Chapter 8 - The Memory Emma Was Never Supposed to Have
When Emma was three, she saw something.
Daniel had spent four years trying to understand what.
It happened at Harrison Cole's estate.
Grace and Daniel had been summoned there regarding their debt.
Emma was brought because they had no babysitter.
While Grace argued with Cole downstairs, Emma wandered into an office.
She saw Robert speaking with three men.
On a table lay photographs of missing children.
Beside them were passports.
Money.
And a ledger.
Emma could not read much.
But she remembered faces.
Children remembered faces better than adults imagined.
One of the men noticed her.
Daniel found Emma in the hallway moments later.
She said, "Daddy, why is the judge buying babies?"
Daniel thought she was confused.
Months later he saw that same man on television.
Federal Judge Malcolm Reeves.
Daniel began investigating.
Then Ethan disappeared.
Then the infant son they had kept secret was killed.
Then Hollow Creek tightened its grip.
James stared at Daniel.
"Why would Emma's memory matter now?"
"Because Reeves is still a judge."
"And she saw him twelve years ago."
"She saw all of them."
Daniel looked toward the wall.
"Harrison didn't know how much she remembered."
"Does Emma remember?"
"I don't know."
A child psychologist began gently working with her.
No pressure.
No leading questions.
Emma remembered a big house.
Red curtains.
A piano.
A swimming pool shaped like a moon.
She remembered men sitting around a table.
One wore a ring with a black bird.
Another had a scar near his ear.
Another gave her candy.
Then she remembered a sentence.
"The next shipment goes through Mercy."
James immediately thought of Mercy Regional Hospital.
Sarah's hospital.
The same hospital where the twins now slept.
A warrant team quietly reviewed maternity records.
In the past sixteen years, nineteen newborns had disappeared from Mercy Regional under unusual circumstances.
Some officially died.
Some were transferred.
Some records had been altered.
Dr. Carter was horrified.
"This happened here?"
Lisa nodded.
"Possibly."
Sarah remembered something.
Three years earlier, a nurse named Evelyn Hart had been fired for accusing administrators of changing newborn identification bands.
Nobody believed her.
They found Evelyn living in another state.
She agreed to talk.
"Hollow Creek didn't steal babies from hospitals," Evelyn said.
"They created dead babies."
Lisa frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"If a wealthy client wanted a newborn with a certain sex or background, Hollow Creek found vulnerable mothers. Sometimes they used debt. Sometimes drugs. Sometimes threats."
"And the hospital?"
"A healthy baby would be recorded as deceased."
"And another child?"
"Stillborn records were switched."
Lisa felt sick.
"Who inside Mercy helped them?"
Evelyn answered immediately.
"Dr. Nathan Cole."
Harrison Cole's younger brother.
A respected obstetrician.
Now retired.
Nathan Cole had delivered Emma.
And the twins.
Sarah checked Grace's records.
Her obstetrician was indeed Nathan Cole.
Then Michael Carter found something disturbing.
Grace had attended an appointment two weeks before her death.
Nathan Cole had accessed her file even though he had retired.
Sarah looked at Michael.
"The twins were marked?"
Michael nodded.
"Before they were even born."
A hospital security alert sounded.
Someone had entered the neonatal floor using an old physician access card.
Sarah looked through the glass.
A gray-haired doctor stood near Noah and Ellie's room.
May you like
Nathan Cole.
He was holding a syringe.
