Chapter 2 - The Name Behind The Wall.
No one moved after the name came through the laptop speakers.
Emma felt the air leave the room as if someone had opened a door into winter.
Vanessa's wrist remained locked in the police officer's hand.
The doctor stared at the screen with the stunned expression of a man realizing his patient had been brought into a story far larger than medicine.
The recording continued.
Emma's father, Daniel Carter, stepped into the grainy frame wearing the same charcoal sweater Emma remembered from the last morning she had seen him.
He looked exhausted.
He also looked terrified.
"Emily is alive," Daniel said on the recording.
Vanessa shook her head violently in the present-day hospital room.
"This is edited."
The officer tightened his grip.
"Then you'll have no problem letting it play."
Vanessa stopped struggling.
Onscreen, Daniel moved closer to the hidden camera.
"If anyone finds this, Arthur was right."
Emma's heart slammed against her ribs at the mention of Grandpa Arthur.
Arthur Carter had died six months earlier after collapsing alone in his private study.
Vanessa told everyone it had been a stroke.
She also became trustee of his estate three days later.
The video jumped forward.
A woman in pale green scrubs appeared at the far end of the hallway carrying a newborn wrapped in a yellow hospital blanket.
Vanessa's recorded voice sharpened.
"That child was not supposed to leave this floor."
The nurse looked frightened.
"You said the family had agreed."
"The family agreed to one daughter."
Emma's fingers went cold around the bunny.
The doctor beside the doorway whispered something under his breath.
Vanessa twisted toward him.
"Don't you dare start making assumptions."
The doctor met her glare.
"I recognize that hallway."
Everyone turned toward him.
He pointed at the faded blue stripe running along the wall in the video.
"That was the old maternity wing of St. Catherine's before the renovation."
Emma looked around the room.
They were inside St. Catherine's now.
The same hospital.
The officer immediately reached for his radio.
Vanessa's composure fractured.
"I want my attorney."
"You can call one."
The officer released her wrist but positioned himself between her and the door.
"You are not leaving until I know whether that video contains evidence of a crime."
Vanessa laughed too quickly.
"A crime from ten years ago?"
Emma noticed the mistake before anyone else did.
No one had said when the video was recorded.
The officer noticed Emma noticing it.
His expression hardened.
"How do you know it was ten years ago?"
Vanessa's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
The laptop speakers crackled again.
Daniel reappeared onscreen, this time holding a file folder with two newborn identification bracelets taped inside.
Both bracelets carried the Carter surname.
One read EMMA.
The other read EMILY.
Emma pressed one hand over her mouth.
She had spent years believing she was an only child.
Daniel looked directly into the hidden camera.
"Vanessa knows where my second daughter was taken."
Vanessa took one step backward.
The officer blocked her.
Daniel continued.
"If she has legal control over Emma when this is found, then Arthur's trust is already in danger."
The recording froze.
A folder opened automatically on the laptop desktop.
Inside were dozens of files labeled with dates, bank transfers, medical scans, and photographs.
Emma saw one photograph first.
It showed two newborn girls sleeping side by side.
A hand had written two names beneath them.
Emma.
Emily.
But the next photograph made the doctor go pale.
May you like
It had been taken three days earlier.
And the girl standing beside Vanessa in the image looked exactly like Emma.
