Chapter 5 - The Couple in the Photograph)
Nathan and Laura Whitmore lived eighty miles away in Greenfield.
Officer Porter asked them to come to the police station the next morning.
They arrived before nine.
Emily did not meet them at first.
She remained at the hospital with Noah while police interviewed them separately.
At eleven, Rebecca entered Room 214.
“You were right.”
Emily sat up.
“They knew?”
Rebecca’s expression was complicated.
“They knew about Noah.”
Emily felt the room tilt.
“But not what you think.”
Emily waited.
Rebecca pulled a chair close.
“Nathan and Laura have been trying to adopt for five years.”
Emily said nothing.
“Daniel contacted them seven months ago.”
Emily stared at her.
“Seven months?”
“He told them you had decided you did not want to raise a child.”
Emily’s mouth opened.
Rebecca continued.
“He said you were willing to carry the pregnancy to term but planned to relinquish parental rights privately.”
“That’s insane.”
“Yes.”
“I bought the crib.”
“I know.”
“I painted the nursery.”
“I know.”
“I went to parenting classes.”
Rebecca nodded.
“The Whitmores say Daniel told them that was all for appearances.”
Emily laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“What appearances?”
“He said your family would judge you if they knew.”
Emily looked at Noah.
“He told strangers I didn’t want my baby.”
Rebecca waited.
Then she continued.
“Laura says she met you once.”
“At the restaurant.”
“Yes.”
“She knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Why didn’t she say anything?”
“She says Daniel warned her not to.”
“Of course he did.”
“He told them you became emotionally distressed whenever the adoption was discussed.”
Emily looked toward the wall.
“So everyone was protecting poor unstable Emily.”
Rebecca did not answer.
Emily’s hands tightened around the blanket covering her knees.
“How much money?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“How much did they pay?”
“Thirty thousand dollars.”
Emily turned.
“To Daniel?”
“Twenty-five thousand to Daniel. Five thousand through Kingston Family Placement Services.”
Emily felt sick.
“He sold my son.”
Rebecca’s face hardened.
“That is how investigators are treating it.”
Emily looked at Noah.
He slept with his tiny fist near his cheek.
“How could Daniel think this would work?”
“He had a plan.”
“What plan?”
Rebecca explained.
Daniel told the Whitmores that after birth Emily might refuse to sign.
He said this was expected.
He claimed a psychiatrist was already involved.
He said Emily had a long history of emotional instability that became worse during pregnancy.
Once an emergency guardianship was established, Daniel intended to consent as Noah’s father.
Eventually, he said, Emily would agree.
Emily stared at Rebecca.
“He planned to have me declared incompetent.”
“Yes.”
“And give them my child.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“That part is still unclear.”
It made no sense.
Daniel wanted children.
At least he said he did.
For years he talked about having a son.
Why would he give Noah away?
Unless Noah was never the true objective.
Emily began going through her memories.
Daniel’s company had struggled that year.
He never admitted it, but she noticed the tension.
Calls behind closed doors.
Late payments.
A canceled vacation.
Margaret once mentioned “temporary cash issues.”
Thirty thousand dollars would help.
But not enough.
Emily knew Daniel’s mortgage alone was over four thousand a month.
There had to be more.
“Rebecca.”
“Yes?”
“Ask them if they promised anything else.”
“What do you mean?”
“Property. Investments. Business deals.”
Rebecca studied her.
“I’ll tell Porter.”
An hour later Porter returned.
Emily had been right.
Nathan Whitmore owned a construction company.
Daniel’s consulting firm had been losing clients.
According to Nathan, Daniel proposed more than an adoption.
He proposed a partnership.
Nathan would place Daniel’s firm on a long-term construction management contract worth more than one million dollars.
In return, Daniel would make sure the private adoption happened smoothly.
Emily listened without blinking.
There it was.
Noah was not just a baby to Daniel.
He was leverage.
A business transaction.
A door into a profitable contract.
Emily felt rage rise through her body.
Then Porter told her something unexpected.
“Nathan and Laura are cooperating.”
Emily looked at him.
“Because they’re afraid.”
“Probably.”
“They were willing to take my child.”
“They say they believed you consented.”
“They met me.”
“Laura did.”
“She looked at me.”
“Yes.”
“She saw me pregnant and happy.”
Porter nodded.
“She also admitted she had doubts.”
Emily’s voice hardened.
“Doubts didn’t stop her.”
“No.”
The answer mattered.
Porter was not excusing them.
Neither was Rebecca.
Emily breathed slowly.
“What happens now?”
Porter looked toward Noah.
“Now we find out who altered the hospital record.”
Emily remembered the note.
“That I threatened him.”
“Yes.”
“Who entered it?”
“We already know.”
Emily looked at him.
Porter placed a printed audit log on the table.
The note had been entered from a hospital workstation at 6:42 p.m.
The user account belonged to a nurse.
Not one Emily remembered.
Her name was Cynthia Mercer.
Emily stared at the surname.
“Mercer?”
Porter nodded.
“Dr. Alan Mercer’s wife.”
Emily’s skin went cold.
The conspiracy had just acquired two more names.
Then Porter pointed to something else in the audit log.
May you like
Cynthia had opened Emily’s medical file seventeen times during the pregnancy.
Even though Cynthia had never once been assigned to her care.
