Chapter 7 - The Names Behind the Door
The coat did not belong to Oliver.
That was the first piece of good news.
The second was that no child had been found inside the farmhouse.
The bad news was everything else.
Police opened the red door at 12:47 p.m.
Behind it was not a bedroom.
It was an archive.
Metal shelves covered every wall.
Boxes were labeled by year.
1999.
2000.
2001.
2002.
Some contained hospital records.
Some contained adoption documents.
Others held birth certificates, social security applications, insurance forms, and photographs.
Hundreds of photographs.
Children.
Emily learned this from Reyes in fragments as information came from the scene.
Nathan sat silently beside her.
By mid-afternoon, state investigators had taken control of the farmhouse.
The FBI had been contacted.
"Why federal?" Emily asked.
"Interstate records," Reyes said. "Possibly identity trafficking."
The phrase made her nauseous.
"What does that mean?"
"We don't know yet."
Nathan spoke quietly.
"They changed identities."
Reyes looked at him.
"Explain."
Nathan rubbed his hands together.
"My father's files referenced something called reassignment."
"Children?"
"I think so."
Emily stared.
"For adoption?"
Nathan shook his head.
"Not legitimate adoption."
Oliver slept again.
Emily lowered her voice.
"You think children were being moved between families?"
"I think identities were."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Reyes's phone rang.
He walked out.
Nathan leaned toward Emily.
"The blue moon symbol was everywhere in Dad's encrypted files."
"Who uses it?"
"I never found a company."
"Maybe it's not a company."
Nathan looked at her.
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe it's a group."
He said nothing.
Emily continued.
"Your mother tried to drug me. She put Oliver outside after he saw the bottle. She knew about the red door. She owned the house."
"Yes."
"Stop treating her like someone who got pulled into Dad's mess."
Nathan looked down.
"You're right."
"What aren't you telling me?"
His expression closed.
Emily knew instantly.
"There is something."
"No."
"Don't."
"Emily."
"You have lied to me for years. Don't insult me with another one."
Nathan stood.
"I need coffee."
She grabbed his wrist.
"What aren't you telling me?"
He looked toward Oliver.
Then back at her.
"My mother knew one of the names."
"What name?"
Nathan whispered.
"Yours."
Emily released him.
"What?"
"In Dad's archive."
"No."
"I saw it eight months ago."
"You're lying."
"I wish I was."
"My parents lived in Vermont. I was born there."
"I know."
"I have my birth certificate."
"I know."
"My mother has photographs of me in the hospital."
"I know."
"Then what are you saying?"
Nathan's voice dropped further.
"Your name appeared in one of Dad's reassignment lists."
Emily felt as though every sound in the hospital vanished.
"What list?"
"A spreadsheet."
"What did it say?"
"Emily Rachel Harlow."
Her maiden name.
"No."
"Birth date matched."
"No."
"There was another name beside yours."
Emily could barely speak.
"What name?"
Nathan took a breath.
"Rebecca Lane."
Emily shook her head.
"Who's Rebecca Lane?"
"I don't know."
Emily stood.
"I need air."
She walked into the corridor.
Her hands shook.
This was ridiculous.
Impossible.
Her parents were James and Rachel Harlow.
Her childhood photographs filled two albums.
She attended Briarwood Elementary after the family moved from Vermont when she was seven.
She remembered Christmas mornings.
Chicken soup.
Her father teaching her to ride a bicycle.
Nothing about her life was fake.
Unless the records meant something else.
Officer Reyes returned.
"Emily?"
She looked at him.
"Did you find my name?"
Reyes stopped.
That was answer enough.
"Where?"
He hesitated.
"In one of the boxes."
"What does it say?"
"We're still processing."
"Tell me."
"Emily."
"Tell me."
Reyes lowered his voice.
"There is a hospital discharge document under your maiden name."
She stared.
"So?"
"It isn't from Vermont."
Her heart stopped.
"Where?"
"St. Catherine Children's Hospital."
The same hospital linked to Richard.
"That's impossible."
"The date is six weeks after your birth."
Emily stepped back.
Six weeks.
She knew her parents had moved often when she was young.
But she had never heard of St. Catherine.
"What diagnosis?"
Reyes looked uncomfortable.
"There isn't one."
"What does it say?"
He handed her a photograph of the document.
Emily read.
Patient: Female infant.
Transfer status: completed.
Custodial reassignment: approved.
Original identity sealed.
Assigned identity: Emily Rachel Harlow.
At the bottom was a signature.
Richard Moore.
Her future father-in-law.
Signed twenty-seven years before she ever met Nathan.
Emily looked through the glass wall at her husband.
He looked destroyed.
Reyes spoke carefully.
"There is something else."
Emily could not imagine anything worse.
Then he showed her a second photograph.
A family picture taken at the farmhouse.
Richard stood near the red door.
Beside him was Helen.
Much younger.
Smiling.
In Helen's arms was a six-week-old baby.
May you like
On the back someone had written:
Rebecca becomes Emily tonight.
