Chapter 5: The Second Child
Detective Brooks lowered her weapon slightly.
“What second child?”
Evelyn’s smile did not move.
“A premature girl born three rooms away.”
Margaret’s heart pounded.
“Why?”
“Because one stolen child creates a scandal,” Evelyn replied. “Two create confusion.”
Charles groaned in the chair.
“She’s lying.”
Evelyn struck the back of his head with the pistol.
“You have lied for twenty years.”
Police negotiators surrounded the boathouse.
Nathan stood behind a patrol vehicle, listening through the open channel.
Emily remained beside him.
Evelyn began telling the story.
Charles had paid her to remove Margaret’s newborn son for forty-eight hours.
The plan was simple.
The baby would be hidden.
Thomas would convince Margaret that public exposure could endanger the child.
Margaret would abandon the divorce.
Then the baby would be “found.”
But Evelyn had debts.
And an illegal adoption contact willing to pay.
So she replaced Nathan’s hospital identification band with another infant’s band and sold him to Laura Reed.
To cover the mismatch, she falsified records for both babies.
“What happened to the girl?” Brooks asked.
Evelyn looked directly at Charles.
“He knows.”
Charles finally broke.
“She died.”
Evelyn laughed.
“No. That’s what you wrote.”
Margaret felt the ground shift beneath her.
Charles had spent two decades controlling medical files, adoption records, and legal documents.
If the second baby lived, she could be anyone.
Evelyn handed Detective Brooks a small metal box.
Inside were two infant bracelets.
One read:
BABY HAYES — MALE.
The other read:
BABY CROSS — FEMALE.
Nathan stared.
“Cross?”
Evelyn’s face changed.
For the first time, the arrogance disappeared.
“My daughter gave birth that night.”
Detective Brooks looked at her.
“What was your daughter’s name?”
“Rachel Cross.”
Emily’s eyes widened.
She knew that name.
Everyone in the family did.
Rachel Cross had been Charles Whitman’s young legal assistant.
She had died in a car accident six months after the kidnapping.
Evelyn turned the gun toward Charles.
“My granddaughter survived.”
Charles whispered, “Don’t.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled with rage.
“You stole her identity too.”
May you like
Then she looked beyond the police line.
Directly at Emily.
