CHAPTER 5 — THE FOURTH CHILD
Nathan slowly lowered the phone.
His fingers had gone numb.
The room seemed to shrink around him.
Officer Collins stepped closer.
"Mr. Harrington?"
He looked at her, his face completely drained of color.
"The hospital..." he whispered.
"...they say I have another child."
Silence swallowed the nursery.
Emma clutched Sophie's hand even tighter.
Thomas crossed himself under his breath.
Victoria slowly closed her eyes.
Dr. Andrew Whitmore...
smiled.
Not proudly.
Not nervously.
Almost...
knowingly.
Officer Collins immediately turned toward him.
"You knew."
Whitmore didn't deny it.
"I know many things."
Nathan lunged forward, but two officers caught him before he reached the doctor.
"Where is my child?"
Whitmore remained calm.
"I don't know."
Nathan's voice thundered through the mansion.
"Don't lie to me!"
"I said I don't know where the child is now."
The single word—
now—
made every officer exchange uneasy glances.
Nathan noticed it too.
"What do you mean 'now'?"
Whitmore met his eyes.
"I haven't seen the child in years."
Twenty minutes later...
Nathan's convoy raced through the empty streets toward St. Mary's Children's Hospital.
Officer Collins rode beside him.
Behind them, another patrol vehicle transported Victoria.
Dr. Whitmore was taken in a separate police SUV.
No one spoke during the drive.
Nathan stared out the window.
Every streetlight reflected in the glass like a ghost.
His mind replayed Emma's words.
"She said our real mommy was dead."
Then Daniel's.
"Don't let Emma go to the blue room."
Now...
another child.
One who had supposedly died eight years earlier.
Nothing made sense anymore.
St. Mary's Children's Hospital.
2:17 a.m.
The emergency entrance had been sealed off.
A nervous administrator waited with two detectives.
As Nathan stepped inside, she hurried toward him.
"Mr. Harrington?"
"I'm Nathan."
"My name is Rebecca Lawson."
She handed him a thick medical file.
"We discovered this during a digital audit after Detective Collins requested your family records."
Nathan opened the file.
Patient Name:
Baby H-04
No first name.
No photograph.
No birth certificate attached.
Only a hospital wristband sealed in plastic.
Nathan frowned.
"What is this?"
Rebecca swallowed.
"The records were classified."
"By whom?"
She hesitated.
"The attending physician."
Nathan already knew the answer.
"Andrew Whitmore."
She nodded.
Officer Collins quietly took the file.
"The child was admitted eight years ago."
"Diagnosis?"
Rebecca's voice became shaky.
"There isn't one."
Nathan looked up.
"What?"
"There are treatment records."
"There are billing records."
"There are monthly evaluations."
"But..."
"...there is no actual diagnosis."
Collins frowned.
"How is that possible?"
Rebecca answered in almost a whisper.
"It shouldn't be."
Nathan turned another page.
Every month.
Every year.
Someone had authorized enormous payments from the Harrington Family Trust.
The signatures...
looked exactly like his.
Except he had never seen these documents before.
Officer Collins looked over his shoulder.
"The same forged signature."
Nathan nodded slowly.
"This has been happening for years."
Rebecca added quietly,
"The payments never stopped."
Nathan looked at her.
"You said the child died."
Rebecca swallowed.
"Officially."
"But someone kept paying."
Nathan stared at the file.
"If the child is dead..."
"...who received the money?"
No one answered.
Meanwhile...
A forensic officer entered carrying another box.
"We searched Dr. Whitmore's office."
Officer Collins looked up.
"What did you find?"
The officer opened the evidence box.
Inside...
were hundreds of hospital bracelets.
Tiny socks.
Pacifiers.
Patient labels.
Nathan frowned.
"Why would he keep these?"
The forensic officer carefully lifted a leather notebook.
"There's more."
Inside the notebook...
every Harrington child had a page.
Daniel.
Emma.
Sophie.
Then...
one more.
No name.
Only two words written across the top.
Subject Four
Nathan's heartbeat slowed.
He flipped the page.
Height measurements.
Weight.
Medication dosages.
Behavioral notes.
Everything ended three years earlier.
The final line read:
Relocated by Order.
Nathan looked toward Collins.
"Order from whom?"
Before anyone could answer—
Rebecca gasped.
"Oh my God..."
Everyone turned.
She was staring at the computer screen.
"What happened?"
Rebecca's fingers trembled over the keyboard.
"The file..."
"What about it?"
"It just disappeared."
Officer Collins frowned.
"What?"
"The entire patient record."
Line after line vanished from the monitor.
As if someone were deleting it remotely.
"Disconnect the network!" Collins shouted.
Too late.
Within seconds...
every document related to Baby H-04 was gone.
Only one image remained.
A grainy security photo from eight years ago.
Nathan leaned closer.
The picture showed the neonatal intensive care unit.
A nurse pushed a bassinet toward a rear exit.
Standing beside her...
was Dr. Andrew Whitmore.
But he wasn't alone.
Another person walked beside him.
The face was blurred.
Only one detail was clear.
A distinctive silver ring.
Thomas suddenly inhaled sharply.
Nathan looked at him.
"What?"
The old butler stared at the screen.
"I know that ring."
Nathan's pulse quickened.
"Whose is it?"
Thomas looked frightened.
"I saw it..."
"...on your father's hand."
The room fell completely silent.
Nathan slowly turned.
"My father died twelve years ago."
Thomas's eyes filled with tears.
"I know, sir."
"But..."
"...your father visited this hospital the night that photograph was taken."
Nathan felt the blood drain from his face.
His father.
The man he had admired all his life.
The founder of the Harrington empire.
The man who had taught him that family was everything.
Could he have been involved?
Officer Collins quietly closed the file.
"Mr. Harrington..."
"I think your family secrets began long before your marriage."
Nathan stared at the faded hospital image.
The blurred figure.
The silver ring.
The missing child.
The forged signatures.
Then another thought struck him.
If his father had known...
then someone else in the Harrington family might know too.
At that exact moment, Nathan's phone vibrated again.
This time...
the caller ID displayed only two words.
PRIVATE NUMBER
He answered without speaking.
A distorted electronic voice whispered,
"Stop looking for the fourth child."
Nathan's grip tightened around the phone.
"Who is this?"
The voice ignored the question.
"You've already lost one family."
"Keep digging..."
"...and you'll lose what's left of this one."
The line went dead.
Nathan slowly lowered the phone.
He looked through the hospital window into the dark parking lot.
Across the street...
a lone little boy, no older than eight, stood beneath a flickering streetlight.
He wore a thin gray hoodie despite the cold.
He wasn't looking at the hospital.
He was looking directly at Nathan.
Then...
the boy slowly raised his hand...
revealing a faded hospital wristband still wrapped around his wrist.
May you like
And before Nathan could move—
the child turned and disappeared into the darkness.
