Chapter 5 - The Child Who Was Chosen.
The address on the note led to an abandoned children's clinic forty miles outside the city.
Ethan wanted to call the police before going.
David refused.
"If someone can enter Margaret's locked nursery, they can listen to a police report."
Margaret surprised everyone by agreeing with him.
She drove herself, gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles turned white.
Claire sat in the passenger seat, still wearing the wedding dress beneath Ethan's dark coat.
No one mentioned how strange the sight was.
The clinic stood behind a chain-link fence covered in dead vines.
A rusted sign read VALE CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION.
Ethan looked at Margaret.
"You told me Grandfather donated to children's hospitals."
"I believed he did."
David cut the lock with a tool from his trunk.
Inside, dust covered overturned chairs and faded posters of smiling families.
The air smelled damp and metallic.
They found the brass key's lock in the basement.
It opened a steel records room.
Most shelves were empty.
One filing cabinet remained bolted to the floor.
Inside were dozens of folders identified only by dates and numbers.
Ethan found one marked with his birthday.
His hands began to shake before he opened it.
A black-and-white photograph showed him as a newborn.
Beneath it were medical notes, blood type records, and a typed statement.
SUBJECT E-17 SELECTED FOR HALE PLACEMENT.
Claire read the line twice.
"Selected?"
Ethan flipped the page.
A column listed traits such as eye color, predicted height, family medical history, and cognitive screening.
"I was chosen from a catalog," he said.
Margaret covered her mouth.
"No."
David took the file and scanned the next page.
His face changed.
"Margaret, your father signed this."
At the bottom was the name Charles Vale.
Margaret sat down hard on a metal chair.
"He brought Ethan to me after the fire."
Ethan stared at her.
"How long after Claire disappeared?"
"Three months."
"And you never wondered where I came from?"
"He said your mother died giving birth."
"You believed him because it gave you another baby."
The words were cruel, but Margaret did not defend herself.
Claire touched Ethan's arm.
"This isn't your fault."
He looked at her with hollow eyes.
"I don't even know what my name was."
A floorboard creaked in the hallway.
Everyone turned.
David raised a finger to his lips.
Another sound followed.
A slow footstep.
Then another.
Someone was inside the clinic.
Margaret whispered, "We were followed."
The records room had no second exit.
Ethan quietly shut the filing cabinet and moved beside the door.
The handle turned.
Claire held her breath.
The door opened three inches.
Ethan yanked it wide and grabbed the person outside.
A woman screamed.
She was in her sixties, thin, with silver hair and frightened eyes.
David recognized her first.
"Miriam Cole."
Margaret stumbled forward.
"You were my nurse."
Miriam stared at Claire's face and began crying.
"Oh, God."
She reached toward Claire but stopped herself.
"You survived."
Claire's voice was cold.
Ethan kept reading until he found a notation showing that payments had continued for years after his placement.
Someone had been paid to report his school, medical, and behavioral records back to the foundation.
He realized with a chill that even his childhood had been monitored like an investment.
"Tell me why I was taken."
Miriam looked at Margaret.
"Because your father ordered me to kill her."
Margaret's knees almost gave way.
Miriam continued before anyone could speak.
"And Ethan was never supposed to be your replacement."
May you like
She pointed toward his file.
"He was supposed to be your father's heir."
