Chapter 6 - The Brother Who Had No Birth Record
Liam had delivered hundreds of children.
He had handed newborns to exhausted mothers and watched fathers cry as though the world had been created again in front of them.
He knew what a birth record contained.
Date.
Time.
Weight.
Parent names.
Hospital identification.
He also knew how difficult it was for a birth record to vanish.
Yet when Mara requested Liam’s original hospital files, there were none.
The state database contained a delayed certificate registered twenty-two months after his supposed birth.
The attending physician did not exist.
The hospital listed on the certificate had closed five years before Liam was born.
His entire identity had been built from a document that should never have passed verification.
Claire refused to let go of his hand while Mara explained it.
“You are my brother,” she said.
Liam stared at the copied certificate.
“I know.”
But he did not know.
The cassette tape from the vault was sent to a forensic laboratory.
The black notebook remained mostly unreadable.
Hargrove admitted he knew nothing about Liam’s origins.
“Thomas never told me,” he said.
“You helped him fake his death, but he never mentioned that his son had no birth record?”
“He may not have known when you were born.”
“Or you’re lying again.”
Hargrove accepted the accusation without defending himself.
The hospital transferred Claire to a secure medical facility guarded by state officers.
Liam wanted to remain with her, but Mara insisted he was also at risk.
He returned home with two detectives after midnight to collect clothing.
His apartment looked untouched.
Then Liam noticed a framed photograph on his desk had been moved.
It showed Claire, Liam, and Thomas at a lake when Liam was nine.
Behind the frame was a white envelope.
No one had seen anyone enter.
Inside was a message written in block letters.
YOUR FATHER STOLE YOU.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH.
Beneath the message was an address and a time.
An abandoned train station.
Two in the morning.
Liam handed the note to Mara.
“You are not going alone,” she said.
“It says they’ll tell me who I am.”
“It was written by the people who tried to kill your sister.”
“What if it was written by Dad?”
Mara looked at him.
“Then your father knows your sister is in a hospital and still chose a secret meeting over calling you.”
The words hurt because they were true.
They arranged surveillance around the train station.
Liam wore a concealed microphone.
Mara and six officers waited nearby.
At two in the morning, Liam entered the station.
The building smelled of rust and rain.
A single light burned above the old ticket counter.
Someone sat on a bench at the far end of the platform.
It was Evelyn.
Liam stopped.
His mother looked exhausted. Her clothes were wet, and there was dried blood near her temple.
“Where is Ethan?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You helped him escape.”
“I helped him believe I was helping.”
She stood slowly.
“He would have killed Claire if I had not driven him out.”
“He already tried.”
“I know.”
Liam’s anger broke through.
“You arranged their marriage.”
Evelyn flinched.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Meridian Crown told me they would return your father.”
The station seemed to tilt around him.
“They had Dad?”
“They sent photographs. Messages. Pieces of information only Thomas would know.”
“For six years?”
“For eleven.”
Liam stepped closer.
“You knew he might be alive.”
“I knew someone wanted me to believe it.”
“And you gave Claire to Ethan?”
“I thought marrying him would keep her close to the only person who could lead us to Thomas.”
“You sacrificed her.”
Evelyn began to cry.
“Yes.”
The single word echoed through the station.
Liam wanted to hate her completely.
It would have been easier.
But the woman in front of him looked less like a mastermind than a prisoner who had forgotten the door was open.
“Who am I?” Liam asked.
Evelyn wiped her face.
“I don’t know your original name.”
His chest tightened.
“Thomas brought you home when you were six months old. He said a hospital had lost your records after a fire.”
“That was a lie.”
“Yes.”
“Where did he get me?”
“From Orpheus.”
A movement sounded beyond the tracks.
Mara’s voice came through Liam’s concealed earpiece.
Someone else is inside.
Evelyn heard it too.
Her eyes widened.
“You brought police.”
Before Liam could answer, a red laser appeared on Evelyn’s chest.
Liam tackled her as a gunshot shattered the light above them.
Police rushed from both entrances.
Another shot struck the wall.
Mara chased a figure across the tracks.
Liam held Evelyn against the ground.
She grabbed his coat.
“Ethan has Claire’s original file,” she whispered.
“What original file?”
May you like
Evelyn looked at him with terror.
“Claire was part of Orpheus too.”
