Chapter 6
For several seconds, I couldn't understand the word.
Replacement.
Then I did.
“No.”
Mark looked at the floor.
I tightened my hold on Lily.
“No.”
Dad stepped toward me.
“Emma, listen—”
“Whose baby?”
No answer.
I looked at Samuel.
He already understood.
His face had gone pale.
“The third carrier.”
I looked back at Mark.
“You were bringing another newborn here.”
Mark whispered:
“That was Mercer's plan.”
“Whose child?”
“I don't know.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
Dad interrupted.
“It was never supposed to hurt anyone.”
Every person in the room looked at him.
I almost couldn't believe he had said it.
“You were going to steal my son and replace him with someone else's baby.”
“We were getting you out.”
“You weren't even taking me.”
“You would have followed.”
That sentence told me everything about my father.
He still believed love meant I would go wherever my children were taken.
Maybe he was right.
That didn't make what he did love.
Samuel left quickly.
Vittorio didn't ask where.
He knew.
I looked at Mark.
“What happens to the other baby after the switch?”
Mark said nothing.
“What happens?”
His eyes filled.
That frightened me more than any answer.
Dad snapped:
“Mercer said the baby would be returned.”
“Do you believe him?”
Dad stayed silent.
Good.
At least some part of him still recognized shame.
Samuel returned ten minutes later.
“There is a problem.”
My body went cold.
“What?”
“A newborn boy was moved from neonatal observation forty minutes ago.”
I couldn't breathe.
“Moved where?”
“The order was false.”
Vittorio's voice became lethal.
“Where is the child?”
“We don't know.”
I closed my eyes.
Somewhere in this hospital was another mother who believed her baby was being cared for.
Somewhere, someone had already started the switch.
Samuel continued.
“The person who moved him used a service corridor.”
“Camera?”
“Partially.”
He showed us the image.
One of the two men who arrived with Dad.
Pushing a bassinet.
Then disappearing through a service door.
Three minutes later he returned.
Empty.
Vittorio looked at Samuel.
“Where does that door go?”
“Laundry loading.”
The bodyguards moved.
Dad sat down.
Finally.
Really sat.
Like his body had stopped obeying him.
Mark whispered:
“That wasn't supposed to happen yet.”
Vittorio turned.
“Yet?”
Mark realized.
Too late.
Vittorio stepped toward him.
“When?”
Mark's voice broke.
“After Noah was out.”
There it was.
They had planned the order.
Take Noah.
Bring in the replacement.
Delay discovery.
Disappear before anyone understood there was a missing Walker child.
I looked at Dad.
“You knew enough.”
“No.”
“You knew enough to come before my surgery.”
“I thought—”
“That is the problem.”
I could barely hear my own voice.
“You thought you still had the right to decide what happened to me.”
The bodyguard returned.
“We found the missing baby.”
My heart stopped.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
Thank God.
“Where?”
“Laundry loading bay.”
“And the man?”
“Gone.”
Vittorio nodded once.
Then:
“Seal the building.”
Samuel immediately reached for his radio.
Dad stood.
“You can't lock down an entire medical center.”
Vittorio looked at him.
“Watch me.”
Then Samuel's radio crackled.
Another security team.
Another corridor.
Another sighting.
Samuel listened.
His face changed.
“Boss…”
Vittorio turned.
May you like
Samuel swallowed.
“Cole Mercer entered the hospital forty-three minutes ago.”
