Chapter 11 - The Room UpstairsWe found the room behind a locked door.
Vanessa had hidden the key inside her bedroom closet.
The police were already on their way.
This time, there was no family intervention.
No excuses.
No warnings.
The door opened.
And I wish it hadn't.
The walls were covered with photographs.
Dozens.
Maybe hundreds.
Children.
Babies.
Hospital rooms.
Birth certificates.
Adoption records.
My hands shook as I moved from one file to another.
Names.
Dates.
Addresses.
Vanessa had been tracking children.
Not just mine.
Other families.
Other babies.
Daniel pulled open a cabinet.
Inside were identity documents.
Some real.
Some forged.
Then he found a notebook.
He opened it.
Every child had a number.
Emma was listed as:
Subject 12.
Vanessa's daughter:
Subject 13.
I stared.
“What is this?”
Lily walked into the room behind us.
Her face changed.
“This is what your father built.”
My father?
I looked at the files.
“What kind of operation keeps records on children?”
Lily shook her head.
“Not an operation.”
“Then what?”
“A system.”
“For what?”
She looked toward the photographs.
“Replacing people.”
I didn't understand.
Lily continued.
“Your father discovered that some families would pay enormous amounts for children who matched the appearance of dead relatives.”
My stomach turned.
“They were selling children?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then what?”
“They were creating new identities.”
She pointed at the files.
“Children were moved. Names changed. Records rewritten.”
I stared at Emma's file.
My daughter's name had been crossed out.
Underneath was another name.
Mia Carter.
My missing baby.
The little girl standing downstairs wasn't Vanessa's daughter.
She was Mia.
My daughter.
She had been taken at birth and raised under another name.
I covered my mouth.
Then I noticed another photograph.
A teenage girl.
Lily.
But she was standing beside a newborn.
The date was six months after her “death.”
I looked at Lily.
“You knew.”
She nodded.
“I tried to expose them.”
“And they hid you.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Grandma?”
Lily looked away.
“Your grandmother found out.”
My heart stopped.
“They killed her?”
“No.”
“She died naturally.”
Lily shook her head.
“She was healthy.”
I stared.
“What happened?”
“Your father poisoned her.”
Silence.
Then the police sirens sounded outside.
Lily looked at me.
“Rachel, there's one thing you still don't know.”
“What?”
“The person who started all of this wasn't your father.”
She pointed at Vanessa's notebook.
At the bottom of the final page was a signature.
Not my father's.
Not Vanessa's.
Not anyone I knew.
A single name.
May you like
Margaret.
My mother's name.
