Chapter 8 - The Blood Test
We refused.
At least, that's what I told Boone.
“We're not taking her anywhere.”
He nodded.
“Agreed.”
But Melissa was missing.
Her office was empty.
Her phone was on the desk.
And beside it was a photograph.
Melissa.
Rachel.
Me.
All three of us standing together eleven years ago.
I stared at the photograph.
I remembered now.
We had planned something.
Rachel had discovered the evidence.
Melissa had helped hide it.
And I had agreed to protect Emma.
But there was another person in the photograph.
A man standing behind us.
Adrian Vale.
He was smiling.
I turned the photograph over.
A message had been written on the back.
ONE OF YOU BETRAYED THE OTHERS.
Boone looked at me.
“Which one?”
I didn't know.
Then the hospital power failed again.
This time, the backup generators didn't activate.
Emergency lights came on.
A baby monitor screamed.
Emma's incubator door was open.
She was gone.
I screamed.
“EMMA!”
Boone ran.
We searched the unit.
Nothing.
Then I saw something on the floor.
A tiny hospital bracelet.
Not Emma's.
It belonged to a baby admitted eleven years ago.
The name was handwritten.
MERCER, E.
Boone picked it up.
His face collapsed.
“They had another baby.”
“What?”
“Rachel told me once that Emma had a twin.”
I stared at him.
“You never told me.”
“Because I didn't believe her.”
A sound came from the basement.
May you like
A baby's cry.
We ran.
