Chapter 4 - MARGARET’S VOICE
When Robert returned home, Ellen was sitting in the garden.
She wore sunglasses despite the cloudy afternoon. A blanket covered her knees, and a cup of tea rested untouched on the table beside her.
Robert placed a flash drive on the table.
She looked at it.
“What is that?”
“The truth.”
Her face changed.
“You saw the footage.”
“Yes.”
Ellen removed her sunglasses.
Robert saw the swelling around her eye.
“He pushed you with both hands.”
She looked down.
“Michael lost control.”
“He left you on the floor.”
“Cassandra told him to go.”
“And he obeyed her.”
Ellen’s eyes filled with tears.
Robert sat across from her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I knew what you would see when you looked at him afterward.”
“What should I see?”
“Our son.”
“I saw a man attack his mother.”
“He is still our son.”
“That does not erase what he did.”
“No. But it changes what we do next.”
Robert studied her.
“He knows about the cassette.”
Ellen’s hand tightened around the blanket.
“He mentioned Margaret’s recording,” Robert continued. “He told me to ask what you did to her.”
Ellen stood too quickly and winced.
“Did he say he had the tape?”
“No.”
“Then Cassandra has it.”
“Someone took it from the house.”
Ellen began pacing slowly.
“If Cassandra listens to the entire recording…”
“What will happen?”
“She will understand why Margaret spent the last years of her life trying to contact Michael.”
Robert remained seated.
“Start at the beginning.”
Ellen shook her head.
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“You’ll hate me.”
“I don’t know enough to hate anyone yet.”
She looked at him.
“That may be the last kind thing you ever say to me.”
Robert’s anger softened but did not disappear.
“Thirty-one years ago,” Ellen began, “I was admitted to St. Matthew’s maternity clinic during a storm.”
Robert remembered the night. The roads had flooded. He had been working at a construction site two hours away when Ellen went into labor. By the time he reached the clinic, Michael had already been born.
“Margaret Vale was in the room next to mine,” Ellen said. “We were the only two women delivering that night.”
“Where were the doctors?”
“There was one doctor, two nurses, and an orderly. The power failed during the births. The generator worked only in part of the building.”
Robert waited.
“Michael was born first. Margaret’s child came twenty-three minutes later.”
“A boy or a girl?”
“A girl.”
Robert frowned.
“What was her name?”
“Margaret called her Rose.”
The garden seemed unnaturally quiet.
“What happened to Rose?”
Ellen’s gaze moved toward the trees.
“The nurse told Margaret the baby had stopped breathing.”
“And had she?”
“I don’t know.”
Robert leaned forward.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I heard Rose crying.”
“When?”
“Almost an hour after the nurse claimed she was dead.”
Robert stared at her.
“Did you tell anyone?”
“I tried. The nurse gave me medication. When I woke, Margaret was gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Transferred to another hospital, according to the staff.”
“And the baby?”
“They said the body had been taken away.”
Robert struggled to follow.
“What does this have to do with Michael?”
“Before Margaret left, she came into my room. She was terrified. She said she had seen a nurse carrying Rose toward the rear entrance.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“She believed someone stole her baby?”
Ellen nodded.
Robert looked toward the house.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did tell you part of it. I said there had been confusion at the clinic.”
“You never said a child disappeared.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“The next morning, I found a note inside Michael’s blanket.”
“What did it say?”
Ellen recited the words from memory.
“Keep silent, or you will lose yours too.”
Robert felt cold despite the afternoon heat.
“Did you keep the note?”
“It was in the blue box.”
He looked at the flash drive.
“Along with the letter for Michael?”
“Yes.”
“What else was in the box?”
“Copies of clinic records. A photograph. A list of names Margaret collected over the years.”
“What names?”
“Children born at St. Matthew’s whose records were altered.”
Robert stared at her.
“How many?”
“At least twelve.”
He rose.
“This is not a family secret. This is a crime.”
“That is what Margaret believed.”
“And you?”
“I believed her.”
“Why did you wait thirty-one years?”
Ellen’s voice broke.
“Because every time I tried to speak, something happened.”
“What things?”
“The doctor who signed Rose’s death certificate died in a car accident before Margaret could question him. One of the nurses vanished. A reporter who investigated the clinic lost his job and later disappeared.”
Robert absorbed her words.
“And Margaret?”
“She spent years searching. She became convinced Rose had been given to a wealthy family.”
“Which family?”
Ellen looked at him.
“The Cross family.”
Robert recognized the name immediately.
Cassandra’s father, Jonathan Cross, owned banks, hotels, and several private medical companies. He had financed half of Michael and Cassandra’s wedding.
Robert slowly sat again.
“Margaret believed Cassandra’s family took her baby?”
“She believed Jonathan Cross’s father arranged the adoption.”
“Then why would Cassandra want the letter destroyed?”
“Because the Cross family built their fortune through a network of private clinics. St. Matthew’s was one of them.”
Robert thought of Cassandra’s panic.
“Did Margaret ever find Rose?”
“She thought she did.”
“Who?”
Ellen’s lips parted, but no words came.
Robert waited.
Finally, she said, “The evidence was incomplete.”
“Who did she suspect?”
“Someone close to Cassandra.”
Before Robert could press further, Ellen’s phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
She answered cautiously.
“Hello?”
A woman’s distorted voice spoke loudly enough for Robert to hear.
“You should have stayed silent at the wedding.”
Ellen went pale.
Robert took the phone.
“Who is this?”
The caller ignored him.
“The copy you kept will not save you.”
Robert stepped into the house and activated the speaker.
“What copy?”
The woman laughed softly.
“Ask Ellen what she buried beneath the cedar tree.”
The call ended.
Robert turned.
Ellen stood frozen in the garden.
“What did she mean?”
Ellen looked toward the far end of the yard.
A large cedar tree stood beside the old stone wall.
Robert followed her gaze.
“What did you bury there?”
Ellen whispered, “Margaret’s final letter.”
May you like
They found the ground beneath the cedar tree already disturbed.
Someone had reached it first.
