CHAPTER 8 THE BABY SWITCH
Marcus felt the room tilt beneath him.
Khloe's words echoed through the ICU.
"They kidnapped the wrong child."
Richard slowly closed the door, signaling everyone except Dr. Bennett and Dr. Emily Carter to leave.
Within seconds, the room was silent.
Marcus turned back to Khloe.
"What do you mean... the wrong child?"
Khloe looked exhausted.
Her face was pale from surgery.
Her lips trembled.
For nearly a minute, she said nothing.
Finally...
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this."
Marcus's eyes narrowed.
"You knew someone was coming."
Khloe shut her eyes.
"I suspected."
"You suspected our newborn daughter would be kidnapped?"
"No..."
"I suspected they would come for... the baby."
Marcus stepped closer.
"Who are 'they'?"
Khloe slowly shook her head.
"If I tell you..."
"...more people will die."
Marcus's voice cracked for the first time.
"Our daughter is missing!"
Khloe opened her eyes, tears spilling down her cheeks.
"I know!"
"And that's exactly why I stayed silent."
The room fell quiet again.
Richard broke the silence.
"Mrs. Thorne..."
"The woman who attacked you..."
"Was Isabella working for them?"
Khloe answered without hesitation.
"No."
Everyone looked surprised.
Marcus frowned.
"Then why attack you?"
"Because Isabella believed this was about you."
"It never was."
Khloe stared toward the ceiling.
"She thought she was destroying a marriage."
"But she accidentally started a war."
Richard placed two newborn identification bracelets on the bedside table.
One belonged to Baby Thorne.
The other belonged to the mysterious ghost patient.
"They were printed just forty-three seconds apart," Richard explained.
"The records show both infants were female."
Dr. Carter folded her arms.
"That's impossible."
"I delivered only one baby from this operating room."
Richard nodded.
"Exactly."
"So where did the second bracelet come from?"
No one answered.
Marcus suddenly remembered something.
"The power outage."
Everyone looked at him.
"The lights flickered just before the surgery ended."
Dr. Carter's expression changed.
"It wasn't just the lights."
"What?"
"Our operating room cameras rebooted."
"How long?"
"Maybe..."
"...twenty seconds."
Richard immediately looked at his laptop.
Twenty seconds.
Enough time.
Enough to switch identification bracelets.
Enough to change one medical record.
Enough to make one newborn become another.
He whispered,
"The kidnapping started before the birth."
Meanwhile...
The unmarked ambulance entered an abandoned underground parking structure.
The mysterious man stepped out carrying the infant.
A steel door slid open.
Inside waited six armed men.
And one elderly woman in a wheelchair.
Despite her age...
Everyone in the room stood when she entered.
The man handed her the baby.
She smiled warmly.
"So this is Marcus's daughter."
"No."
The man calmly replied.
"This is the decoy."
The woman's smile disappeared.
"What?"
"They switched the babies."
Silence.
One of the armed men cursed.
"When?"
"We don't know."
The elderly woman's eyes hardened.
"Then Khloe moved before we did."
She looked down at the sleeping child.
"This isn't the one we came for."
The man nodded.
"No."
The old woman sighed deeply.
"For twenty-three years..."
"We've been hunting the wrong family."
Back at the hospital...
Marcus sat alone outside Khloe's room.
Everything he believed about his life had collapsed in less than twelve hours.
His father may have been murdered.
He had apparently been adopted.
His wife had hidden secrets.
His newborn daughter had disappeared.
Or perhaps...
Hadn't.
His phone vibrated again.
Unknown number.
This time...
A video.
He pressed play.
The footage lasted only twelve seconds.
It showed a newborn sleeping peacefully inside a dimly lit room.
The baby's face was clearly visible.
Marcus's daughter.
She was alive.
Then the camera tilted upward.
A masked man spoke.
"You have twenty-four hours."
"If you tell the police anything about Genesis..."
"...you'll never see her again."
The video ended.
Marcus replayed it immediately.
Something caught his eye.
In the final second...
Behind the masked man...
A wall clock.
Old-fashioned.
White face.
Roman numerals.
Richard watched the clip.
"Pause."
Marcus froze the frame.
Richard zoomed in.
The clock displayed 2:47.
Below it hung a faded blue sign.
Only half the lettering was visible.
...CHILDREN'S HOME
Richard's eyes widened.
"It isn't a warehouse."
"It isn't a bunker."
Marcus looked at him.
"What is it?"
Richard enlarged the image further.
Hidden beneath layers of peeling paint...
An old municipal emblem.
He recognized it instantly.
"I know this building."
Marcus stood.
"Where?"
Richard swallowed.
"It burned down..."
"...eighteen years ago."
Marcus stared at him.
"You just said 'burned down.'"
Richard nodded slowly.
"Exactly."
"So why is it standing in this video?"
Neither man noticed that, inside the ICU room, Khloe had also seen the paused frame on Marcus's phone.
The moment she saw the faded blue sign...
Every trace of color vanished from her face.
She whispered to herself, barely audibly:
"No..."
"They found Saint Mary's."
Dr. Emily Carter, standing just outside the curtain, heard every word.
She quietly took one step backward.
Then another.
Without saying a word, she slipped into the hallway.
She pulled out her phone.
Dialed a number from memory.
The call connected after a single ring.
Dr. Carter's voice was calm.
Almost emotionless.
"She recognized the orphanage."
A man's voice replied from the other end:
"Then there's no more time."
Dr. Carter closed her eyes.
"I understand."
The man gave one final instruction.
"Bring Khloe to us."
The line went dead.
Dr. Emily Carter slowly looked back toward the ICU door.
For the first time...
It became clear that someone Marcus trusted with his wife's life...
May you like
Had been working for the enemy all along.
END OF CHAPTER 8
