Chapter 21 - The Blue RoomThe ambulance was found empty beneath an overpass.
No blood.
No fingerprints.
No sign of Ethan or Mara.
Victor searched the vehicle himself.
Behind the driver’s seat, he found a blue thread.
Lily recognized the fabric.
“Celeste’s hospital blanket.”
Victor looked at her.
“What blue room?”
Lily hesitated.
“After Ethan was born, Celeste disappeared for six hours.”
“You told me she was having tests.”
“That was what the hospital said.”
“Where did she go?”
“I followed a nurse to a locked wing. Every door was white except one.”
“Blue.”
Lily nodded.
“I heard Celeste arguing with someone inside. She said, ‘He has a name already.’”
Victor remembered August’s words.
A child born without his permission.
Adrian contacted an investigator and obtained the original hospital plans.
The blue room did not appear on them.
Mara’s silver band provided the answer.
Its serial number matched a former Hale Foundation maternity clinic that had closed two years earlier.
They reached the building before sunset.
Inside, the electricity was still running.
Blue arrows had been painted along the corridor.
They led to a nursery.
Ethan sat alone in the center of the room, drawing.
Victor rushed to him.
“Where is Mara?”
“She went to find Mommy.”
Victor knelt.
“Did she hurt you?”
Ethan shook his head.
“She said the bad men would follow the ambulance.”
On the paper, Ethan had drawn two women.
One wore white.
One wore blue.
Between them stood a small child.
“Which one is Mommy?” Victor asked.
Ethan pointed to the woman in blue.
A speaker clicked above them.
A woman began to sing the lullaby Celeste used when Ethan could not sleep.
Victor looked toward the observation glass.
A figure stood behind it.
Not Mara.
The woman wore a blue hospital gown.
She placed one hand against the glass.
May you like
Ethan whispered, “That’s Mommy.”
Then August’s men entered the building.
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