Chapter 6 - Madison’s Engagement Party
Madison was alive.
She had been bound with silk ribbons from her own engagement decorations and locked inside Harold’s car. Paramedics found a needle mark on her arm and sedatives in her bloodstream.
When she woke, she demanded champagne, a lawyer, and immediate transportation to the Halcyon Grand Hotel.
She seemed more concerned about the canceled party than her missing father.
Detective Ortiz interviewed her in a guarded hospital room.
Marcus, Rebecca, and Josh watched through one-way glass.
Madison sat upright in bed, wearing a silver dress embroidered with crystals. Her makeup remained nearly perfect despite the ordeal.
“Father said he was taking me to the airport,” she explained. “Then I felt something sharp.”
“Why the airport?” Ortiz asked.
“He said we needed to leave before Marcus ruined everything.”
“What was Marcus about to ruin?”
Madison shrugged. “Family business.”
“What business?”
“I do not involve myself in financial details.”
Ortiz placed a photograph from the underground laboratory on the table.
Madison’s composure cracked.
“Have you been in this room?”
“No.”
“Have you seen this symbol?”
“No.”
“Did you know your parents were performing medical experiments on Emma?”
Madison looked toward the one-way glass.
“Rebecca has always exaggerated the child’s health.”
Marcus clenched his fists.
Rebecca touched his arm.
Ortiz leaned closer.
“Your mother removed oxygen from an unconscious four-year-old. Your father disappeared after police found evidence of child experimentation beneath your family greenhouse. Someone then attacked Emma inside the ICU. This is your opportunity to help yourself.”
Madison stared at the photograph.
“I want immunity.”
“You are not currently charged.”
“I know my family. That will change.”
Ortiz sat back.
“What can you offer?”
Madison’s fingers trembled.
“My engagement party was not a party.”
Josh whispered, “What?”
Madison continued.
“The guests were investors. Father planned to present Emma’s results.”
Rebecca felt cold spread through her chest.
“What results?” Ortiz asked.
“Memory suppression. Behavioral conditioning. Remote respiratory control.” Madison swallowed. “He said Emma was the first subject who remembered everything.”
Marcus stepped toward the glass.
Rebecca stopped him.
Ortiz placed the hotel invoice beside the photograph.
“Why demand money from Marcus and Rebecca?”
“Because the payment had to come from Emma’s trust. Investors needed proof the trust was accessible.”
“What trust?”
Madison smiled weakly.
“You still do not understand, do you?”
“Explain it.”
“Emma does not have a trust because Rebecca’s mother left her money. The trust exists because Emma is valuable.”
Rebecca entered the interview room before anyone could stop her.
“Valuable to whom?”
Madison looked at her.
“To the people who paid for her.”
Marcus followed.
Ortiz started to object, then closed the door.
Rebecca stood across from Madison.
“Who paid for my daughter?”
Madison’s expression softened into something resembling pity.
“You should ask who arranged for you to receive her.”
Rebecca could not breathe.
“I gave birth to Emma.”
“Did you?”
Marcus slammed both hands onto the table.
“Enough.”
Madison flinched.
“Father kept records. Birth records, adoption records, embryo transfers, medical substitutions. He called them lineage files.”
Rebecca’s knees weakened.
Emma’s birth had been difficult. Rebecca had hemorrhaged and lost consciousness. When she woke, Evelyn had been holding the newborn. Marcus had arrived late because Harold sent him to the wrong hospital wing.
For twenty-three minutes, neither parent had seen the child after delivery.
Madison watched realization cross Rebecca’s face.
“Father said the most successful placements were the ones where mothers never questioned the first photograph.”
Rebecca struck the table.
“Emma is my daughter.”
“I did not say she wasn’t.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I am saying she may not be the baby you delivered.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Marcus stared at Madison.
“Where are the lineage files?”
“At the party.”
The Halcyon Grand Hotel ballroom had been sealed after an anonymous bomb threat canceled the event. Police searched the main floor and found nothing.
Madison told them to check the ice sculpture.
At 8:12 p.m., officers entered the ballroom.
A six-foot crystal swan stood melting beneath blue spotlights. Inside its frozen center was a black metal case.
The case contained photographs, financial ledgers, medical reports, and birth certificates.
One certificate listed Emma Grace Vale.
The date was correct.
The mother was not Rebecca.
The document named a woman called Lillian Cross.
Attached was a death certificate.
Lillian Cross had died four years earlier, two hours after Emma’s birth.
A handwritten note was clipped to the file.
Placement complete. Maternal substitute unaware.
Marcus read the line twice.
Rebecca took the paper from him.
“No.”
Detective Ortiz turned another page.
A photograph showed Rebecca unconscious in the delivery room.
Evelyn stood beside the bed holding one newborn.
A nurse stood behind her holding another.
Both babies wore identical pink caps.
Rebecca stared at the picture until the faces blurred.
At the bottom of the case lay an envelope addressed to her.
May you like
Inside was a short message written by Harold.
You were never supposed to survive long enough to ask which child was yours.
