Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Gone
Elias didn't move.
For a moment, he looked as though the language itself had stopped making sense.
"Lily's mother is dead."
The security officer's face remained professional.
"Then we have a problem."
Adelaide felt the corridor narrow around them.
"How long ago?"
"Three years," Elias said.
His voice sounded distant.
"Her name was Serena Carter. She died in a boating accident."
Adelaide looked at the note again.
The crash was not an accident.
Now someone claiming to be a dead woman had tried to enter Lily's room.
"Where is she?" Elias demanded.
"The individual left before security arrived."
"You let her leave?"
"We didn't know there was a threat until the nurse questioned the badge."
"What did she look like?"
"Blonde. Mid-thirties. Baseball cap. Surgical mask."
Elias swore under his breath.
Adelaide stepped in.
"Lock down Lily's room. Nobody enters except assigned staff. Verify every badge manually."
The officer nodded.
"I already ordered it."
"I'm moving her."
Elias turned sharply.
"Where?"
"A secure pediatric room."
"I'm coming."
"Of course."
They walked together for the first time in seven months.
Not as lovers.
Not even as exes.
As two people connected by children who might both be in danger.
Lily was awake when they entered.
Her face looked painfully small against the white hospital pillow.
"Daddy."
Elias crossed the room instantly.
"I'm here, bug."
He kissed her forehead.
Adelaide stayed near the monitor, reviewing numbers.
Stable.
For now.
Lily looked at her.
"Hi, Dr. Addie."
"Hi."
"Is the baby okay?"
Elias's head turned.
Adelaide kept her voice light.
"He's fine."
"Good."
Elias sat beside his daughter.
"Lily, I need to ask you something."
Adelaide watched his hands.
They were shaking.
"Do you remember what you said before?"
Lily thought.
"About the baby?"
"Yes."
"Sure."
"How did you know Dr. Addie was having a boy?"
Lily looked confused.
"Mommy told me."
Elias stopped breathing.
Adelaide gripped the edge of the chart.
"Lily," Elias whispered. "Mommy is..."
He couldn't say it.
Dead.
The word was too cruel.
Lily reached beneath her blanket.
"No, Daddy. New Mommy."
Adelaide's heart slammed against her ribs.
"What new mommy?" Elias asked.
"The lady who talks to me sometimes."
"Where?"
"At school."
His face hardened.
"What lady?"
"She said she knew my real mommy."
Adelaide moved closer.
"What did she look like?"
Lily shrugged.
"She wears sunglasses."
"Did she tell you anything about me?"
Lily nodded.
"She showed me your picture."
Every instinct Adelaide possessed screamed.
"What picture?"
"You were wearing a blue dress."
Adelaide knew the photograph immediately.
Elias had taken it at a charity dinner eight months earlier.
Before he left her.
Before she knew she was pregnant.
"She said you had a baby in your tummy."
Elias stared at Adelaide.
"How long ago?"
Lily counted silently on her fingers.
"Maybe two sleeps before today."
Two days.
Someone had known.
Someone had been close enough to Adelaide to know the baby's sex.
Something only her closest friends and medical team knew.
Elias leaned forward.
"What was this woman's name?"
"She said Aunt Claire."
Elias recoiled.
Adelaide noticed.
"You know her."
"No."
"You just reacted."
"Because Serena had a sister named Claire."
"Had?"
"She disappeared after Serena died."
"Disappeared how?"
"Stopped answering everyone. Closed her apartment. Quit her job. We assumed she blamed me."
"For Serena's death?"
His silence answered.
Adelaide felt the old pieces of Elias's life rearrange themselves.
He had told her his marriage ended badly.
He had told her Lily's mother died after the divorce.
He had never explained much more.
Adelaide had respected that.
Now she wondered whether she had mistaken secrecy for grief.
"Elias, what happened to Serena?"
He looked at Lily.
"Not here."
"Then somewhere else."
"Later."
"No. Someone has been approaching your daughter. Someone knows I'm pregnant. Someone engineered—or claims to have engineered—a crash that nearly killed Lily. We are done with later."
Lily whimpered.
Adelaide immediately stopped.
Elias took his daughter's hand.
"You're okay, bug."
Lily's eyes drifted closed again.
The medication was pulling her toward sleep.
Adelaide lowered the lights.
They stepped into the adjoining consult room, leaving the connecting door open.
Elias stood at the window.
"Serena had problems."
"What kind?"
"After Lily was born, she became terrified that people were following her."
"Was anyone?"
"I don't know."
"Did you believe her?"
"At first."
"And later?"
"Later she started saying my father's company was involved."
Adelaide frowned.
Elias came from money, but he rarely discussed it.
Carter Biomedical.
A massive medical technology company.
His father, Grant Carter, had built it from a regional equipment supplier into a billion-dollar corporation.
"What did she accuse them of?"
"She said someone was manipulating clinical trial records."
Adelaide's expression sharpened.
"That isn't a small accusation."
"I know."
"What did your father say?"
"That Serena was unstable."
"And you believed him."
Elias looked ashamed.
"I wanted to."
That answer told her everything.
"Serena filed a report. She claimed she had proof."
"What happened to the proof?"
"She died before she could submit it."
Adelaide stared.
"Boating accident?"
"Yes."
"Was her body recovered?"
Elias hesitated.
"No."
A chill moved through Adelaide.
"You told everyone she was dead without a body?"
"The Coast Guard searched for six days. They found wreckage, blood, her jacket—"
"But not her."
"No."
"And Claire?"
"She accused me of helping cover it up."
"Did you?"
His eyes snapped to hers.
"No."
"Did your father?"
"I don't know."
That frightened her more.
Because she believed him.
Elias had once lied by omission, but Adelaide knew what he looked like when he was deliberately deceiving her.
This wasn't it.
He was frightened.
And beginning to realize his entire history might have been built on someone else's version of events.
His phone vibrated.
He checked it.
His face changed.
"What?"
He handed Adelaide the screen.
Unknown number.
One photograph.
Adelaide standing outside her apartment three nights earlier.
Her pregnant stomach visible beneath a gray sweater.
Taken from across the street.
Below it was a message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED AWAY FROM HIM.
Adelaide's mouth went dry.
"When did you get this?"
"Now."
Another message appeared.
THE CHILD WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO EXIST.
Elias immediately called security.
Adelaide grabbed her own phone.
"I need to call the police."
"Already doing it."
Within fifteen minutes, two detectives arrived.
Detective Marcus Hale, late forties, calm and precise.
Detective Naomi Brooks, younger, direct.
They took statements separately.
Adelaide told them everything.
Her relationship with Elias.
The pregnancy.
The unanswered calls.
Lily's accident.
The note.
The bracelet.
The threatening photograph.
When they finished, Hale asked one question.
"Does anyone besides Mr. Carter know he's the father?"
"My best friend, Maya."
"Family?"
"My mother."
"Hospital staff?"
"My obstetrician knows the father's name."
"Anyone connected to Carter Biomedical?"
"No."
He made a note.
Brooks entered.
"Traffic camera footage is in."
Elias stood.
"And?"
"The car that hit you had stolen plates."
"Driver?"
"Left the vehicle six blocks away and disappeared."
"So it was deliberate?"
"We're not making that conclusion yet."
Hale looked at Adelaide.
"But the note makes coincidence unlikely."
Elias paced once across the room.
"My daughter stays protected."
"We've stationed an officer outside."
Adelaide asked, "What about Claire Carter?"
Brooks looked at Elias.
"We pulled her records."
"And?"
"Claire Carter didn't disappear."
Elias frowned.
"What?"
"She died eighteen months ago."
"No."
"We have a death certificate."
"Cause?"
"Apartment fire."
Adelaide felt sick.
Two sisters.
One presumed dead at sea.
The other dead in a fire.
Both connected to an accusation involving Carter Biomedical.
Brooks slid a photograph across the table.
"Do you recognize this woman?"
Security footage.
Hospital lobby.
Baseball cap.
Mask.
Blonde hair.
Elias stared.
"No."
"Look at her eyes."
He did.
His hand slowly closed around the photograph.
Adelaide saw recognition settle over him.
"Who is she?"
Elias whispered one name.
"Serena."
That night, Lily slept while police guarded the corridor.
Adelaide refused to leave the hospital.
Her obstetrician insisted she sit down, drink water, and stop pretending being seven months pregnant made her indestructible.
At 2:14 a.m., Adelaide entered the staff lounge.
Elias was there.
He had coffee he wasn't drinking.
"I'm sorry," he said.
She stopped.
"For what?"
"All of it."
"That narrows nothing down."
"For leaving."
She looked away.
"I didn't know you were pregnant."
"You knew I loved you."
His jaw tightened.
"Yes."
"And you still disappeared."
"I thought disappearing would protect you."
Adelaide turned.
"What does that mean?"
He stared at the coffee.
"The week before I left, someone broke into my house."
"You never told me."
"They didn't steal anything."
"What did they do?"
"They put a photograph of you on Lily's bed."
Her skin prickled.
"What photograph?"
"You leaving this hospital."
She stared at him.
"They wrote something on the back."
"What?"
Elias finally looked at her.
LEAVE HER OR SHE BECOMES FAMILY.
Adelaide's anger collided with disbelief.
"So you left me to protect me?"
"I thought Serena's accusations had brought dangerous people into my life. I thought if I made it look like you meant nothing—"
"You could have told me."
"I didn't know who to trust."
"You could have trusted me."
"I know."
"No, you don't."
Her voice broke.
She hated that.
She lowered it.
"You don't know what it was like finding out I was pregnant three days after the man I loved vanished."
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry doesn't give me seven months back."
"No."
He stood.
"But if you'll let me, I want to be there for whatever comes next."
Adelaide's hand went instinctively to her stomach.
The baby kicked.
Elias noticed.
His expression changed into something achingly soft.
"Was that him?"
She didn't answer.
Another kick.
Elias gave a broken laugh.
Adelaide almost smiled.
Almost.
Then Lily screamed.
They ran.
The officer outside her room was on the floor.
Unconscious.
The door stood open.
Lily was sitting upright in bed, terrified.
But she wasn't alone.
A woman stood beside the window.
Blonde hair.
Hospital scrubs.
A surgical mask hanging beneath her chin.
Elias stopped in the doorway.
The woman slowly turned.
And Adelaide understood why Elias had gone white.
Serena Carter had been declared dead three years earlier.
May you like
Yet she was standing beside her daughter's bed.
And she was holding Adelaide's missing medical file.
