Chapter 6: The Child With Another Name
Maya stared at the folded paper in her hand.
“Dad, what does that mean?””
Richard sat beneath the dim ballroom lights, his tuxedo jacket unbuttoned, his face drained of color. Around them, staff members dismantled the decorations while the last guests slipped through the front doors, whispering about the scandal they had witnessed.
“It means I need to find the hospital records,” he said.
“No.”” Maya stepped closer.
“It means you need to tell me why an unidentified child with my birthday was admitted to a hospital the night Mom died.””
Richard rubbed both hands over his face.
“I don't know.””
“Then why do you look like you do?””
He looked up sharply.
“Because there are things about that night I never understood. Things I was told not to question.””
“By Vanessa?””
He hesitated.
“By the police. By the doctors. By people who said they were protecting us.””
Maya felt the old anger return.
“Everyone keeps telling me they were protecting me. Somehow, I'm the only person who was never allowed to know what happened.””
Richard lowered his head.
“You're right.””
She hadn't expected him to agree.
The words left her without the satisfaction she had imagined. She wanted him to argue, to defend himself, to give her another reason to walk away.
Instead, he looked like a man finally realizing that silence had become its own kind of betrayal.
Daniel Mercer approached them with his leather portfolio tucked beneath one arm.
“I've arranged for an attorney to meet us tomorrow morning,” he said.
“But there's something you should know before you leave.””
Maya turned toward him.
“What?””
Daniel opened the portfolio and removed a photocopy of an old hospital document.
“Your mother contacted me shortly before the accident. She said she feared someone had altered records connected to her family.””
He placed the paper on the table.
It was a discharge summary from St. Catherine's Medical Center, dated seven years earlier.
The patient's name had been blacked out in the copy, but the date of birth remained visible.
Maya recognized it immediately.
Her birthday.
Below it, a handwritten note read:
Patient transferred to private care at request of legal guardian. Original identity verification incomplete.
Maya's stomach tightened.
“Who requested the transfer?””
Daniel pointed to a signature at the bottom.
The name was partly obscured by a dark stamp, but the final letters were unmistakable.
...Vale.
Vanessa.
Richard stood so quickly that his chair scraped across the floor.
“That can't be right.””
Daniel met his gaze.
“Then we'll establish whether the signature is authentic.””
“Vanessa was with me that night,” Richard insisted.
“She told me she was at home.””
“Did you see her?””
Richard opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Maya felt a terrible understanding settling over her.
He hadn't seen Vanessa.
He had simply believed her.
Daniel folded the document.
“I'm not accusing anyone based on a photocopy. But until we know more, Maya shouldn't be alone with Mrs. Vale, and nobody should remove any original records from the estate.””
“Where is she now?”” Maya asked.
“The officers took her to the station for questioning. She's not under arrest, but the investigation is active.””
Maya looked down at the pendant.
The tiny brass key lay against her palm.
“What does this key open?””
Daniel examined it carefully.
“Your mother gave me instructions about a locked cabinet in her former office at St. Catherine's. She believed certain records had been preserved there before the hospital changed ownership.””
Richard stared at him.
“You knew about this and never told me?””
“Your wife asked me not to. She said you were being watched.””
“Watched by whom?””
Daniel's expression hardened.
“That's one of the questions we need to answer.””
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Richard reached for Maya's hand.
She almost pulled away, but stopped.
“I know I haven't been the father you needed,” he said.
“I can't undo that. But let me help you find out what happened.””
Maya looked at his hand around hers.
“When we get to the hospital, you won't answer questions for me. You won't tell me what I should or shouldn't know. If there's something difficult in those records, I get to see it.””
Richard nodded.
“Agreed.””
“And if the truth makes this family look terrible?””
His eyes filled.
“Then we face it.””
Maya finally withdrew her hand.
“Tomorrow morning.””
She turned toward the staircase.
Behind her, Daniel spoke quietly to Richard.
“There's another issue. The trust amendment Elena signed was witnessed by a nurse from St. Catherine's.””
Richard frowned.
“What nurse?””
Daniel opened the portfolio again.
“Her name was Rebecca Shaw. She disappeared from the hospital's employment records three days after Elena died.””
Maya stopped walking.
“Disappeared?””
“Resigned, according to the official file. But she never collected her final paycheck, and her personnel record contains no forwarding address.””
Daniel looked at Maya.
“Your mother left me a note saying Rebecca had seen something no one else was supposed to see.””
“What?””
“I don't know.””
Maya climbed the stairs without another word.
That night, she couldn't sleep.
She lay in her childhood bed with the silver pendant on the nightstand and the broken wings spread across the floor. The room smelled faintly of dust and lavender detergent.
At three in the morning, she opened her mother's notebook again.
The pages about the foundation were followed by several entries that had nothing to do with money.
November 21: Vanessa asked whether the hospital still kept the original birth records.
November 22: Richard says I'm imagining things. I wish I were.
November 23: Rebecca called. She says the records don't match.
The last entry had been written in hurried, uneven letters.
If Maya's identity has been changed, then the person who did it knows what happened to the other child.
Maya read the sentence until the words blurred.
Another child.
Another identity.
Her birthday.
She remembered fragments from the night her mother died: a storm rattling the windows, a telephone ringing downstairs, her father rushing into her room and lifting her from bed.
She remembered waking in a hospital with a bandage on her forehead.
But her father had always told her she'd fainted after hearing about the accident.
She had never questioned it.
Now she wondered whether the memories she trusted most had been assembled from stories other people told her.
Her phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
Don't go to St. Catherine's.
Maya sat upright.
A second message appeared.
The records were changed for a reason. If you open that cabinet, you'll learn why your mother was willing to die.
Her fingers went cold.
She typed:
Who is this?
The reply came immediately.
Someone who knows you weren't the child they brought home.
Maya stopped breathing.
Before she could respond, another message appeared.
Ask Richard why he signed the discharge papers.
She stared at the screen.
Then she looked toward the bedroom door.
Her father had promised to face the truth with her.
May you like
But someone was telling her he had been part of the lie from the beginning.
And this time, Maya intended to hear his answer before anyone could stop her.
