Chapter 5 - A BABY WITH NO RECORDS
Claire woke beneath bright hospital lights.
For several seconds, she did not know where she was.
Then she heard the steady rhythm of a heart monitor and felt a deep ache across her abdomen.
Her hands moved instantly to her stomach.
It was smaller.
“No.”
She tried to sit up.
A nurse rushed to the bed.
“Mrs. Bennett, please lie back.”
“My baby.”
“Your daughter is alive.”
Claire froze.
“My daughter?”
The nurse smiled gently.
“She was delivered by emergency cesarean section. She is premature, but she is breathing with assistance.”
“I need to see her.”
“The neonatal team is caring for her.”
“Where is my husband?”
The nurse hesitated.
“An Agent Voss asked us to restrict visitors.”
Claire remembered the bathroom.
The agents.
The ambulance.
The falling heartbeat.
“Is Mara here?”
“I’ll get her.”
Mara entered several minutes later wearing the same dark suit, though her jacket was folded over one arm.
Claire immediately asked, “Is my baby safe?”
“For now.”
The answer frightened her.
“What does that mean?”
“It means she is receiving excellent care, and two agents are outside the neonatal unit.”
“Why would she need agents?”
Mara placed the wedding photograph on the bedside table.
Claire read the message on the back.
The child belongs to us.
Her face went cold.
“Who wrote this?”
“We don’t know.”
“Where’s Richard?”
“Missing.”
“Evan?”
“Being questioned.”
“Victoria?”
“Also being questioned.”
Claire looked toward the door.
“I want to see my daughter.”
“We need to talk first.”
“No. I nearly lost her because people kept deciding what I needed. I will see her.”
Mara studied her for a moment, then nodded.
A nurse helped Claire into a wheelchair.
The neonatal intensive care unit was on another secured floor. Two armed agents stood outside the entrance.
Claire’s daughter lay inside a clear incubator beneath warm blue light.
She was tiny.
Smaller than Claire had imagined a human being could be.
A breathing tube covered part of her face. Thin wires ran from her chest to a monitor.
Claire pressed one hand against the glass.
“Hello, Lily,” she whispered.
She and Evan had chosen the name months ago.
Now it felt like something from another life.
The neonatal doctor approached.
“Her lungs are underdeveloped, but she responded well to treatment.”
“Can I touch her?”
“Only through the access port for now.”
The doctor showed Claire how to place two fingers gently against Lily’s hand.
The baby’s fingers moved weakly around hers.
Claire began to cry.
Mara remained several steps away.
For a few moments, she allowed Claire to be only a mother.
Then a hospital administrator entered with a folder.
“Agent Voss, may I speak with you?”
Mara joined him near the door.
Claire watched their expressions.
“What is it?” she asked.
The administrator looked uncomfortable.
“There is an issue with the infant’s registration.”
“What issue?”
“We attempted to create the birth record, but the system flagged a duplicate identity profile.”
Claire stared at him.
“That’s impossible. She was born an hour ago.”
“We believed it was a technical error.”
Mara took the folder.
“And now?”
“The identification number connected to Mrs. Bennett’s prenatal file was previously assigned.”
“To whom?” Claire asked.
The administrator looked at the baby.
“A female infant registered nine years ago at North River Clinic.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Claire gripped the wheelchair.
“That clinic does not officially exist.”
“That is why the system flagged it.”
Mara opened the folder.
The prenatal identification number had been entered into the hospital’s records by Claire’s private obstetrician, Dr. Samuel Hart.
A doctor recommended by Victoria.
Mara turned to Claire.
“When did Hart begin treating you?”
“After my first doctor suddenly retired.”
“When was that?”
“Five months ago.”
“Did you choose Hart?”
“No. Victoria arranged it.”
Mara called one of the agents.
“Find Dr. Samuel Hart immediately.”
The neonatal doctor examined the identification page.
“This number should have been unique to Claire’s pregnancy.”
“Could someone have copied it?” Claire asked.
“Yes, but there would be no medical reason to do that.”
Mara read the name attached to the old record.
Her expression became unreadable.
Claire saw it.
“Whose record is it?”
Mara closed the folder.
“Claire.”
“Tell me.”
“It is connected to an infant listed as deceased.”
“Whose infant?”
Mara slowly turned the page toward her.
The mother’s name was Vanessa Bennett.
The father’s name had been erased.
Claire looked through the incubator glass at Lily.
Then she remembered the message from the wedding photograph.
The child belongs to us.
“What happened at that clinic?” she whispered.
Mara did not answer.
Because at that exact moment, an alarm sounded inside the neonatal unit.
The monitor above Lily’s incubator flashed red.
The nurse rushed forward.
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And across the glass wall, Claire saw a man in medical scrubs running toward the emergency stairwell.
He was carrying a vial taken from Lily’s medication tray.
