Chapter 17 - The Hospital BasementThe hospital where I had been born had been abandoned for years.
Its basement was sealed after a flood.
Lily had a key.
The door opened with a metallic groan.
Inside, the air smelled of mold.
Old filing cabinets lined the walls.
A generator hummed somewhere in the dark.
Lily led us to a locked room.
Inside were shelves of patient records.
Thousands.
I found my birth certificate.
Then Vanessa's.
Then Lily's.
Then Emma's.
Then the missing pregnancy.
Everything.
Original documents.
Unchanged.
Unaltered.
Proof.
Then I saw another name.
Subject 1: Rachel Carter.
I stared.
“What?”
Lily looked at me.
“You were the first.”
“The first what?”
“The first child they tried to erase.”
My breath caught.
They had manipulated my identity as a child.
I wasn't who I thought I was.
My original birth record had different parents.
Different date.
Different name.
I looked at Lily.
“Who am I?”
She didn't answer.
Then I heard footsteps.
Someone entered the room.
My father.
He was holding a gun.
“Put the files down.”
I stepped backward.
“You lied to me my whole life.”
“I protected you.”
“From what?”
“From the truth.”
“Tell me now.”
He sighed.
“You were born to my brother.”
I stared.
“You are not my daughter.”
I couldn't breathe.
“Then whose daughter am I?”
He whispered:
“Your mother's sister.”
The world went silent.
My entire identity had been fabricated.
Then he looked at Lily.
“She knows.”
Lily raised her chin.
“Everything.”
Dad's gun trembled.
“You're both supposed to disappear.”
He raised it.
A voice shouted.
Police.
Red lights flashed through the basement windows.
Dad turned.
For one second, he hesitated.
That was enough.
An officer tackled him.
The gun slid across the floor.
I collapsed.
But before they arrested him, he looked at me.
“One thing remains.”
“What?”
He smiled.
“Your daughter.”
My heart stopped.
“What about her?”
“The girl you rescued isn't Emma.”
I stared.
“No.”
He nodded toward Lily.
“She never was.”
My blood turned cold.
The hospital room.
The cameras.
The DNA test.
Everything.
May you like
The child I thought was Emma…
might not be Emma.
