Chapter 10 - The Children Without Birthdays
The files beneath Red Harbor revealed the scale of the operation.
Hundreds of identities.
Some adults.
Some children.
Richard did not understand the children until Claire showed him a pattern.
Birth certificates appeared after disasters.
Fires.
Floods.
Car accidents.
Cases where entire families supposedly died.
A child with no legal identity could be inserted into the record of a dead child.
Perfect paperwork.
A new name.
A new family.
A new life.
"Trafficking," Nathan whispered.
Claire shook her head.
"Sometimes."
"Sometimes?"
"Some children may have been witnesses. Refugees. Assets' families."
Richard looked at the photographs.
"And some were stolen."
Nobody answered.
Emily, recovering slowly, reviewed several images from her hospital bed.
She stopped at one.
A girl around six.
Blonde.
Blue eyes.
Emily whispered, "Dad."
Richard approached.
"What?"
"Look at her."
The girl's file identified her as Abigail Warren.
Born 2001.
Died 2007.
Yet the photograph was dated 2010.
Richard frowned.
Emily handed him another page.
A school enrollment document.
The child's emergency contact was Margaret Lane.
Richard stared.
Emily said, "Aunt Margaret had a child living with her."
Richard called immediately.
Margaret denied it.
Then eventually admitted the truth.
"Her name wasn't Abigail."
"Who was she?"
"I can't tell you."
"You can."
"No."
Richard's voice hardened.
"Michael carved a threat into Emily's back."
Margaret began crying.
"The girl was his daughter."
Richard stopped.
"Michael Mercer had a daughter?"
"Yes."
"Where is she now?"
"I don't know."
"Why did you have her?"
"Katherine rescued her."
Richard stared into space.
"From Michael?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because he was using the girl as leverage against her mother."
"Who was the mother?"
Margaret remained silent.
"Margaret."
"Evelyn."
Richard felt the world shift again.
"Evelyn Cole?"
"Yes."
Nathan overheard from the doorway.
His face went blank.
"My mother had a child with Michael Mercer?"
Margaret realized he was listening.
"Nathan."
Nathan stepped closer.
"When?"
"Before she married Charles."
"Where is she?"
"I don't know."
"Is she my sister?"
"Half-sister."
Nathan sat down.
Richard continued questioning.
The girl's real name was Sarah Mercer.
Katherine moved her through several safe identities.
At age seventeen, Sarah disappeared.
No one knew whether she ran away or Michael found her.
Emily whispered, "How old would she be now?"
Margaret calculated.
"Twenty-five."
Claire searched the hospital records.
One name caught her attention.
A nurse employed at St. Catherine.
Age twenty-five.
Sarah Miller.
No immediate family listed.
Richard remembered the anxious ER nurse in Trauma Room Three.
The woman who had been standing beside Emily when he arrived.
Blue scrubs.
Brown hair.
Twenty-something.
Name badge: S. MILLER.
Richard's blood went cold.
He called Alan.
"Where is the nurse who treated Emily?"
Alan paused.
"Sarah?"
"Yes."
"She left after her shift."
"When?"
"Two hours ago."
"Find her home address."
They were too late.
Sarah Miller's apartment was empty.
On the kitchen table sat a single photograph.
Richard and Katherine at Emily's fifth birthday party.
A circle had been drawn around Katherine's face.
On the back, someone had written:
May you like
SHE SAVED ME ONCE.
NOW I HAVE TO SAVE EMILY.
