Chapter 7 - The Woman Who Delivered My DaughtersThe birth records arrived forty minutes later.
They came in a sealed envelope carried by a woman named Dr. Helena Ward, a former medical examiner who had worked with Elias for years. She was in her fifties, wore no jewelry, and had the grave expression of someone accustomed to delivering devastating news.
She laid two documents on the table.
“These are the official records from the hospital,” she said. “And these are the copies recovered from the clinic's internal database.”
I studied the papers.
Both listed my daughters' names as unknown female infants.
Both contained my name.
But the serial numbers differed.
“Why are there two sets?”
“Because someone altered the first set after the delivery.”
Dr. Ward turned the pages toward Elias.
“The original record identifies the twins as Baby A and Baby B. The altered record changes their sequence, switches their medical identifiers, and adds a note claiming that one child required immediate transfer.”
“That was Grace,” I whispered.
“We believe so.”
“But why?”
Dr. Ward hesitated.
“Your husband instructed the doctor to report a serious complication that never occurred. He wanted one child moved to a private facility without the proper hospital transfer paperwork.”
My knees weakened.
“They stole her.”
“Yes.”
The word landed with brutal finality.
Elias moved to the window, his back rigid.
“Where is the private facility?”
“Closed. Its registration was canceled yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” I repeated.
Dr. Ward nodded. “Someone anticipated an investigation.”
I looked at the documents again, searching for anything that could tell me where Grace was.
Then I spotted the symbol beside Baby B's altered identification number.
A crescent moon surrounded by two circles.
The same symbol engraved on my father's metal box.
“That's it,” I whispered.
Elias returned to the table.
“Your father used the symbol to distinguish a particular shipment record. Someone has copied it onto these medical documents.”
“Why would anyone mark my daughter with the same symbol?”
Dr. Ward examined the notation.
“I can't answer that yet, but it suggests this was planned before the birth. They didn't improvise after discovering you had twin girls.”
I remembered Nathan pacing the apartment during the final weeks of my pregnancy, speaking in hushed tones on the balcony. I remembered his anger when I asked about the calls.
Now I understood that he had been waiting for something.
Possibly for my children to be born.
My voice trembled.
“Did Nathan know about the twins before the delivery?”
“According to the clinic's billing records, he received a confidential prenatal report,” Dr. Ward said. “He knew you were carrying two girls at least ten days before you gave birth.”
The realization cut deeper than any bruise.
He had known.
He had known there would be two little girls, and he had still let me believe that his absence was temporary, that he was busy with work, that perhaps he would change when he finally held them.
Instead, he'd arranged for one of them to disappear.
“What does the mark mean?” I asked.
Elias looked down at the metal box.
“I suspect your father used it to identify transactions connected to a secret account. But the mark on these medical records is different. Someone used the same symbol to connect your daughters to that account.”
“So Grace is connected to the ledger?”
“Perhaps. We need more evidence.”
My phone vibrated again.
An incoming call appeared from a blocked number.
Elias signaled for the call to be traced before answering.
“Speak.”
Nathan's voice filled the room.
“Are you enjoying your new family, Vance?”
Elias said nothing.
Nathan laughed softly.
“Give me the ledger, and I'll tell you where your missing child is.”
I snatched the phone.
“Nathan! Let me speak to Grace!”
“There's my wife.”
His voice became sweet in a way that made me feel sick.
“Are you eating properly, darling? You always did forget to take care of yourself.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“I tried to solve a problem.”
“You abandoned your daughters!”
“One daughter,” he corrected. “The other is a complication.”
I could barely speak.
“You're a monster.”
“Perhaps. But I know something you don't, Ava. Your father wasn't killed because he refused to falsify a shipping record.”
Elias's gaze sharpened.
Nathan continued.
“He was killed because he stole something from the people who owned the port before Vance took control.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“What did he steal?”
Nathan's answer came quietly.
“The names of the men who ordered the fire.”
A pause.
“And one of those men is still sitting beside you.”
The call disconnected.
I slowly lowered the phone.
Elias's face was unreadable.
Then Luca entered with a tablet showing an old photograph from the shipping archives.
A man stood beside my father outside the warehouse that had burned twelve years ago.
May you like
His face was unmistakable.
It was Elias Vance.
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