Chapter 11 - THE BAND WITH THE WRONG NAME
Michael arrived at the Cross estate before the police.
He had ignored Robert’s instructions after receiving a second message from Cassandra’s phone. The message contained no words, only a photograph of the chapel door.
By the time he entered the underground room, Cassandra had been freed from the ropes.
She ran into his arms.
“Michael.”
He held her tightly.
“Who did this?”
Cassandra pointed at Victoria.
“She did.”
Victoria laughed.
“I found you already tied.”
“Liar.”
Jonathan Cross remained near the altar, his expression calm despite the chaos.
Robert held the hospital identification band.
The plastic had yellowed with age. Ellen’s name was typed across the faded label.
Beneath it was a code.
B-17.
Leah opened the ledger.
“Every child had a code.”
She searched the pages.
Jonathan stepped closer.
“That book contains private information.”
Robert looked at him.
“It contains evidence of kidnapped children.”
“It contains donations and medical transfers.”
Victoria scoffed.
“You have used that sentence for thirty years.”
Michael looked at the identification band.
“What does B-17 mean?”
Leah found the entry.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She turned the ledger toward Robert.
The line read:
B-17. Female. Birth mother E.W. Transfer canceled. Reassigned internally.
Michael stared.
“Female?”
Robert’s hand tightened around the band.
“Ellen gave birth to a boy.”
Jonathan spoke softly.
“Did she?”
Robert moved toward him.
“You know what happened that night.”
“I know records were unreliable during the power failure.”
Victoria stepped between them.
“He knows every child.”
Cassandra looked at her father.
“Tell them.”
Jonathan’s gaze shifted to his daughter.
“You do not understand the consequences.”
“I understand that you locked me in a room.”
“To protect you.”
“From what?”
Jonathan looked at Michael.
“From him.”
Michael stepped forward.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Jonathan nodded toward the ledger.
“You married a Whitaker.”
“I know who I married.”
“No,” Jonathan said. “You know the name he was given.”
Robert felt Ellen’s absence like a physical pain. She should have been there, yet he was grateful she was not forced to hear Jonathan’s words.
Cassandra clutched Michael’s hand.
“Are we related?”
Jonathan did not answer.
“Dad.”
His silence terrified her.
Leah continued reading the ledger.
“There are two entries on the same night.”
“What is the other code?” Robert asked.
“B-18. Male. Birth mother M.V. Transfer completed.”
Margaret Vale.
“Where was B-18 sent?” Michael asked.
“The destination field was removed.”
Victoria opened a hidden pocket in the ledger cover.
A folded strip of paper fell out.
She unfolded it.
“Not removed,” she said. “Hidden.”
On the strip were two lines.
B-17 to Cross household.
B-18 to Whitaker household.
The chapel fell silent.
Michael released Cassandra’s hand.
She stared at him.
Robert struggled to breathe.
“According to this,” Leah said, “Ellen’s biological child was sent to the Cross family. Margaret’s biological child was sent home with Ellen.”
Michael’s face collapsed.
“So Margaret was my mother.”
Cassandra backed away.
“And Ellen’s daughter…”
Victoria looked at her.
“Was raised as a Cross.”
Cassandra covered her mouth.
Michael stared at his wife.
“No.”
Jonathan took the ledger from Victoria’s hands during the confusion.
He stepped toward the fire.
Robert lunged.
Michael moved faster.
He struck Jonathan’s arm, sending the ledger across the floor.
Cassandra screamed.
The armed guard raised his weapon.
A shot echoed through the chapel.
Everyone froze.
Victoria looked down.
Blood spread across her black gown.
She fell.
Leah rushed toward her.
The guard dropped the weapon, shocked by what he had done.
Robert grabbed the ledger.
Sirens sounded outside.
Jonathan looked toward the staircase.
“You have no idea what you’ve started.”
Robert stood over Victoria.
“No. You do.”
Police flooded the chapel minutes later.
The six elderly men began shouting about attorneys and unlawful entry. Jonathan demanded protection. Cassandra refused to leave Michael’s side, even though neither could look directly at the other.
Victoria remained conscious as paramedics placed her on a stretcher.
She caught Robert’s wrist.
“The ledger is not complete.”
“Where are the missing pages?”
“Margaret kept them.”
“Where?”
Victoria coughed.
“Ask Ellen about the lullaby.”
Then she was carried away.
At the hospital, Michael and Cassandra submitted emergency DNA samples.
Robert gave the ledger to a federal investigator recommended by Ruth, but he secretly photographed every page first.
Jonathan Cross was detained for questioning but released before dawn.
The gunman claimed the shooting was accidental.
The six men denied knowing anything about stolen infants.
Cassandra sat outside the laboratory while Michael stood at the other end of the hall.
They had been married for four days.
Neither knew whether their marriage was legal, moral, or built upon a lie.
Robert entered Ellen’s room shortly before sunrise.
She was awake.
Weak, but awake.
He sat beside her.
“I found the ledger.”
Tears appeared immediately.
“Then you know.”
“I know what it claims.”
Ellen looked toward the window.
“Michael is Margaret’s son.”
“And our biological child was a girl.”
Ellen nodded.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“Did you know she was Cassandra?”
“No.”
“But you believed it.”
“Margaret believed it.”
Robert placed the hospital band on the blanket.
Ellen touched it with trembling fingers.
“She kept this?”
“It was inside the blue box.”
“Then Cassandra did not destroy everything.”
Robert leaned closer.
“Victoria said to ask you about the lullaby.”
Ellen’s eyes widened.
“What lullaby?”
She began humming softly.
It was a melody Robert remembered from Michael’s childhood. Ellen had sung it whenever he was sick.
Halfway through, she stopped.
“That song came from the woman in the next room at St. Matthew’s,” she whispered.
“Margaret?”
“No.”
Robert felt a chill.
“Who?”
“I never saw her face. She was kept behind a locked door.”
“Was she another mother?”
“I thought so.”
“What did she say?”
Ellen stared at the identification band.
“She told me that if I ever found my daughter, I should sing the lullaby. She said only the children marked for the Cross household were taught the final verse.”
“Do you know the final verse?”
“No.”
A voice came from the doorway.
“I do.”
Cassandra stood there.
May you like
Her face was white.
She looked at Ellen and began singing the missing words.
