Chapter 10 - The Daughter Who Was Hidden)
Claire Sutton agreed to meet Rachel in a private conference room at the hospital.
Thomas stayed.
Daniel waited outside.
Rachel entered first.
Claire stood near the window.
Tall.
Dark-haired.
Composed.
Rachel had seen her at fundraising events.
They had shaken hands.
Spoken politely.
Rachel had never noticed.
Now she saw Emily everywhere.
The angle of her jaw.
The shape of her eyes.
Claire turned.
"Thomas told me."
Rachel didn't know what to say.
Claire laughed nervously.
"Apparently my entire life is paperwork written by dead men."
Rachel stepped closer.
"You were adopted?"
"I knew that."
"Did you know your biological mother?"
"No."
Rachel handed her the photograph of teenage Emily.
Claire stared at it.
Her hands shook.
"That's her?"
Rachel nodded.
Claire touched Emily's face.
"She looks..."
"Like you."
Claire sat down.
"Why didn't she find me?"
"We think she tried."
Rachel told her about the clinic.
The disappearance.
The photograph.
Walter's payments.
Claire looked toward the door.
"Why would Walter Mercer hide my identity?"
Rachel didn't answer.
Walter needed to.
They brought him in by wheelchair.
Elaine objected.
Walter insisted.
He faced Claire.
"I'm sorry."
Claire stared.
"That's a strange opening."
Walter nodded.
"I falsified your placement documents."
"Why?"
"To keep Harold Vale from finding you."
Claire's face tightened.
"My grandfather."
"Yes."
"Why was he looking for me?"
Walter looked at Rachel.
Rachel suddenly understood.
"Because Emily's baby was evidence."
Walter nodded.
Claire frowned.
"Evidence of what?"
Walter said nothing.
Claire stood.
"Who was my father?"
The room changed.
Thomas looked at Walter.
Rachel felt sick.
"Walter."
He closed his eyes.
Claire's voice sharpened.
"Who was my father?"
Walter whispered, "I never confirmed it."
"Who?"
"One of the doctors."
Claire recoiled.
Rachel covered her mouth.
Walter continued quickly.
"Emily never named him. She refused. But Harold knew a pregnancy could expose everything."
Claire turned away.
Thomas moved toward her.
She raised a hand.
"No."
Rachel's anger surged.
"Who were the doctors?"
Walter listed three names.
Two were dead.
The third was alive.
Dr. Michael Renn.
Former adolescent psychiatrist.
Current board advisor to one of Ohio's largest private healthcare networks.
Thomas went pale.
"I know him."
Rachel looked at him.
"How?"
"He sits on my hospital foundation committee."
Claire laughed bitterly.
"Of course he does."
Walter whispered, "Michael was at Mercer House."
Rachel's body tightened.
"I remember him."
She didn't remember his face.
She remembered a voice.
Soft.
Calm.
Telling children to count backward.
Rachel suddenly gripped the table.
A memory crashed into her.
A syringe.
Emily screaming.
A man holding Rachel's shoulders.
"Rachel?"
Thomas reached toward her.
She pulled away.
"I remember."
Walter looked terrified.
"What?"
Rachel stared at nothing.
"The night Emily disappeared."
She touched her arm.
"They injected me."
Walter nodded slowly.
Rachel's voice trembled.
"I woke up upstairs."
"Yes."
"You told investigators I had been unconscious during the raid."
"Yes."
Rachel looked at him.
"That wasn't true."
"No."
"What happened after I hit Harold?"
Walter's face went gray.
"I don't know."
"You were there."
"Not for all of it."
Rachel remembered another voice.
Dr. Renn.
She saw a flash of a room.
Emily on the floor.
Rachel screaming.
Then Dr. Renn saying:
"Make her forget the girl."
Rachel looked at Thomas.
"We need to find Renn."
Thomas nodded.
Daniel appeared at the door.
His face was pale.
"I think he found us first."
Everyone turned.
Daniel held up his phone.
On the screen was a photograph taken outside the hospital minutes earlier.
Rachel entering the building.
May you like
Beneath it was a message.
ASK YOUR WIFE WHAT SHE DID TO EMILY.
