Chapter 9 - Daniel spent the night staring at the screen.His father had supposedly died from a heart attack four years earlier.
Yet there he was.
Alive.
Walking down a hospital corridor.
Smiling.
Talking to Vivian.
Talking to Drea.
And carrying a baby.
Caleb.
Detective Hayes paused the footage.
“Can you identify where this was?”
Daniel nodded.
“That hospital was in Westlake.”
The detective searched the records.
Then looked up.
“There's a problem.”
“What?”
“The hospital closed six years ago.”
Daniel frowned.
“Closed?”
“Three months after this recording.”
Emma stood.
“Why?”
Detective Hayes turned the laptop toward them.
“Financial fraud investigation.”
Daniel read the article.
The hospital had been accused of falsifying medical records and transferring patients under false identities.
No charges had ever been brought against his father.
Because his father's name had never appeared in the investigation.
Daniel suddenly understood why.
His father had controlled the hospital's private foundation.
Money had moved through shell companies.
Donations had been made.
Files had disappeared.
People had been paid.
The question wasn't whether his father had been involved.
The question was how deep it went.
Then they found the company name.
Hale Family Foundation.
Daniel stared at it.
“That's my father.”
Emma shook her head.
“No.”
She pointed at the document.
“Look at the registered director.”
Daniel looked.
The director wasn't his father.
It was Drea.
He felt his stomach drop.
“Drea?”
“She was on the board?” Detective Hayes asked.
Daniel shook his head.
“She told me she had never worked.”
Emma whispered:
“She lied about everything.”
The police search expanded.
By evening, they located an abandoned warehouse connected to the foundation.
Inside were dozens of boxes.
Most were empty.
One contained photographs.
Children.
Women.
Hospital beds.
Dates.
Codes.
And one photograph made Daniel stop breathing.
Calla.
Age four.
Standing beside another little girl.
The other child looked almost identical to her.
Same dark hair.
Same eyes.
Same small scar behind the ear.
Calla stared at the photograph.
“Who is that?”
Emma looked at it.
“I don't know.”
Detective Hayes turned it over.
A handwritten name appeared.
LILA.
Below it:
TWIN MATCH CONFIRMED.
Daniel went pale.
“Twin?”
Emma shook her head violently.
“No.”
The detective looked at her.
“Were you carrying twins?”
Emma's face collapsed.
“I was told there was one baby.”
Daniel stared.
“You never knew?”
Emma wiped her tears.
“I remember the ultrasound.”
“How many babies?”
“Two.”
Silence.
“You saw two?”
“Yes.”
Daniel's face hardened.
“Then why did you think Caleb was the second child?”
Emma looked at the photograph again.
Her hands started trembling.
“I don't know.”
Detective Hayes studied the file.
“The records show three children connected to this case.”
Daniel stared.
“Three?”
She placed three photographs side by side.
Calla.
Caleb.
Lila.
All three had the same distinctive eyes.
Emma whispered:
“No.”
Daniel asked:
“Who's the third?”
“The records don't say.”
A handwritten note had been attached.
THIRD SUBJECT REMOVED BEFORE REGISTRATION.
Emma's knees nearly gave out.
“Removed where?”
No one answered.
Then Daniel noticed the date.
The third child's removal happened exactly one day before Emma's disappearance.
He looked at his daughter.
Then at the two photographs.
And finally at the empty space where the third child's photograph should have been.
“Someone didn't just take my son.”
He whispered:
“They built an entire system around our children.”
Suddenly a warehouse alarm began screaming.
The lights turned red.
Detective Hayes drew her weapon.
“Everyone out!”
Smoke began pouring under the door.
Emma grabbed Calla.
Daniel grabbed the evidence.
Then the warehouse doors locked automatically.
A voice echoed through the speakers.
Vivian.
“Daniel.”
He looked up.
“Your father made one mistake.”
A pause.
“He thought the children belonged to him.”
The voice softened.
“They never did.”
The lights went out.
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Then the speaker whispered:
“They belonged to the person who was watching Calla from the beginning.”
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