Chapter 4: The Second Child
Darkness swallowed the ballroom.
A chorus of startled screams echoed beneath the crystal chandeliers.
Someone dropped a glass.
Another guest stumbled into a chair.
Children began crying.
For several long seconds, Royal Star Manor existed only as scattered voices and frightened breathing.
Then...
the emergency lights flickered on.
Soft red illumination washed across the room.
The elegant ballroom now looked more like the scene of a crime.
No music.
No celebration.
Just anxious faces searching for answers.
"Nobody move!"
A security supervisor shouted.
"Stay where you are!"
The guards rushed to every exit.
One of them pulled hard on the massive front doors.
They didn't budge.
Again.
Nothing.
"They're locked!"
Another guard hurried to the side entrance.
"These too!"
The event coordinator grabbed a radio.
"Control room, respond!"
Only static answered.
Richard Harrington stepped in front of Sophia instinctively.
"It's okay," he whispered.
"I've got you."
But Sophia was no longer looking at the doors.
She was staring at Emily.
The little girl in the faded pink dress stood completely still.
Almost...
as if she had expected the lights to go out.
Sophia slowly walked toward her.
The adults were too distracted to notice.
When they were only a few feet apart, Sophia tilted her head.
"Are you really having a birthday today?"
Emily nodded.
"I think so."
"You think so?"
"My grandma wasn't sure."
"We never had enough money to celebrate."
"So she just picked today."
Sophia looked confused.
"You've never had a birthday party?"
Emily smiled sadly.
"No."
"Not even once."
Sophia lowered her eyes.
"I have one every year."
Neither girl noticed that Richard had heard every word.
Something tightened painfully inside his chest.
Across the ballroom, Vanessa frantically dialed her phone.
No signal.
She tried again.
Nothing.
Every guest checked their devices.
No service.
No Wi-Fi.
No internet.
It was as though the entire building had been cut off from the outside world.
Dr. Leonard Brooks remained frozen near the stage.
He couldn't stop staring at Emily.
The shape of her eyes.
The curve of her smile.
The tiny birthmark near her left ear.
His heartbeat quickened.
He remembered that birthmark.
He had pointed it out to the nurses seven years ago.
"It's adorable," he'd said.
"A little crescent moon."
His hands began trembling again.
"Oh, God..."
Suddenly, the giant LED screen came back to life.
Not with another video.
Just white text.
Each word appeared one after another.
One child grew up surrounded by diamonds.
A pause.
The other grew up surrounded by silence.
Another pause.
But neither child knows the truth.
Guests exchanged nervous glances.
Then another sentence appeared.
Find the second child before midnight.
The room fell silent.
"The second child?"
"What does that mean?"
"There are only two girls..."
"No..."
Someone pointed at the screen.
"Look."
A final line slowly appeared.
Not the second baby.
The second child.
Confusion spread instantly.
Richard frowned.
"What second child?"
Even Dr. Brooks looked puzzled.
Then an elderly woman near the back gasped.
"I remember..."
Everyone turned toward her.
She introduced herself quietly.
"My name is Margaret Ellis."
"I was head nurse at St. Gabriel Hospital."
Seven years ago.
The room became utterly still.
Margaret looked at the screen.
Then at Dr. Brooks.
"You remember it too."
He nodded slowly.
"There weren't two deliveries that morning."
Margaret swallowed.
"There were..."
"...three."
The ballroom erupted.
"What?"
"Three?"
"Who was the third baby?"
Margaret's voice shook.
"A little boy."
The whispers stopped instantly.
Richard stared at her.
"A boy?"
She nodded.
"He was born just twenty-three minutes after the two girls."
"His mother..."
"...disappeared before sunrise."
Vanessa suddenly stepped backward.
Her breathing became shallow.
"No..."
Margaret looked directly at her.
"You knew."
Vanessa shook her head violently.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You've always known."
Emily frowned.
"A little boy?"
Margaret smiled sadly.
"He never left the hospital with anyone."
"He vanished."
Complete silence.
Even the security guards stopped searching the exits.
Richard couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You're saying..."
"...three babies disappeared into different lives?"
Margaret looked down.
"I'm saying..."
"...one baby was switched."
"One baby was abandoned."
"And one..."
She hesitated.
"...was taken."
A chill swept through the room.
Sophia instinctively reached for Emily's hand.
Emily looked surprised.
But she didn't pull away.
The two little girls stood together beneath the enormous birthday cake.
One in an expensive princess gown.
The other in a faded cotton dress.
Neither understood why adults had begun looking at them with tears in their eyes.
Suddenly...
one of the photographers shouted.
"Wait!"
Everyone turned.
He zoomed in on one of the pictures he'd taken only minutes earlier.
The image appeared on his camera screen.
He looked confused.
"I only photographed the two girls..."
He enlarged the photo.
Then his face drained of color.
"There was..."
"...someone standing behind them."
The nearest guests crowded around.
A blurry figure.
A child.
About seven years old.
A little boy.
Standing directly behind Emily and Sophia.
Looking into the camera.
No one remembered seeing him.
No one had noticed him during the party.
The photographer frantically checked the next image.
Gone.
Previous image.
Gone.
Only one photograph contained the mysterious child.
Then Emily whispered something so quietly that only Sophia heard it.
"I saw him."
Sophia blinked.
"When?"
"When I came inside."
"Why didn't you tell anyone?"
Emily kept staring at the photograph.
"Because..."
"...he told me not to."
Sophia's eyes widened.
"What did he say?"
Emily's voice trembled.
"He said..."
"...'When the screen wakes up... they'll finally remember me.'"
At that exact moment...
the ballroom speakers crackled to life.
A young boy's voice echoed through every corner of Royal Star Manor.
Soft.
Calm.
Almost cheerful.
May you like
"Happy birthday... sisters."
End of Chapter 4
