Chapter 3 - The Missing Record
Emma told Claire about the call.
She did not tell Margaret.
For the first time in their lives, the sisters formed a quiet alliance against their mother.
They waited until Margaret left for groceries.
Then Emma locked the front door.
Claire sat with Lily in her lap.
“What exactly did she say?”
“If Claire wants her daughter back, stop asking the hospital.”
Claire’s face drained.
“She said daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Not answers?”
“No.”
“Not records?”
“No.”
Emma crouched beside her.
“We don’t know who called.”
Claire looked down at Lily.
“But somebody knows.”
They contacted St. Matthew’s medical records department and requested the complete delivery file.
Two days later the records arrived electronically.
Ninety-seven pages.
Emma printed everything.
The sisters covered the dining table with paper.
Medication charts.
Nursing notes.
Lab results.
Operating room logs.
Claire’s hemorrhage record.
Lily’s newborn assessment.
Nothing mentioned a second live baby.
Then Emma noticed the page numbers.
“Page forty-three.”
“What?”
“There isn’t one.”
Claire leaned closer.
The file went from page forty-two to page forty-four.
“That could be scanning.”
“Maybe.”
Then another gap.
Page fifty-eight missing.
And page sixty-one.
Three missing pages.
All within the delivery window.
Emma called records.
The clerk insisted the file was complete.
Claire asked for the original paper chart.
The clerk said St. Matthew’s had been fully electronic for six years.
“So why are page numbers missing?”
“I can’t answer that.”
“Can somebody?”
“You may submit a formal amendment request.”
Claire’s voice hardened.
“I don’t want an amendment. I want the pages that already existed.”
The clerk ended the call politely.
That evening Margaret came home carrying groceries and a new baby monitor.
“You didn’t need to buy that,” Claire said.
“The old one cuts out.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Margaret set it down.
“I thought it did.”
Emma watched.
“Mom, how did you know Julia Sloan?”
Margaret’s hand stopped over a grocery bag.
Claire looked at her.
Margaret slowly resumed unpacking.
“I know lots of nurses.”
“You were photographed together three years ago.”
“Hospital fundraiser.”
“So you remember her.”
“Vaguely.”
“She worked Claire’s delivery.”
Margaret shut the refrigerator.
“What exactly are you accusing me of?”
“No one accused you.”
“You’re acting like police detectives.”
Claire stood.
“I want to know why my records are missing pages.”
Margaret laughed once.
“You just had a baby. Hospitals make mistakes.”
“And the billing code for a second infant?”
Margaret turned toward Claire.
“Where did you see that?”
The question came too quickly.
Claire noticed.
Emma noticed.
Margaret noticed that they noticed.
Silence settled over the kitchen.
Then Lily began crying upstairs.
Claire immediately left.
Emma remained.
Margaret approached her.
“You need to stop feeding this.”
“Feeding what?”
“Claire’s obsession.”
“You mean her memory?”
“She almost bled to death.”
“She remembers a second baby.”
Margaret lowered her voice.
“Your sister is vulnerable.”
“So help her find the truth.”
“I am helping her.”
“No. You’re telling her what the truth is.”
Margaret stared at Emma for a long time.
Then said something Emma would later understand as a threat.
“You were always too curious for your own good.”
The following morning Emma visited St. Matthew’s in person.
She told Claire she was going to work.
Instead, she sat in the hospital cafeteria for three hours.
Nurses came and went.
At 11:40 a.m., an older orderly named Hector Ruiz sat near her.
Emma recognized him from the night of Claire’s delivery.
He had pushed Claire’s bed from labor to surgery.
Emma introduced herself.
Hector remembered Claire immediately.
“The hemorrhage.”
“Yes.”
“She doing okay?”
“She survived.”
“Baby good?”
Emma watched his face.
“Which baby?”
His spoon stopped halfway to his mouth.
Emma felt her pulse race.
“Hector.”
“I should go.”
She moved into the chair opposite him.
“Please.”
He looked around.
“I don’t know anything.”
“You reacted.”
“I remember a rough night.”
“Was there another baby?”
Hector stared at the table.
“Ask neonatal.”
“They say no.”
“Then no.”
He stood.
Emma caught one sentence before he left.
“I moved two bassinets.”
Her heart stopped.
“Hector.”
He kept walking.
Emma followed.
He entered an employee corridor.
She could not pass the badge-controlled door.
Ten minutes later her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
A hospital whiteboard.
DATE.
ROOM 6.
CARTER, CLAIRE.
TWIN A 2:11.
TWIN B 2:14.
Emma stopped breathing.
Below the photograph was one message.
May you like
The second baby left the floor at 3:02 a.m.
Ask who signed her out.
