Chapter 2 - The Man From the Hospital
Dominic moved before I did.
One second he stood beside the closet.
The next, he had positioned himself between me and the corridor.
“Stay behind me.”
“I don’t need—”
“Tonight you do.”
The elevator doors opened.
A man in blue hospital scrubs stepped out.
Mid-forties.
Salt-and-pepper hair.
Surgical mask hanging beneath his chin.
Hospital badge clipped to his chest.
Dr. Adrian Keller.
I recognized the name.
Not the face.
He worked in oncology administration.
I had seen his signature on forms.
“Ms. Marlow?” he asked.
Dominic did not move.
“How did you get into my elevator?”
Dr. Keller stopped.
His eyes went to Dominic.
Recognition struck.
“Mr. Mercer.”
“That didn’t answer me.”
“The concierge called upstairs.”
“No, he didn’t.”
Silence.
Dominic’s security man—Nico, I later learned—closed the elevator behind the doctor.
Dr. Keller’s composure slipped.
“I came because there’s been a misunderstanding involving Ms. Marlow’s mother.”
My stomach twisted.
“What misunderstanding?”
He looked at me.
“We need to discuss her treatment.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
My knees almost gave out.
“Is she stable?”
“For the moment.”
I exhaled shakily.
Dominic glanced at me, then back at Keller.
“You drove across Manhattan at three twenty in the morning to discuss paperwork?”
Keller smiled thinly.
“Private medical matters should remain private.”
“Then why are you in my home?”
No answer.
Celeste had moved near the windows.
Very still.
Too still.
Dominic noticed.
“Celeste.”
She looked at him.
“Do you know this man?”
“No.”
Keller answered too quickly.
“I’ve never met Ms. Laurent.”
Dominic turned his head slowly.
No one had spoken Celeste’s last name.
Celeste closed her eyes.
Just for a second.
Dominic saw it.
So did I.
Nico stepped between Keller and the elevator.
Dominic’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“Try again.”
Keller swallowed.
“This doesn’t need to become complicated.”
“Then simplify it.”
Keller looked at me.
“Ms. Marlow, your mother’s medical records contain a clerical discrepancy.”
“What kind?”
“A historical one.”
“What does that mean?”
“I need you to come with me.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“No.”
Keller ignored him.
“Elena, please.”
I flinched hearing my first name from him.
“How do you know where I work?”
His gaze flicked to Celeste.
There.
A mistake.
Tiny.
Fatal.
Dominic stepped forward.
“Answer her.”
Keller’s face changed.
Professional calm disappeared.
“You have no idea what you’re interfering with.”
Dominic’s expression stayed flat.
“I hear that sentence often.”
“This is not your business.”
“You entered my residence.”
Keller glanced at Nico.
Then at the corridor behind us.
He was calculating distance.
Dominic saw that too.
“Don’t.”
Keller froze.
Nico removed something from Keller’s coat pocket.
Not a weapon.
A sealed hospital envelope.
My name was written across the front.
ELENA MARLOW.
“What is that?” I asked.
Keller said nothing.
Nico handed it to Dominic.
Dominic held it out to me.
I hesitated.
“Open it.”
Inside were photocopies.
Birth records.
Insurance records.
A laboratory report.
And one page that made no immediate sense.
GENETIC RELATIONSHIP ANALYSIS.
My eyes moved down the page.
Subject A: Margaret Marlow.
Subject B: Elena Marlow.
Probability of maternal relationship:
0.00%.
I stared.
“That’s wrong.”
Nobody spoke.
“That’s wrong.”
I turned to Keller.
“She’s my mother.”
“Elena—”
“She gave birth to me.”
Keller looked away.
“No,” I said. “Look at me.”
He did.
“She’s my mother.”
“She raised you.”
The sentence cut deeper than shouting could have.
I backed into the shelf.
“No.”
Dominic took the paper from my trembling hands.
He read it once.
Then again.
“When was this test performed?”
Keller stayed silent.
Nico searched the packet.
“Twenty-three years ago.”
I stopped breathing.
I was twenty-three.
Dominic’s eyes lifted.
“This wasn’t a recent test.”
“No,” Keller said.
“Who ordered it?”
Keller’s jaw tightened.
Celeste spoke softly.
“Dominic.”
He turned on her.
“You knew.”
She shook her head.
“You knew something.”
“I knew there had been questions.”
“What questions?”
Celeste looked at me.
Her eyes were not cruel now.
They were frightened.
“About a baby.”
The closet seemed to tilt.
“What baby?”
No one answered.
I grabbed Keller’s sleeve.
“What baby?”
He pulled away.
“That is exactly why you need to leave with me.”
Dominic stepped between us.
“She’s not going anywhere.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
Keller’s face darkened.
“Twenty-three years ago, St. Catherine’s had an incident in the maternity wing.”
My skin went cold.
“What incident?”
“A child was removed.”
Silence.
Dominic’s expression changed.
“A kidnapping?”
Keller shook his head.
“Not officially.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the hospital buried it.”
I stared at the genetic report.
A child removed.
Twenty-three years ago.
My age.
“No.”
Keller continued.
“A nurse disappeared the same night.”
My mouth went dry.
“What nurse?”
He looked directly at me.
“Margaret Marlow.”
Everything inside me broke.
I remembered Mom teaching me to braid my hair.
Mom sleeping beside me when I had pneumonia.
Mom sewing my prom dress because we couldn’t afford one.
Mom working double shifts at a pharmacy.
Mom calling me her miracle.
“You’re lying.”
Keller’s voice softened.
“I wish I were.”
Dominic took the report.
“Who was the child?”
Keller shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Celeste laughed once.
Bitterly.
“Yes, you do.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Celeste.”
She looked at Keller.
“You came here because you thought Elena had found out.”
Keller said nothing.
“You thought Margaret told her before surgery.”
“Stop talking.”
Celeste stepped closer.
“No. You followed her through the staffing agency, didn’t you?”
My stomach twisted.
“What?”
Celeste’s gaze moved to me.
“You didn’t get this job by accident.”
I felt suddenly sick.
“My agency sent me.”
“Yes.”
“Because a client requested overnight staff.”
“Yes.”
“Dominic requested me?”
“No.”
The word came from Dominic.
Immediate.
Certain.
He looked at Nico.
“Did we request specific personnel?”
“No.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
Dominic understood before I did.
“You did.”
She whispered, “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
My heartbeat thundered.
“You put me here?”
“I needed to see you.”
“Why?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Because you look like her.”
I stared.
“Like who?”
Dominic went completely still.
Celeste reached for the back of a dining chair.
“Twenty-three years ago, my aunt gave birth at St. Catherine’s.”
Keller swore under his breath.
Dominic looked at him.
“You’re done talking unless I ask.”
Celeste continued.
“She was eighteen. Her family was powerful. The pregnancy had been hidden.”
I could barely hear her over my heartbeat.
“The baby disappeared before sunrise.”
“What happened to your aunt?”
Celeste looked away.
“She died six months later.”
“How?”
No answer.
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“How?”
“Suicide.”
I stepped backward.
Dominic caught my elbow before I fell.
I jerked away.
“Don’t.”
He released me immediately.
I turned to Keller.
“Was I that baby?”
“I cannot confirm that.”
“You have my DNA!”
“I said I cannot confirm it.”
Dominic held up the report.
“Then whose DNA were you comparing hers against?”
Keller’s face went pale.
There had to be another sample.
Another test.
Another person.
Nico searched the envelope again.
One sheet had been removed.
The staple marks remained.
Dominic noticed.
“Where is the missing page?”
Keller said nothing.
Nico stepped closer.
“Keller.”
“Fine.”
He reached slowly into his inside pocket.
Nico stopped him.
“I’ll do it.”
He removed a folded paper.
Dominic opened it.
I watched his eyes move across the page.
Then stop.
For the first time since I had met him, Dominic Mercer looked genuinely shocked.
“What?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer.
I stepped forward.
“Dominic.”
He looked at Celeste.
Then at me.
“Who is Subject C?” Nico asked.
Dominic handed me the paper.
My eyes found the line.
Subject C.
A name.
One I knew.
Everyone in New York knew it.
I looked up at Dominic.
His face had gone stone still.
The DNA report slipped from my fingers.
May you like
Because the name printed beside Subject C was:
Dominic Mercer.
