Chapter 6 - THE PRISONER WHO SAVED A CHILD
Andrew woke forty hours after the crash.
The first thing he did was try to remove his breathing tube.
The second thing he did was attempt to stand.
Three nurses restrained him before Natalie entered.
“Ashley is safe,” she said.
Andrew stopped fighting.
His eyes focused on her.
Natalie waited while the tube was removed.
Andrew coughed until blood spotted the cloth beneath his mouth.
“Where is she?”
“Two floors above you.”
“Who’s guarding her?”
“Two officers at the door, one inside, cameras covering both stairwells.”
“That won’t stop him.”
“Elias Voss?”
Andrew’s expression changed.
Natalie held up the photograph from Ashley’s pillow.
“Remember Hartley.”
Andrew looked away.
“Tell me what happened there.”
“No.”
“Someone tried to kill your daughter.”
His jaw tightened.
“Tell me where she is.”
“I told you. She’s safe.”
“No one is safe here.”
“Then help me.”
Andrew turned his face toward the window.
Rain continued outside, lighter now but steady.
Natalie placed the hospital bracelet on the table beside him.
EMMA VALE.
Andrew’s monitor accelerated.
“Who is Emma?” Natalie asked.
He closed his eyes.
“Where did you get that?”
“The man who entered Ashley’s room had it.”
Andrew tried to sit up again.
Pain forced him down.
“What man?”
“Gray eyes. Limp. Approximately six feet. He said the river was only the beginning.”
Andrew’s face lost color.
“That isn’t Elias.”
“We found Elias’s blood on the bridge.”
“Elias has brown eyes.”
“So you remember him.”
Andrew stared at the ceiling.
Natalie moved closer.
“The town thinks you abandoned Ashley. Half the county thinks you drove into the river because you were guilty of something. I can prove someone attacked you, but I can’t protect your daughter from a story you refuse to tell.”
Andrew laughed once, bitterly.
“You think the story protects people?”
“The truth might.”
“The truth burned eight children alive.”
Natalie said nothing.
Andrew’s gaze remained fixed above him.
“Hartley House wasn’t an orphanage,” he said at last. “Not really.”
“What was it?”
“A place where rich people hid inconvenient children.”
“Explain.”
“Children with disabilities. Children born from affairs. Children who could embarrass political families. Some were sent there for treatment. Some were never supposed to leave.”
Natalie felt a chill despite the warm room.
“What treatment?”
“Experimental drugs. Behavioral conditioning. Isolation.”
“You witnessed this?”
“I repaired the locks.”
The words seemed to hurt him more than his injuries.
“I installed reinforced doors. Cameras. Restraint bars. They told me the children were dangerous. I believed them because believing was easier than asking questions.”
“Rachel Vale worked there.”
Andrew looked toward the photograph.
“She was a nurse. The only one who tried to help them.”
“And Emma?”
“Her daughter.”
“The baby in the picture?”
Andrew nodded.
“Rachel brought Emma to work because she couldn’t afford childcare. Emma was four months old when that photograph was taken.”
“What happened to her?”
“During the fire, Rachel gave Emma to me.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew she was going back inside.”
Andrew’s voice weakened.
“She told me to take Emma and run. She said people from Hartley would come for her.”
“Did Rachel die?”
“I saw the roof collapse.”
“You never found her body?”
“No.”
Natalie looked toward the pediatric floor.
“Is Ashley actually Emma?”
Andrew’s silence answered.
“You changed her identity.”
“I protected her.”
“You told her she was your daughter.”
“She is my daughter.”
“Biologically?”
“No.”
Natalie exhaled slowly.
“Who is her biological father?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Rachel refused to tell me.”
“Why did you go to prison?”
Andrew’s eyes met hers.
“Because three days after the fire, police found me in a motel with a baby who wasn’t mine.”
“You were charged with kidnapping.”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell them?”
“Nothing.”
“Why?”
“Rachel made me promise.”
“You spent four years in prison to keep that promise?”
Andrew looked toward the door.
“They offered me a deal. Four years if I pleaded guilty. Twenty-five if I fought and lost. Hartley’s owners had judges, prosecutors, doctors, everyone. If I had told them who Emma was, they would have taken her.”
“Where was she while you were incarcerated?”
“With my sister under another name.”
“And after your release?”
“My sister died. I adopted Ashley legally using documents Rachel had prepared.”
“False documents?”
Andrew’s mouth hardened.
“Documents that kept her alive.”
Natalie understood why he had avoided police, schools, hospitals, neighbors, and anyone who might examine Ashley’s past too closely.
“Who knows the truth?”
“Anyone connected to Hartley who survived.”
“Elias Voss?”
“Yes.”
“The gray-eyed man?”
Andrew hesitated.
“I thought he was dead.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Malcolm Vale.”
“Rachel’s relative?”
“Her father.”
Natalie searched the name on her phone.
Dr. Malcolm Vale had served as Hartley House’s medical director.
He was among the staff reported missing after the fire.
“What does he want with Ashley?”
Andrew’s fingers tightened against the blanket.
“He doesn’t call her Ashley.”
“What does he call her?”
“Subject E.”
Natalie felt sick.
A knock sounded at the door.
Officer Mason entered with a grim expression.
“We have a problem.”
“What happened?” Natalie asked.
“Someone accessed the hospital records system using a stolen physician account.”
“What records?”
“Ashley’s blood tests.”
Andrew stared at him.
Mason continued.
“They downloaded everything. Genetics, medications, imaging.”
Natalie looked at Andrew.
“Why would Malcolm need her medical records?”
Andrew closed his eyes.
“Because Hartley wasn’t only studying the children.”
“What were they studying?”
May you like
“Something they believed Emma inherited from her mother.”
Before Natalie could ask more, the hospital lights went out.
