Chapter 2 - The Woman Victoria Erased
Rebecca’s voice came through the emergency phone.
“Claire, do not let Victoria speak to that woman alone.”
Claire barely heard her.
Another contraction seized her body so violently that her knees buckled.
Daniel caught her against his chest.
“Easy. I’ve got you.”
But Claire’s eyes remained fixed on the open bathroom door.
The woman standing there appeared to be in her late fifties. She wore a plain navy dress beneath a light medical coat, but there was no hospital logo on it. Silver threaded through her dark hair. Her face was pale, and one hand trembled around a worn leather folder pressed against her chest.
Behind her stood two paramedics and a sheriff’s deputy.
Victoria looked as though she had seen a ghost.
“You.”
The woman’s expression hardened.
“Yes, Victoria.”
Daniel turned toward his mother.
“You know her?”
Victoria recovered quickly.
“She has no business being here.”
The stranger gave a humorless laugh.
“I would say Claire makes it my business.”
Claire tightened her grip on Daniel.
“Who are you?”
The woman looked at her.
Something changed in her face.
Not recognition exactly.
Pain.
“I’m Dr. Evelyn Mercer.”
Victoria immediately stepped forward.
“She is not your doctor.”
Evelyn didn’t look away from Claire.
“No. I’m the doctor your mother-in-law paid to disappear.”
The bathroom went silent.
Even Claire’s pain seemed distant for one impossible second.
Daniel stared at Evelyn.
“What does that mean?”
A paramedic moved forward.
“Sir, we need to assess your wife.”
That broke the spell.
“Yes. Please.”
Daniel helped Claire onto the padded bench as the paramedics entered. One checked her blood pressure while the other asked questions.
“How far along?”
“Thirty-eight weeks and five days.”
“First pregnancy?”
“Yes.”
“Contractions?”
“Less than two minutes apart.”
“Bleeding?”
“A little.”
The paramedic’s expression tightened.
“We’re transporting immediately.”
Victoria moved toward them.
“To which hospital?”
“County Regional.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
Victoria forced a smile.
“I mean St. Matthew’s is better equipped.”
The older paramedic shook his head.
“County Regional has the nearest labor and delivery unit.”
“I’ll arrange a helicopter.”
“Mom.”
Daniel’s voice was low.
Victoria turned.
He looked at her as though he no longer recognized her.
“Stop.”
“I’m trying to help.”
“No. You’re trying to control where she goes.”
Victoria opened her mouth.
Daniel continued.
“You lied about the nearest hospital. You locked the bathroom. You tried to stop her from calling for help. Now a doctor walks in saying you paid her to disappear.”
He pointed toward Evelyn.
“You’re going to explain every part of this.”
“Not here.”
“Especially here.”
Lauren appeared in the doorway.
Her veil had been removed.
She still held the bouquet, but several flowers had fallen loose.
“What’s going on?”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“Lauren, go back.”
“No.”
“This is your wedding.”
“My sister-in-law is bleeding.”
Lauren looked at Claire.
“Is the baby okay?”
“We don’t know yet,” Claire whispered.
Lauren dropped her bouquet.
It landed softly on the marble.
“Then I’m not going anywhere.”
Victoria looked around.
Her son.
Her daughter.
Claire.
The deputy.
The paramedics.
Dr. Evelyn Mercer.
For the first time, Victoria Harrow had no one obeying her.
Evelyn opened the leather folder.
“I came because Rebecca Bennett contacted me yesterday.”
Claire stared.
“Yesterday?”
Rebecca was still on the phone.
“Yes,” Rebecca said. “I found Evelyn while investigating the false maternity file.”
Claire pressed the phone closer.
“You knew before today?”
“I knew something was wrong. I didn’t know how wrong.”
The paramedic attached a monitor around Claire’s belly.
A rapid heartbeat filled the bathroom.
Claire closed her eyes.
Her baby.
Alive.
For now.
“Heart rate is elevated,” the paramedic said. “We need to move.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Then I’ll tell them in the ambulance.”
Victoria blocked her.
“No.”
The deputy moved immediately.
“Ma’am, step aside.”
“You don’t understand what she’s doing.”
Evelyn stared at Victoria.
“I understand exactly what I’m doing.”
She opened the folder.
Inside were old medical forms, photographs and photocopied documents.
The top page carried a date.
Six years earlier.
Claire recognized the month immediately.
It was the month she had met Daniel.
Evelyn pulled out a photograph.
Daniel took it.
The picture showed a hospital room.
Evelyn stood beside a bed.
Victoria was there too.
So was a much younger Daniel.
Claire’s breath caught.
“Daniel?”
He stared at the photograph.
“I don’t remember this.”
Victoria’s voice sharpened.
“Because you were sedated.”
Daniel looked up.
“What?”
Evelyn answered.
“You were admitted after a car accident.”
“I know about the accident.”
“Do you know what happened after?”
Daniel frowned.
“I fractured two ribs. Concussion. I was discharged three days later.”
“No.”
Victoria stepped toward Evelyn.
“Enough.”
Evelyn held her ground.
“You remained under observation for nine days.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That’s impossible.”
“I treated you.”
“Why don’t I remember you?”
“Because your mother had your records altered.”
Claire looked at Victoria.
Victoria’s face gave her the answer before her mouth did.
Daniel saw it.
“Is that true?”
“I protected you.”
“From what?”
Victoria said nothing.
Another contraction hit Claire.
She screamed.
Daniel immediately dropped beside her.
“Claire.”
The monitor changed.
The paramedic watched the numbers.
“Baby’s heart rate is dipping.”
Everything moved at once.
“Stretcher!”
The second paramedic rushed outside.
Claire grabbed Daniel’s sleeve.
“Don’t leave me.”
“I’m not leaving.”
Evelyn closed the folder.
“We have to go.”
The stretcher arrived.
They transferred Claire carefully.
As they pushed her through the bathroom doorway, wedding guests moved aside.
The elegant reception had transformed into a corridor of stunned faces.
Claire saw candles still burning.
Champagne still bubbling.
The cake still untouched.
The quartet had stopped.
Nobody cared about the wedding anymore.
Daniel walked beside the stretcher holding Claire’s hand.
Lauren followed.
So did Evelyn.
Victoria came last.
Outside, afternoon sunlight flooded the vineyard.
An ambulance waited beside the entrance.
Claire was lifted inside.
Daniel climbed in after her.
Evelyn started to follow.
A paramedic stopped her.
“Family only.”
“She’s a physician,” Daniel said.
“Not currently treating the patient.”
Claire looked at Evelyn.
“Let her come.”
The paramedic hesitated.
Claire gripped Daniel’s hand.
“She knows something about my baby.”
Victoria had reached the ambulance.
“She knows nothing.”
Evelyn turned.
“Then why did you create a false medical record before Claire was even pregnant?”
Claire froze.
Daniel stared at his mother.
“What?”
Evelyn reached into the folder.
“The St. Matthew’s file wasn’t created six weeks ago.”
Rebecca’s voice came through the phone.
“That’s what I discovered this morning.”
Claire whispered, “You told me six weeks.”
“The active pregnancy record was opened six weeks ago,” Rebecca said. “But the patient profile underneath it is older.”
“How old?”
Rebecca paused.
“Six years.”
Claire stared at Daniel.
Six years.
Again.
The month they met.
Evelyn climbed into the ambulance.
Victoria tried to follow.
The deputy stopped her.
“Mrs. Harrow, I need you to stay here.”
“This is my family.”
“And we need to speak with you.”
Victoria’s eyes went to Claire.
There was desperation in them now.
“Claire, whatever they tell you, remember that I did what I did to protect Daniel.”
Daniel leaned toward the doors.
“Protect me from what?”
Victoria’s lips trembled.
But the ambulance doors closed.
The siren started.
Claire watched Victoria disappear through the rear windows.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Evelyn opened the folder.
“Daniel, your accident wasn’t random.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“What?”
“You were driving home from St. Matthew’s.”
“I told you I’ve never been there.”
“You had.”
Evelyn removed another document.
A laboratory report.
Daniel looked at it.
Claire saw his name.
DANIEL HARROW.
Below it was another name.
MICHAEL HARROW.
Daniel stopped breathing.
“My father?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Your brother.”
“I don’t have a brother.”
“Yes, you do.”
Daniel stared at her.
“No.”
“His existence was removed from your family records.”
“That’s insane.”
“I delivered him.”
Daniel’s face went white.
Claire looked between them.
“Why would Victoria erase her own son?”
Evelyn glanced at the paramedics.
Then lowered her voice.
“Because Michael discovered something about the Harrow family’s medical foundation.”
“What?”
“A program your father funded secretly.”
Daniel shook his head.
“My father died when I was sixteen.”
“Your father disappeared when you were sixteen.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
Claire forgot her contractions for half a heartbeat.
“Disappeared?”
Evelyn pulled out a death certificate.
“Officially, Thomas Harrow died from cardiac arrest.”
Daniel stared at the signature.
Evelyn pointed to it.
“That is supposed to be mine.”
“Supposed to be?”
“I never signed it.”
Daniel looked up.
The ambulance hit a turn.
Claire cried out as another contraction rolled through her.
The monitor began beeping faster.
“Pressure’s climbing,” the paramedic said.
Evelyn immediately put the documents away.
“Claire, focus on me.”
Claire breathed.
In.
Out.
Another wave.
She squeezed Daniel’s hand until his knuckles whitened.
“I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can.”
“I mean this family.”
Daniel’s expression broke.
“I didn’t know.”
Claire believed him.
That was almost worse.
“What does any of this have to do with our baby?”
Evelyn hesitated.
Daniel noticed.
“Tell us.”
“Not until Claire is stable.”
“No.”
Claire forced herself upright.
“If someone created medical records for my child, I need to know why.”
Evelyn slowly reached into the folder again.
This time she removed a sealed envelope.
CLAIRE HARROW — MATERNAL GENETIC SCREEN.
Claire stared.
“I never took that test.”
“I know.”
Evelyn opened it.
Inside was a DNA report.
Daniel leaned closer.
Claire’s eyes scanned words she barely understood.
Then one phrase jumped out.
PATERNAL MARKER MATCH.
Daniel saw it too.
“What is this?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“The Harrow Foundation maintained a private genetic database.”
“For what?”
“Originally? Hereditary disease research.”
“Originally?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Then Victoria found another use for it.”
Claire’s hand moved instinctively over her stomach.
“What use?”
“Identifying children.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“What children?”
“Harrow descendants.”
Claire stared.
“Our baby is obviously a Harrow descendant.”
Evelyn looked at Daniel.
“That depends on which Harrow.”
Silence.
Daniel recoiled.
“Are you saying the baby isn’t mine?”
“No.”
Claire’s voice cracked.
“Then what are you saying?”
Evelyn pulled another page free.
“Your child shares a genetic marker that Victoria has been searching for since Michael disappeared.”
Daniel stared at her.
“My nonexistent brother?”
“He existed.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is he alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why would my baby have anything to do with him?”
Evelyn looked down at the report.
“Because Michael and Daniel were not ordinary brothers.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“Twins?”
“No.”
Evelyn looked at Claire.
“Michael was born twelve years before Daniel.”
Claire frowned.
“Then what connects them?”
Before Evelyn could answer, the ambulance suddenly slowed.
The paramedic looked toward the driver’s compartment.
“Why are we stopping?”
The driver’s voice came through.
“Road obstruction.”
Daniel looked through the rear window.
A black SUV had stopped sideways across the private road leading out of the vineyard.
Another vehicle pulled in behind the ambulance.
Claire’s heart started racing.
“That’s one of Victoria’s cars.”
Daniel turned toward Evelyn.
“Did my mother send them?”
Evelyn’s face had gone pale.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I recognize the license plate.”
The paramedic reached for the radio.
Static answered.
“Dispatch?”
Nothing.
He tried again.
“County Regional, Medic Twelve.”
Static.
Daniel pulled out his phone.
No signal.
Claire looked at the emergency phone.
Its screen had changed.
One new message.
Unknown sender.
DON’T GO TO COUNTY REGIONAL.
Claire showed Daniel.
His face hardened.
Another message arrived.
THEY ARE WAITING FOR THE BABY.
Evelyn grabbed the phone.
“Where did this come from?”
“I don’t know.”
The ambulance driver shouted from the front.
“Someone’s getting out of the SUV.”
Daniel moved toward the rear windows.
A man in a dark suit stepped onto the road.
He wasn’t carrying a weapon.
He was carrying a medical case.
Evelyn saw him.
All the color left her face.
“Oh, God.”
Daniel turned.
“You know him?”
Evelyn backed away from the doors.
“That’s the doctor who signed your father’s real death report.”
Daniel stared through the glass.
The man approached slowly.
Then Claire’s emergency phone rang.
Rebecca.
Claire answered.
“Rebecca?”
Her sister was breathing hard.
“Claire, listen to me. We found the original file.”
“What file?”
“The one Victoria was trying to keep hidden.”
Daniel leaned closer.
Rebecca continued.
“It isn’t about Daniel’s father.”
Evelyn stared at the approaching man.
Claire whispered, “Then who is it about?”
Rebecca said one name.
Evelyn dropped the medical folder.
May you like
The ambulance doors opened.
And the man outside said, “Claire, before that baby is born, you need to know who your husband really is.”
