Chapter 3 - A Birth Certificate Written in Lies
We left the apartment under heavier security.
Daniel doubled the number of vehicles and ordered the estate locked down before we reached it. No staff member was permitted to leave. Every delivery was suspended, every camera checked, and every name on the household payroll reviewed.
Lily sat beside Emma in the SUV, holding her hand.
“Is the scar man coming to our house?” Lily asked.
“No,” I said.
“How do you know?”
“Because he won’t get past the gate.”
“What if he does?”
“He won’t.”
Lily studied me with the suspicious expression she used whenever adults offered answers that were too simple.
Emma leaned closer to her.
“My mommy said your daddy has more guards than some countries.”
“That might be true,” Lily said.
“It is not,” I replied.
Daniel spoke from the front seat.
“It’s closer than you think.”
I ignored him.
When we arrived, Emma pressed her face to the window.
My home stood behind stone walls on six acres outside the city. It was not a palace, though newspapers frequently called it one. To me, it was simply the only place where Lily had ever felt safe.
Emma stared at the fountains and gardens.
“Do you live here?”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“Are there other children?”
“Only Lily.”
She lowered her eyes.
Lily squeezed her hand.
“Now there are two.”
Emma said nothing, but her fingers closed around Lily’s.
Mrs. Alvarez, my housekeeper, waited in the entrance hall with clean clothes, warm soup, and the expression of a woman prepared to fight anyone who frightened a child.
She took one look at Emma and muttered something sharp in Spanish.
“What did she say?” Lily asked.
“That Karen should pray Mrs. Alvarez never finds her,” Daniel translated.
“I said no such thing,” Mrs. Alvarez replied.
“You said something worse.”
She glared at him.
“Take the girls upstairs,” I said.
Emma immediately stepped behind me.
“No.”
Mrs. Alvarez stopped.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
“I don’t want to be locked in.”
“No doors will be locked,” I told her.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
She looked at the staircase.
“Can Lily come?”
“I’m already coming,” Lily announced.
Mrs. Alvarez led them upstairs.
Emma paused on the first step and glanced back.
“You’re not leaving?”
“No.”
“You’ll be here when I come down?”
“Yes.”
Only then did she continue.
Daniel waited until the girls disappeared.
“You shouldn’t make promises before we have the DNA results.”
“I promised not to leave.”
“You know that isn’t the promise she heard.”
I walked toward my study.
“She isn’t going back to Karen.”
“Agreed.”
“She isn’t entering foster care.”
“The state may disagree.”
“Then the state can discuss it with my attorneys.”
Daniel closed the study door behind us.
“You can’t intimidate a judge into granting custody.”
“Watch me.”
“That approach is why people think you’re a criminal.”
“People think I’m a criminal because you wear a gun to breakfast.”
“I wear a gun because people try to kill you at breakfast.”
He placed the flash drive from the suitcase on my desk.
“We need to examine this on an isolated computer.”
“Do it.”
One of Daniel’s technicians connected the drive inside a secure room. It contained medical records, photographs, voice recordings, and a video file dated three days before Isabel’s death.
We opened the medical documents first.
Two birth certificates appeared on the screen.
Lily Grace Blackwell.
Born at St. Catherine’s Medical Center.
Parents: Marcus Blackwell and Grace Blackwell.
The second certificate named Emma Rose Torres.
Born on the same date.
Parents: Isabel Torres and father unknown.
I stared at the matching birth date.
“Emma believes she’s seven,” I said.
“Both girls are six,” Daniel replied. “She was lied to.”
“Why?”
“To prevent anyone from connecting their births.”
The technician opened neonatal records.
Two female infants had been delivered within eleven minutes of each other.
One by Grace.
One by Isabel.
Both children shared the same blood type.
Both files had been signed by the same physician.
Dr. Victor Sloane.
“He was an obstetric surgeon?” I asked.
“Before becoming involved with organized medical trafficking,” Daniel said. “He used hospital access to falsify births and move infants through private adoption networks.”
“Why was he in Grace’s delivery room?”
“He owned part of St. Catherine’s through shell companies.”
A new file appeared.
DNA compatibility report.
The technician looked at me.
“This was prepared six years ago.”
“Open it.”
The report identified Marcus Blackwell as the biological father of both children.
Grace Blackwell was listed as the biological mother of Lily.
Isabel Torres was listed as Emma’s biological mother.
My chair scraped against the floor as I stood.
“That’s impossible.”
Daniel remained silent.
“I never touched Isabel.”
“I know.”
“You sound certain.”
“I guarded you during that period.”
“Then how is Emma mine?”
The technician opened another medical note.
A reproductive procedure had been recorded eighteen months before the births. Samples from a private fertility clinic had been transferred to St. Catherine’s.
My samples.
Grace and I had visited a fertility specialist after two miscarriages. The clinic stored embryos and genetic material with our consent.
But we later conceived Lily naturally.
“Someone stole my genetic material,” I said.
“Yes,” Daniel replied.
“And used it to impregnate Isabel?”
“That appears to be what happened.”
“Why?”
The technician found an audio recording.
Grace’s voice filled the room.
“If you’re listening to this, Marcus knows.”
A second woman spoke.
Isabel.
“I hope he understands.”
“He won’t.”
“He deserves to.”
“He deserves a wife who didn’t lie to him.”
“You saved my life.”
“I helped create a child he never consented to.”
“No. Sloane created her. You saved her.”
I gripped the edge of the desk.
The recording continued.
Grace sounded exhausted.
“Victor wanted an heir connected to Marcus. Someone he could control later. He chose you because you worked at the hospital and had no family powerful enough to ask questions.”
“I didn’t know what they had done until I was four months pregnant,” Isabel said.
“And when you tried to expose them, they threatened to kill you.”
“They threatened Emma.”
Grace began crying.
“I should tell him.”
“If you tell Marcus, he will go to war.”
“He would protect her.”
“He would burn Chicago to the ground.”
Daniel looked at me.
I did not deny it.
Isabel’s voice softened.
“You were pregnant too. Sloane knew that. He planned to take Lily and leave your body in the delivery room.”
“And replace her records with Emma’s,” Grace said.
“They wanted the Blackwell heir under their control.”
The technician paused the recording.
I turned toward Daniel.
“What happened the night Lily was born?”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“The hospital fire alarm. The failed generator. Your security team being redirected to the east wing.”
“You thought it was an attempted kidnapping.”
“It was.”
“And Grace stopped it.”
“With Isabel’s help.”
The recording resumed.
Grace explained that Isabel had overheard Sloane’s nurses discussing the switch. She warned Grace shortly before delivery. Together, they changed the infant bracelets and hid Emma in an unused nursery until my men regained control of the floor.
Sloane escaped.
Grace helped Isabel disappear with Emma.
“She believed he died in the warehouse fire,” Daniel said.
“Then why continue hiding the child?”
“Because someone inside your organization helped him.”
My phone rang.
Mrs. Alvarez.
I answered immediately.
“What happened?”
“Emma is asking for you.”
“Why?”
“She saw a car outside the window and started screaming.”
I left the study.
Daniel followed.
We found Emma crouched behind Lily’s bed. Lily sat beside her, speaking softly.
“It’s just one of Daddy’s cars.”
“No,” Emma whispered. “That’s his car.”
I looked through the window.
A black sedan waited beyond the outer gate.
One of Daniel’s men approached the driver.
The sedan accelerated, struck the guard, and sped away.
Daniel reached for his phone.
“Lock down the roads.”
Emma crawled from behind the bed.
“He found me.”
“No,” I said. “He showed himself.”
“He’ll hurt Lily.”
I knelt.
“He won’t touch either of you.”
“My mommy tried to stop him.”
“What happened to her?”
Emma’s eyes filled with tears.
“She got sick after he came.”
“How?”
“He made her drink something.”
Daniel and I exchanged a look.
“Did you see him do it?” I asked.
Emma nodded.
“He said it was medicine. Mommy told me to run into the bathroom. I heard them arguing.”
“What did they say?”
“He wanted the flash drive. She said Grace had hidden more proof.”
“Where?”
“She wouldn’t tell him.”
“What happened next?”
“I heard Mommy fall.”
Lily wrapped her arms around Emma.
“Did Karen call a doctor?”
Emma shook her head.
“She said Mommy was already dead.”
The room went silent.
Karen had not merely neglected Emma.
She had watched Isabel die.
“Did Karen work with Victor?” Daniel asked.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did your mother trust her?”
“At first.”
“Why?”
“Karen said she was Grace’s cousin.”
I stood.
Grace had no known cousins named Karen, but the connection explained how she knew the secret.
My phone buzzed.
A message from the laboratory.
The DNA results from the fresh samples had arrived.
Probability of paternity: 99.998 percent.
Emma was my biological daughter.
There was no longer any doubt.
I looked at the frightened child beside Lily.
She had my blood.
But biology did not explain the strange recognition she had shown in the park.
“You knew who I was before today,” I said.
Emma wiped her eyes.
“Mommy showed me your picture.”
“Did she tell you I was your father?”
“Not until she was sick.”
“What exactly did she say?”
Emma glanced at Lily.
“She said I had a sister who lived in a castle.”
Lily smiled slightly.
“It isn’t really a castle.”
“It has fountains.”
“That’s true.”
Emma turned back to me.
“She said my daddy didn’t know about me. She said Grace wanted to tell you, but someone was always watching.”
“Did she say who?”
“She called him the man inside the walls.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“An insider.”
“She said if she died, I had to find you.”
“Then why did you stay with Karen?”
“Aunt Karen said you hated Mommy.”
“I never hated her.”
“She said you would send me away.”
“I won’t.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“No. But I know what was done to you.”
She searched my face.
“Does that mean I can stay tonight?”
Lily answered before I could.
“You can stay forever.”
“Lily,” I said.
“What?”
“Forever is a long time.”
“That’s why it’s good.”
Emma looked at me.
I thought of the DNA report downstairs. I thought of Grace’s letter. I thought of Isabel dying while trying to preserve evidence that could protect both girls.
“You can stay tonight,” I said. “And tomorrow. After that, we’ll make certain no one takes you anywhere unsafe.”
Emma’s shoulders lowered.
“Can I sleep in Lily’s room?”
Lily clapped.
“We can make a tent.”
“No tents,” I said.
“Daddy—”
“Fine. One tent.”
Daniel’s phone rang.
He stepped into the hall, then returned with a grim expression.
“We found Karen.”
“Where?”
“Outside the city.”
“Alive?”
“Yes. But she isn’t running anymore.”
“Why not?”
“She called us.”
“What does she want?”
“To trade information for protection.”
“Information about Sloane?”
May you like
Daniel shook his head.
“About Grace’s death.”
