Chapter 7 - The Night Noah Was BornThe room became painfully quiet.
Daniel turned toward Sarah.
“Tell me.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Not here.”
“Here.”
“Daniel…”
“Now.”
Sarah looked at Noah.
Then she whispered,
“The night Noah was born, someone tried to take him.”
Maria felt a chill.
“How?”
“At the hospital.”
Daniel stared.
“You told me nothing happened.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because they told me you'd be next.”
Daniel's face hardened.
“Who?”
Sarah shook her head.
“I never saw his face.”
“What did he do?”
“He knew everything.”
She took a trembling breath.
“He knew Noah's room number. He knew my doctor. He knew the nurse schedule.”
Daniel looked at Maria.
“Was Maria working for us then?”
“No.”
Maria's eyes widened.
“So I had nothing to do with it.”
“I know.”
Sarah continued.
“The man tried to enter the nursery.”
“What stopped him?”
“A nurse.”
“What happened to her?”
Sarah's voice became almost inaudible.
“She disappeared.”
Silence.
Daniel stared.
“Sarah.”
“She vanished two days later.”
“Was she reported missing?”
“I don't know.”
“How could you not know?”
“Because the police told me she left voluntarily.”
Maria frowned.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“No.”
Sarah looked at her.
“Because before she disappeared, she told me something.”
“What?”
Sarah hesitated.
“She said Noah had been marked.”
Olivia whispered,
“Marked?”
Sarah nodded.
“She showed me a file.”
“What file?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Where is it?”
Sarah looked toward the staircase.
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
“In this house.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You've been hiding evidence from me for months.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You were protecting me by letting me think Maria tried to hurt Noah?”
Sarah began crying.
“I didn't know how else to stop it.”
Maria looked at Daniel.
“Maybe whoever did this wanted you to turn against me.”
Daniel nodded.
“That seems likely.”
Olivia suddenly interrupted.
“Wait.”
They all looked at her.
“There’s something on the hospital records.”
She had opened her laptop.
“The nurse Sarah mentioned wasn't the only person who disappeared.”
She clicked.
“Three months before Noah was born, another employee disappeared.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Who?”
Olivia turned the screen.
The name appeared.
Grace Miller.
Maria stared.
“I know her.”
Daniel looked shocked.
“You do?”
“She used to work here.”
“When?”
“Before me.”
Maria remembered an older woman who trained her during her first week.
Grace had quit suddenly.
At least, that's what Maria had been told.
Olivia scrolled.
“Dad, Grace wasn't just a maid.”
“What was she?”
She opened another record.
“She was your father's personal assistant.”
Daniel froze.
“My father died fifteen years ago.”
“I know.”
Olivia pointed to the date.
“Grace disappeared nine years ago.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
Then he noticed something.
A photograph attached to the file.
Grace Miller was standing beside an older man.
Daniel's father.
And beside them stood another young man.
Daniel himself.
But behind the group was someone else.
A boy.
Maybe twelve years old.
Someone Daniel recognized immediately.
Ethan.
Daniel stepped back.
He had always believed his brother had been away at school that year.
He had always believed the family photographs had been complete.
They weren't.
Someone had erased Ethan from the story.
Then Daniel noticed the date written beneath the picture.
The photograph had been taken exactly eighteen years ago.
The same year Daniel's father created the secret symbol.
And the same year his father had written a note that Daniel had never seen.
Olivia zoomed in.
The handwritten message said:
Never let them near the child.
Daniel's breathing stopped.
“Which child?”
Nobody answered.
Then Sarah whispered,
“Daniel…”
She pointed toward the last line.
May you like
It read:
Especially if the child is yours.
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