PART 5: THE SECOND CHILD
\n\u201cYou spent all night trying to save your father\u2019s company,\u201d Grant said as the agents dragged him away. \u201cBut while you were doing that, someone took your son.\u201d
\nI ran after him.
\n\u201cWhere is he?\u201d
\nGrant looked over his shoulder and smiled. \u201cAsk my mother.\u201d
\nThe agents pushed him into the waiting vehicle.
\nI called St. Catherine\u2019s Hospital again as Daniel drove me there. The nurse explained that Melissa had signed discharge papers only forty minutes after giving birth.
\n\u201cThat isn\u2019t possible,\u201d I said. \u201cShe could barely stand.\u201d
\n\u201cShe didn\u2019t leave alone,\u201d the nurse replied. \u201cA woman wearing an administrative badge escorted her through the private elevator.\u201d
\n\u201cWas it Evelyn Shaw?\u201d
\n\u201cThe woman had dark hair. Her badge identified her as Olivia Hale.\u201d
\nMy hand tightened around the phone.<\/p>\n
Someone had entered the hospital pretending to be me.
\nWhen we arrived, federal agents had already sealed Melissa\u2019s room and the maternity floor. A frightened nurse showed us the discharge authorization.
\nMy signature appeared at the bottom.
\nIt was another forgery.
\n\u201cWhoever took them knew the hospital\u2019s procedures,\u201d Daniel said. \u201cThey knew which elevator avoided the main lobby and which forms would prevent the infant alarm from activating.\u201d
\n\u201cThey also had access to my identification.\u201d
\nThe lead agent approached us with a tablet. \u201cWe recovered security footage from the parking garage.\u201d
\nThe video showed Melissa sitting in a wheelchair with the newborn against her chest. Her face was pale, and her hospital gown was visible beneath a hastily buttoned coat.
\nA woman in medical scrubs pushed the wheelchair.
\nHer face was hidden by a mask and surgical cap, but she walked with calm confidence.
\nA black van waited beside the elevator.
\nAs the woman helped Melissa inside, Melissa turned toward the security camera and lifted one hand.
\nShe pointed three times toward the left pocket of her coat.
\n\u201cShe was trying to tell us something,\u201d I said.
\nWe searched the hospital room.
\nMelissa\u2019s clothing, purse, and shoes were gone, but her phone remained beneath the bed. Its screen was cracked, and the last message had never been sent.
\nIt was addressed to me.
\nOLIVIA, I KNOW THE BABY IS YOURS. I DIDN\u2019T KNOW UNTIL EVELYN CAME INTO MY ROOM. THEY ARE TAKING US TO THE PLACE WHERE NORTHSTAR FIRST TOUCHED THE WATER. PLEASE FIND HIM.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe place where Northstar first touched the water,\u201d Daniel repeated.
\nI knew exactly what she meant.
\nMy father\u2019s original laboratory stood on the southern edge of Lake Union. It had been abandoned after Northstar moved into its corporate headquarters twenty-two years earlier.
\nWhen I was a child, my father called it the place where Northstar touched the water.
\nThe lead agent contacted the tactical team.
\nI called Lena.
\n\u201cSearch every payment connected to the old laboratory,\u201d I told her. \u201cVehicles, security, electricity\u2014anything.\u201d
\nHer keyboard clicked rapidly.
\n\u201cThe property has been inactive for years,\u201d she said. \u201cWait. A maintenance company reactivated the electricity six months ago.\u201d
\n\u201cWho paid them?\u201d
\n\u201cOrison Advisory.\u201d
\nEvelyn\u2019s secret company.
\nThe black van had disappeared from traffic cameras less than a mile from the waterfront.
\nWe reached the abandoned laboratory twenty minutes later.
\nThe building\u2019s faded Northstar symbol was barely visible through the fog. Most of the windows were boarded, but light escaped from a narrow basement window.
\nAgents surrounded the property.
\nA baby began crying inside.
\nEvery instinct in my body told me to run toward that sound, but the lead agent caught my arm.
\n\u201cYou remain behind us.\u201d
\n\u201cThat is my child.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we are going to bring him out safely.\u201d
\nTwo agents broke the side entrance while another team entered through the loading dock.
\nWe followed them down a corridor filled with dusty equipment and overturned filing cabinets. The baby\u2019s cries grew louder.
\nA woman shouted from behind a locked laboratory door.
\n\u201cPlease! He needs a doctor!\u201d
\nIt was Melissa.
\nThe agents forced the door open.
\nMelissa sat on the floor with the newborn wrapped inside her coat. A bruise darkened one side of her face, and a plastic restraint circled her wrist.
\nBeside her stood Eleanor Shaw.
\nShe held a gun.
\n\u201cPut it down!\u201d the agents shouted.
\nEleanor immediately placed the weapon on the floor and raised both hands.
\n\u201cI took it from the driver,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I intended to hurt them, you wouldn\u2019t have found us.\u201d
\nI rushed to Melissa.
\nThe baby\u2019s face was red from crying, but he was breathing. A paramedic examined him while I knelt beside them.
\n\u201cWhat happened?\u201d I asked.
\nMelissa began to cry.
\n\u201cThe woman who came into my room said you had ordered my arrest. She showed me a message from Grant claiming you knew about the embryo and wanted me charged with stealing your child.\u201d
\n\u201cI never sent anyone.\u201d
\n\u201cI know that now. She told me I had one chance to leave before the police arrived. I was terrified, and I could barely think.\u201d
\n\u201cWho was she?\u201d
\n\u201cI never saw her face. She wore a mask the entire time.\u201d
\nEleanor stepped closer.
\n\u201cI followed the van from the hospital,\u201d she said. \u201cThe driver was one of Evelyn\u2019s private security contractors. When he stopped here, I confronted him.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy were you still near the hospital?\u201d Daniel demanded.
\n\u201cBecause I knew Evelyn would have a contingency plan. Grant was too valuable to her, but the baby was even more valuable.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy?\u201d
\nEleanor looked at me. \u201cBecause your father\u2019s trust passes to your biological children if anything happens to you.\u201d
\nA chill traveled through me.
\nEvelyn had not taken the child only to hide evidence of the stolen embryo.
\nShe had taken him because he was the future owner of Northstar.
\n\u201cWhere is the driver?\u201d the lead agent asked.
\n\u201cHe escaped through the loading dock before I could stop him.\u201d
\nThe agents searched the building while paramedics lifted Melissa onto a stretcher.
\nShe reached for my hand.
\n\u201cOlivia, I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at her.
\nThis woman had slept with my husband, helped him hide an affair, and carried a child created from an embryo stolen from my body.
\n\u201cI believed Grant when he said your marriage was over,\u201d she continued. \u201cHe told me you had agreed to use a donor embryo because you didn\u2019t want to be pregnant. I knew the company was paying my expenses, but I thought it was his money. I didn\u2019t know he had stolen the embryo until Evelyn showed me the original number.\u201d
\n\u201cYou still knew he was married.\u201d
\nMelissa lowered her eyes. \u201cYes.\u201d
\n\u201cI cannot forgive that today.\u201d
\n\u201cI understand.\u201d
\n\u201cBut you protected my child when you could barely protect yourself.\u201d
\nShe looked down at the baby.
\n\u201cWhen Evelyn threatened him, nothing else mattered.\u201d
\nThe paramedic placed the newborn into a portable bassinet. As they prepared to carry him out, I touched his tiny hand.
\nHis fingers closed around mine.
\nI had spent years grieving children I believed I would never have. I had blamed my body, apologized to Grant, and sat silently while he told me my failure had destroyed his dream of becoming a father.
\nBut my body had not failed.
\nMy husband had stolen my chance to become a mother and placed my child inside another woman.
\nThe baby opened his eyes.
\nFor one quiet second, the abandoned laboratory, the armed agents, the company, and the betrayal all disappeared.
\n\u201cHello,\u201d I whispered. \u201cI\u2019m Olivia.\u201d
\nMelissa watched me from the stretcher.
\n\u201cYou\u2019re his mother,\u201d she said.
\nAt the hospital, doctors confirmed that the newborn had not been harmed. Melissa required treatment for blood loss and the blow to her face, but she was stable.
\nWith Melissa\u2019s written consent and the court\u2019s emergency authorization, a genetic test was performed.
\nThe results arrived six hours later.
\nProbability of maternity: 99.99%.
\nThe doctor placed the paper in my hands.
\n\u201cHe is your biological son,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
I looked through the nursery glass at the child sleeping beneath a blue blanket.
\nDaniel stood beside me. \u201cGrant can no longer deny what he did.\u201d
\n\u201cHe will try.\u201d
\n\u201cHe can try from a jail cell.\u201d
\nThe federal investigators had recovered enough evidence from Grant\u2019s laptop to charge him with fraud, embezzlement, identity theft, evidence tampering, and conspiracy. The recording from my father\u2019s study had also reopened the investigation into his death.
\nEvelyn remained in custody in Seattle.
\nGrant refused to answer questions.
\nEleanor claimed she had rescued Melissa to correct the harm she helped cause. The investigators took her statement but did not arrest her immediately because she had surrendered the weapon, preserved evidence, and led them to Orison\u2019s financial records.
\nStill, my father\u2019s warning remained in my mind.
\nOne of these women will kill me.
\nEvelyn\u2019s voice and Grant\u2019s voice were on the recording, but I had learned that hearing part of the truth could be more dangerous than believing a complete lie.
\nThat evening, Lena arrived at the hospital carrying her laptop.
\n\u201cWe found the remaining embryo records,\u201d she said.
\nI closed the nursery door behind us. \u201cMy father said two were destroyed and two were unaccounted for.\u201d
\n\u201cThe destruction records were real. But one of the missing embryos wasn\u2019t missing.\u201d
\nShe showed me a document from Carrow Fertility Institute.
\nEmbryo OC-GH-04 had been transferred out of storage twenty-eight months earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho received it?\u201d
\n\u201cThe patient\u2019s identity was hidden under a medical privacy shell. The procedure was paid for by the Evelyn Shaw Children\u2019s Foundation.\u201d
\n\u201cWas the implantation successful?\u201d
\nLena opened a second file.
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\nI felt the air leave my lungs.
\n\u201cA child was born?\u201d
\n\u201cA girl. She would be almost two years old now.\u201d
\nI stared through the glass at my newborn son.
\nGrant had not stolen one embryo.
\nHe had stolen two.
\n\u201cWhere is she?\u201d
\n\u201cThe birth certificate was sealed. But Evelyn\u2019s foundation made monthly payments to a private guardian.\u201d
\nLena displayed a photograph taken at a Northstar charity gala seven months earlier.
\nEvelyn stood beside a little girl wearing a red dress. The child had dark curls, gray-blue eyes, and the same crescent-shaped birthmark that appeared on every woman in my father\u2019s family.
\nThe caption identified her as Grace, Evelyn Shaw\u2019s goddaughter.
\nI touched the child\u2019s face on the screen.
\n\u201cShe looks like me.\u201d
\n\u201cThere\u2019s something else,\u201d Lena said.
\nThe guardian\u2019s identity had been changed that morning, minutes before Grant called me from my father\u2019s study.
\n\u201cTo whom?\u201d
\nLena turned the laptop toward me.
\nThe new guardian was Eleanor Shaw.
\nI immediately called the agents assigned to watch Eleanor.
\nNo one answered.
\nThen a message appeared on my phone from an unknown number.
\nIt contained a photograph of Eleanor standing beside a private plane.
\nThe little girl in the red dress slept in her arms.
\nBeneath the photograph was a message.
\nYOUR FATHER DID NOT PAY ME TO DISAPPEAR, OLIVIA. HE PAID ME TO PROTECT YOUR FIRST CHILD FROM EVELYN. IF YOU WANT YOUR DAUGHTER, BRING ME THE ORIGINAL LETTER AND COME WITHOUT THE POLICE.<\/p>\n
A second message arrived before I could respond.
\nAnd do not trust the recording from your father\u2019s study. Grant and Evelyn left him alive.
\nI stared at the final sentence.
\nIf Grant and Evelyn had not delivered the fatal blow, then someone else had entered my father\u2019s study after they left.
\nSomeone whose voice had been removed from the recording.
\nI enlarged the photograph of Eleanor and my daughter.
\nReflected in the plane\u2019s window was a third person sitting inside the cabin.
\nMy father\u2026.<\/p>\n
PART 5: THE SECOND CHILD \u201cYou spent all night trying to save your father\u2019s company,\u201d Grant said as the agents dragged him away. \u201cBut while you were doing that, someone … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6191,"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6185\/revisions\/6191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmnews168.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}