Chapter 2 - By Dawn, One of Us Wasn't Her Parent
Nobody slept.
Fern finally stabilized shortly after midnight.
Dr. Hale kept her under observation while Stellan transformed the mansion into a prison.
Every employee was questioned.
Every camera recording was pulled.
Every entrance was sealed.
I sat beside Fern’s bed, holding her hand.
Stellan stood across the room.
He had changed his bloodstained shirt, but not his expression.
At 3:17 a.m., one of his security men entered.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“We found something.”
He placed a tablet on the counter.
The video showed the servants’ corridor outside the laundry room.
At 8:42 that evening, someone wearing a housekeeping uniform entered carrying my diaper bag.
Three minutes later, the person left.
The face was hidden beneath a cap.
Stellan replayed it.
“Height?”
“Approximately five-six.”
“Male or female?”
“Unknown.”
Mrs. Thornbury stood near the door.
“There are twelve people on staff around that height.”
“Then question twelve people.”
The guard left.
I looked at Stellan.
“This is insane.”
“Yes.”
“Who would want to hurt a baby?”
His eyes remained on the screen.
“Someone afraid of what she proves.”
Before I could ask what that meant, Dr. Hale entered.
He carried an envelope.
Stellan straightened.
I couldn’t breathe.
“The results?”
Hale nodded.
He looked uncomfortable.
That frightened me.
“Say it,” Stellan ordered.
Hale placed the papers on the table.
“Stellan is not Fern’s biological father.”
I felt something inside me collapse.
Stellan did not move.
I stared at Hale.
“That’s impossible.”
“I repeated the test.”
“No.”
“Selene—”
“No!”
Fern stirred.
I immediately lowered my voice.
“There was no one else.”
Hale’s expression softened.
“I believe you.”
Stellan finally spoke.
“What about Selene?”
Hale looked at me.
Then everything changed.
“She isn’t Fern’s biological mother either.”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
I laughed.
I actually laughed because the alternative was screaming.
“That’s not possible.”
Hale said nothing.
“I gave birth to her.”
“I know.”
“I carried her.”
“I understand.”
“I almost died!”
Stellan moved toward me.
I backed away.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Hale slid the report toward me.
“The DNA relationship is zero.”
I looked at Fern.
My baby.
The child whose first heartbeat I had heard through a hospital monitor.
The child whose kicks had woken me at night.
The child I had delivered bleeding and terrified.
The child I had held through fifty-three nights in the NICU.
“No.”
I picked her up.
“She is mine.”
Stellan’s voice was quiet.
“No one is saying otherwise.”
“The paper is!”
I ripped the report in half.
Then again.
Then again.
Hale did not stop me.
Stellan’s jaw tightened.
“Where did you deliver?”
“St. Vincent Mercy.”
He turned toward Hale.
“Get the records.”
Hale hesitated.
“That hospital closed its maternity wing last year.”
“Records still exist.”
Stellan pulled out his phone.
Mrs. Thornbury suddenly spoke.
“You won’t find what you’re looking for there.”
Every head turned.
She was crying.
Stellan stared at her.
“Explain.”
Mrs. Thornbury sank into a chair.
“I hoped this day would never come.”
“Evelyn.”
“I didn’t know they would hurt the baby.”
“Who are they?”
She covered her face.
“Your father.”
Stellan went still.
“My father died six years ago.”
Mrs. Thornbury shook her head.
“No.”
The word landed like a gunshot.
I looked at Stellan.
His face had emptied of emotion.
Mrs. Thornbury continued.
“Victor Cross survived the warehouse fire.”
Stellan stared at her.
“You identified his body.”
“I identified what I was told to identify.”
“Why?”
“Because he threatened my sons.”
Stellan stepped backward.
For the first time, the powerful man looked like someone had struck him.
Mrs. Thornbury wiped her tears.
“Victor disappeared because the federal investigation was closing around him. He built another organization from the shadows. New names. New companies. New people.”
“And Fern?”
Mrs. Thornbury looked at me.
“I was ordered to find Selene eighteen months ago.”
My skin crawled.
“Why?”
“Because Victor knew about the night you spent with Stellan.”
Stellan’s hand curled into a fist.
“How?”
“Someone followed you.”
The room suddenly felt too small.
Mrs. Thornbury continued.
“Victor believed Selene was pregnant with a Cross heir.”
“But Fern isn’t his,” I said.
“No.”
“Then where is my baby?”
Mrs. Thornbury started crying harder.
“I don’t know.”
That answer nearly destroyed me.
Stellan’s voice became lethal.
“What happened at the hospital?”
“I only know there were two premature girls born that night.”
My breath stopped.
“Two?”
“Yes.”
“One was mine?”
“Yes.”
“And Fern?”
She nodded.
“The second baby.”
“Whose?”
Mrs. Thornbury looked at Stellan.
“Your sister’s.”
Stellan’s expression shattered.
“My sister died.”
“Not before giving birth.”
I looked between them.
Mrs. Thornbury whispered the rest.
“Cassandra Cross delivered a baby girl three hours before Selene’s emergency C-section.”
Stellan sat down.
He looked at Fern as though seeing her for the first time.
Cassandra had apparently been the one name capable of cutting through all his armor.
“My sister had a child?”
“Yes.”
“Who was the father?”
“I don’t know.”
“And where is Selene’s biological daughter?”
Mrs. Thornbury shook her head.
“That is the part Victor never told me.”
My arms tightened around Fern.
“No.”
There was more.
I could see it.
“What happened to Cassandra?”
Mrs. Thornbury looked down.
“She died the following morning.”
Stellan’s voice broke slightly.
“I was told she died in a car accident.”
“That was the story Victor created.”
“Why switch the babies?”
Mrs. Thornbury looked at Fern.
“To hide Cassandra’s daughter.”
“From whom?”
“Victor.”
I stared at her.
“That doesn’t make sense. You said Victor arranged it.”
“No.”
Mrs. Thornbury shook her head.
“Cassandra arranged the first switch.”
Everyone froze.
“First?” Stellan said.
Mrs. Thornbury looked terrified.
“Yes.”
“Meaning there was another.”
She nodded.
“Victor discovered what Cassandra had done before dawn.”
Stellan slowly stood.
“And switched them again.”
“I think so.”
“Think?”
“Nobody knew which baby ended up where.”
Fern whimpered against my chest.
Then Mrs. Thornbury said something I would remember for the rest of my life.
“There were three identification bracelets recovered from the nursery that morning.”
I stared at her.
“Three?”
“But only two mothers.”
Stellan’s eyes narrowed.
“Who was the third child?”
Mrs. Thornbury swallowed.
“A baby officially recorded as stillborn.”
My stomach turned.
“But according to Cassandra…”
May you like
She looked at Fern.
“…that baby was alive.”
