Chapter 6 - The Voice Beneath the Waves
Martin found them forty minutes later.
His security team lowered ropes from the cliff while rescue boats searched the water for debris. Naomi arrived with federal agents and a warrant that no longer mattered. Half of Mariner House had fallen into the sea. The masked men were gone. One abandoned vehicle was discovered in the woods with its identification numbers removed.
Scarlett refused Martin's coat when they pulled her onto the cliff.
She accepted Lucy's hand.
Neither mentioned it.
At a nearby Coast Guard station, doctors treated them for hypothermia. Lucy sat wrapped in gray blankets while a technician dried and repaired the microcassette. Martin remained outside the room, pacing. Scarlett sat across from Lucy, staring at nothing.
"You saved the tape," Scarlett said.
"I lost everything else."
"You went back for the bag."
"It had evidence."
"You could have drowned."
Lucy looked at her. "You went back for me after the wave separated us."
Scarlett's mouth tightened. "Do not make it sentimental."
"I would never."
The technician returned with a digital copy of the recording. Naomi joined them. Martin entered last and stood near the wall.
A woman's frightened breathing filled the speakers.
Then Rose spoke.
"It is November third. I am recording at Mariner House because Daniel says written records are no longer safe. Vivian delivered a daughter at 2:14 this morning. The baby was healthy. I saw her through the nursery glass. She had a crescent-shaped birthmark behind her left ear."
Scarlett's hand rose slowly to her hair.
There was no birthmark behind her ear.
Rose continued.
"At 3:05, Dr. Vale ordered the nursery cleared. Another infant arrived through the service entrance. Female, approximately six hours old, no identification. Vivian's baby was taken downstairs. The second infant was placed in her bassinet."
Martin closed his eyes.
Scarlett did not move.
"I followed Daniel to the basement," Rose said. "Vivian was there. She was not weak from labor. She was standing beside the incinerator. She told Daniel the wrong child could not be allowed to inherit. Daniel refused to kill the baby. Martin's father arrived and struck him. They argued about the trust. I heard him say that the real baby would remain useful as leverage."
A man's voice sounded faintly in the background.
"Rose, someone is coming."
"Daniel hid the child in a laundry cart. I helped him reach the coastal road. He gave her to a woman in a blue car. I do not know the woman's name. I only know the license plate began with M-R."
The initials on the photograph.
M.R.
The recording shifted. Rose was crying now.
"The replacement infant remained upstairs. She wore the pink thread. Vivian named her Scarlett before dawn."
Scarlett stood so quickly the chair overturned.
"Turn it off."
No one moved.
"Turn it off!"
Naomi stopped the recording.
Scarlett faced Martin. "Did you know?"
"No."
"Did you ever wonder why I looked nothing like you?"
"Children are not proof of their parents' faces."
"Did she love me?"
Martin's answer took too long.
Scarlett laughed bitterly. "That is what I thought."
She walked toward the door. Lucy caught her wrist.
Scarlett looked down at Lucy's hand.
"Do not touch me."
"Your mother chose what was done," Lucy said. "You did not."
"You do not know what I chose."
"I know you were a newborn."
"And after that? I became exactly what she raised me to be."
Lucy released her. "Then decide what you become next."
Scarlett stared at her for a long moment and left.
Martin remained by the wall. His face seemed older than it had at the gala.
"I raised another woman's child," he said.
Naomi replied sharply. "You raised Scarlett. Biology does not erase that."
"I know."
"Do you? Because she just asked whether her mother loved her, and you answered with silence."
Martin went after her.
Lucy watched him leave, surprised by the small pain that followed. She had spent years imagining Martin's attention as something she would reject. Now every time he chose Scarlett, a younger part of her noticed.
Evelyn arrived carrying a file recovered from the estate's records. "We traced the initials M.R. to Margaret Rowe, a midwife employed at Mariner House. She disappeared in 1999."
"Disappeared or died?" Lucy asked.
"Officially died in a house fire. No remains were identified."
Naomi opened the file. "Address?"
"At the time, a farm outside Bellweather. The property changed hands twice. It is now owned by a shell company called Closed Door Holdings."
Lucy looked at the crest on the file cover.
A crown above a closed door.
"Who controls the company?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"According to the corporate registry, you do."
Lucy stared at her.
"I have never heard of it."
"The company was transferred into a trust on your eighteenth birthday. The signature authorizing the transfer appears to be Rose Carter's."
Lucy took the document.
Her mother's signature was perfect.
Too perfect.
At the bottom of the page, beneath the notary seal, was a handwritten note in ink that had not appeared on the scanned version.
LUCY, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, DO NOT TRUST THE WOMAN WHO GAVE YOU THE KEYS.
Evelyn read over her shoulder.
The room became very quiet.
Lucy turned toward her.
"You gave my mother the photograph," she said. "You knew about the nursery. You knew about the envelopes."
Evelyn did not deny it.
"Tell me why Rose warned me about you."
Evelyn reached inside her coat.
Naomi's hand moved toward her weapon.
May you like
But Evelyn withdrew only a small brass key.
"Because," she said, "Rose believed I was the baby taken from Vivian Bennett."
