.
“Answer me!””
“I knew about the program before we met.””
James felt as though someone had punched him in the chest.
“You knew about the program before we met, and you still married me?””
“I didn't know you would become part of it!””
“You just said you knew about it!””
“I knew they were looking for families who could participate. I didn't know they would select you.””
Emily stood.
“That's not what the emails say.””
Victoria glared at her.
“You have no idea what those emails mean.””
“Then explain them.””
Victoria's hands trembled.
“I was working for the clinic. I helped coordinate appointments and paperwork. I was never supposed to become a patient.””
James stared at her.
“You worked for the clinic?””
“For a short time.””
“Before we met?””
“Yes.””
“And you never told me?””
“I wanted to leave that part of my life behind.””
“By marrying me?””
She closed her eyes.
“I loved you.””
“Stop saying that!””
His voice cracked.
“You keep using those words as if they erase everything you've done.””
Victoria looked toward the window.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Emily opened another folder on the study computer.
“There's something else.””
A scanned photograph appeared on the screen.
It showed a hospital room, a woman lying in bed, and a newborn baby wrapped in a striped blanket.
James leaned closer.
The woman looked exhausted. Her dark hair clung to her forehead, and a thin hospital bracelet circled her wrist.
Beside her stood Dr. Adrian Shaw.
A handwritten label at the bottom read:
*CASE 17 — BIOLOGICAL MOTHER: DANIELLE REED.*
James read the name aloud.
“Danielle Reed.””
Victoria covered her mouth.
Emily turned toward her.
“You know her.””
Victoria didn't answer.
“You know her, don't you?”” James demanded.
Victoria shook her head, but her eyes remained fixed on the photograph.
Emily enlarged the image.
The newborn's face was partly visible beneath the blanket.
On the baby's wrist was a hospital band with a small handwritten number.
*17-B.*
James felt a chill crawl up his spine.
“Why is there a B?””
Emily opened the accompanying medical record.
“The clinic used letters to distinguish embryos and delivery records when multiple pregnancies were involved. A was the first infant listed. B was the second.””
James looked at the photograph again.
“So which baby is this?””
Emily enlarged the image further.
The child's face was too small to identify, but the hospital bracelet contained another line.
*TRANSFER STATUS: PENDING.*
James slowly turned toward Victoria.
“Was Danielle the biological mother of my children?””
Victoria's silence answered him.
Emily's voice softened.
“I don't know if she was the mother of both babies. But the records suggest she was involved in the original arrangement.””
James stared at the screen.
He remembered Victoria telling him that the fertility treatment had worked after years of failure. He remembered the doctor explaining that the pregnancy had progressed naturally after the initial procedure.
He remembered how Victoria had cried when she heard the twins' heartbeats.
Had those tears been genuine?
Or had she been afraid of what would happen when the children arrived?
“Where is Danielle now?”” he asked.
Emily shook her head.
“I couldn't find her. The address listed on the record belongs to an abandoned apartment building.””
Victoria suddenly spoke.
“She's dead.””
Both siblings turned toward her.
James felt his stomach drop.
“What?””
“Danielle died shortly after the procedure.””
“How do you know?””
“Dr. Shaw told me.””
“When?””
Victoria looked away.
“Before the wedding.””
James gripped the edge of the desk.
“You knew the biological mother was dead before you married me, and you never told me?””
“I didn't know she had children.””
Emily's expression changed.
“You're lying.””
“I'm not!””
“You signed the contract.””
“I signed the contract because I was told it was a private fertility arrangement. I was told the donor had agreed to remain anonymous.””
Emily pointed at the screen.
“Then why did you transfer $80,000 to Dr. Shaw's personal account?””
Victoria went silent.
James looked at her.
“Why?””
She pressed her lips together.
Then, very quietly, she said, “Because he told me the arrangement would disappear once the babies were born.””
The room seemed to shrink around them.
“Disappear?”” James repeated.
Victoria nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks.
“He promised the records would be sealed. He said nobody would come looking for the children. He said I could raise them as my own.””
“And you believed him?””
“I wanted to believe him.””
Emily shook her head.
“You didn't just want to believe him. You paid him to make it happen.””
Victoria turned on her.
“You don't understand what it was like! Every time I went to another appointment, I thought I was going to hear that I would never be a mother. I was desperate.
I was frightened. And then James came into my life, and for the first time I thought I could have a normal family.””
James stared at her.
“You had a choice.””
“I know.””
“You could have told me the truth.””
“I know.””
“You could have walked away.””
“I KNOW!””
Her scream silenced the room.
Victoria wiped her face and stepped toward him.
“I thought I could fix it before the babies were born. I thought if I gave them a loving home, nobody would ever take them away.””
James looked toward the empty nursery.
“And what about the family who paid for them?””
Victoria's expression collapsed.
“They weren't supposed to come back.””
“Who are they?””
“I don't know.””
“Stop lying!””
She shook her head desperately.
“I never met them. Dr. Shaw handled everything. I only spoke to him.””
Emily returned to the computer.
“There's one final document. The original custody agreement.””
She opened it.
At the bottom was a signature.
Not Victoria's.
Not Dr. Shaw's.
A name James recognized from the photographs in his father's old office.
*THOMAS COLE.*
His father.
James felt the room tilt.
“My father died eight years ago.””
Emily turned slowly toward him.
“I know.””
“Then how could he have signed a contract about children who weren't even conceived?””
She stared at the date printed beneath the signature.
It was dated nine years earlier.
And beside the signature was a handwritten note.
*THE BOY MUST NEVER LEARN WHO HIS FATHER REALLY WAS.*
James read the sentence once.
Then again.
Victoria began to cry harder.
Emily looked at him with a horror that mirrored his own.
“James,” she whispered, “I think this agreement was never about the twins.””
May you like
She pointed at the signature.
“I think it was about you.””
