Chapter 6 - The Brother I Married
The photograph slipped from my fingers.
For one horrifying second, I couldn't breathe.
Then Daniel's words returned.
Robert is not my biological father.
My mother had another child.
You know him.
The photograph showed Daniel.
“No.”
Claire grabbed it.
Her expression changed.
“Emma—”
“No.”
Detective Bell came through the doorway.
“We've locked down the hospital.”
“My babies.”
“We're checking every exit.”
“My babies!”
I screamed it.
The sound tore through me.
I didn't care about the incision.
The monitors.
The stitches.
Anything.
I wanted my daughters.
Bell ordered security footage pulled immediately.
A hospital laundry cart had left the neonatal unit four minutes earlier.
The person pushing it wore a surgical mask.
The elevator camera caught only their eyes.
Female.
Around fifty.
Claire stared at the image.
“I know her.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Miriam Voss.”
Bell looked at her.
“Doctor?”
“She worked on Robert's original research team.”
My stomach turned.
“She's still alive?”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn't she in the files?”
“Because she disappeared twenty-five years ago.”
Bell sent the name across every police channel.
Then I turned toward Daniel's room.
I needed the truth.
All of it.
Now.
Daniel saw the photograph and went white.
“You weren't supposed to see that yet.”
I nearly tore the IV from my arm.
“Are you my brother?”
His expression broke.
“No.”
“Don't lie to me!”
“I'm not.”
“My mother had a son.”
“Yes.”
“That photograph says you!”
“I know.”
“Then explain it!”
Daniel struggled upright against the handcuff.
“Elizabeth believed I was her son for twelve years.”
My anger stalled.
“What?”
“Robert told her I was the child taken from her.”
“But you weren't?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“DNA.”
My head spun.
“Then why does the photograph say HER FIRST SON?”
“Because Robert wanted her to believe it.”
Claire's face hardened.
“He used Daniel to control Elizabeth.”
“Yes.”
Daniel explained.
Mom had given birth at seventeen.
She was sedated.
When she woke, Robert told her the baby had died.
Years later, he contacted her secretly and said the baby lived.
That child, he claimed, was Daniel.
Mom kept the secret from Grandpa Henry because Robert threatened to expose the illegal research and destroy Whitmore.
She met Daniel privately several times during his adolescence.
Daniel didn't understand who she was.
Robert told him she was an unstable woman connected to the family that had ruined his life.
Then, when Daniel was twenty-four, Robert revealed the supposed truth.
Elizabeth Whitmore was his biological mother.
“And that's why you approached me,” I whispered.
Daniel nodded miserably.
“I thought you were my half-sister.”
The room went silent.
A wave of nausea hit me.
“You dated me believing I was your sister?”
“No.”
He shook his head urgently.
“Before I ever met you, I secretly ran DNA tests.”
I exhaled.
“We aren't related.”
“No.”
“Whose son are you?”
“My biological father was a man named Thomas Hale. My mother's first husband. He died when I was three.”
“And my mother's son?”
Daniel looked down.
“We didn't know.”
I stared at him.
“Until?”
“Six months ago.”
Everything in his face changed.
“You found him.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
He looked at Claire.
Claire frowned.
“What?”
Daniel spoke.
“Detective Marcus Bell.”
The room froze.
Bell wasn't there.
He had left to coordinate the search.
Claire whispered, “No.”
Daniel nodded.
“His birth records were sealed. His original name was Michael Whitmore.”
I sat down.
Detective Bell.
The man leading the investigation.
My brother.
“Does he know?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I was.”
That word terrified me.
Was.
My phone rang.
Bell.
I answered.
“Where are my daughters?”
His voice was breathless.
“I found the vehicle.”
“Where?”
“Parking structure, lower level.”
“Are they there?”
Silence.
“Marcus?”
“They left something.”
I looked at Daniel.
“What?”
“A phone.”
“Don't touch it.”
“Too late.”
A baby's cry came through the line.
My heart stopped.
“Grace?”
Then another cry.
Sophie.
Live audio.
Bell said, “There's a location signal.”
“Where?”
He gave the address.
Old Whitmore Research Facility.
Of course.
Everything returned there.
Bell said, “I'm going.”
“No.”
“Emma—”
“Wait for backup.”
“My officers are two minutes away.”
“Then wait two minutes.”
He went silent.
“Marcus.”
“What?”
I almost told him.
You are my brother.
But not now.
Not over a phone while my babies were missing.
“Don't go inside alone.”
He gave a humorless laugh.
“You sound like my sister.”
My entire body went cold.
“What did you say?”
Silence.
“Marcus?”
The call disconnected.
Claire stared at me.
“He knows.”
Daniel strained against his cuffs.
“Then Robert told him.”
“Why?”
“To turn him against us.”
I ran toward the door.
Daniel shouted.
“Emma!”
I stopped.
“If Marcus knows the truth, Robert may have told him the version that makes Elizabeth responsible.”
“For what?”
“Giving him away.”
“She didn't.”
“I know.”
“But Marcus doesn't.”
Claire drove.
Bell's officers followed.
I should have stayed in the hospital.
Every doctor in the state would have told me that.
I didn't care.
My daughters were inside that building.
We arrived to find Bell's car parked sideways near the entrance.
Driver door open.
No Bell.
Police ordered me to stay in the vehicle.
I did not.
Claire didn't bother arguing anymore.
The research facility was dark except for one illuminated corridor.
Officers entered first.
No resistance.
No guards.
Too easy.
Then the sound came.
A baby crying.
I ran.
“Grace!”
Another cry answered.
A laboratory door stood open.
Inside were two bassinets.
My daughters.
Alive.
I reached them.
Touched their faces.
Counted fingers without meaning to.
Grace.
Sophie.
Safe.
Both safe.
I collapsed beside them sobbing.
Claire covered her mouth.
An officer called for paramedics.
Then I noticed the screen.
A large monitor on the far wall.
Live video.
My mother sat in a chair.
Marcus Bell stood beside her.
And behind them was Robert Hale.
He held a gun.
“Emma,” Robert said through the speakers.
He could see me.
“Congratulations.”
I stood.
“If you touch them—”
“I have no interest in harming your daughters.”
“You kidnapped them.”
“To bring you here.”
“Where are you?”
He smiled.
“Closer than you think.”
My mother shouted, “Emma, leave!”
Robert struck the back of her chair.
“Quiet.”
Marcus stared into the camera.
His face was unreadable.
“Marcus,” I said.
His eyes moved toward the lens.
“You know.”
He nodded.
My chest tightened.
“Mom didn't abandon you.”
Robert laughed.
“That's touching.”
“Don't listen to him.”
Marcus spoke for the first time.
“Then who should I listen to?”
“Me.”
“You didn't know I existed.”
“No.”
“Exactly.”
Pain crossed his face.
Robert leaned toward him.
“She chose Emma.”
“No,” I said.
“She left you.”
“No.”
“She protected the daughter she wanted.”
My mother screamed, “THAT'S NOT TRUE!”
Marcus looked at her.
For one second, his anger cracked.
Then Robert raised the gun.
A door behind me clicked.
Everyone turned.
Daniel stood there.
He had escaped police custody.
Blood darkened his hospital shirt where the IV had been ripped out.
He held no weapon.
Robert smiled on the screen.
“My son.”
Daniel looked straight at the camera.
“You were never my father.”
Robert's smile vanished.
Daniel reached into his pocket.
He removed a small remote.
“Emma, take the babies and run.”
“What did you do?”
Daniel's thumb hovered over the button.
Then speakers throughout the building crackled.
Robert's voice came from somewhere nearby.
Not the monitor.
The hallway.
He was inside the building with us.
May you like
And he whispered:
“Too late.”
