Chapter 7
The second child was listed only as Infant B.
No name.
No discharge record.
No death certificate.
Just a billing note from a private clinic outside Asheville.
I stared at the screen until Grace woke crying beside me.
The sound pulled me back.
My baby was here.
Alive.
Mine.
But somewhere, another mother had vanished, and two children had been erased.
Sarah requested every document tied to Mara Keller.
Reed contacted missing persons.
Claire refused to leave the basement until the entire wall was opened.
Behind another panel, officers found a small fireproof box.
Inside was a video camera and three mini tapes.
Old.
Dusty.
Labeled in Mara’s handwriting.
If I disappear.
I watched the first tape in my hospital room with Sarah, Claire, and Reed.
Mara appeared on screen, heavily pregnant, sitting in the same basement where I had been held.
My skin crawled.
“If you found this,” she said, “Evelyn won.”
Her voice shook.
“Nathan says I’m unstable. Evelyn says no one will believe me. They want my babies because my father left them land near the resort project.”
Resort project.
My grandmother’s land bordered the same lake.
Mara continued.
“If I cannot protect them, their names are Samuel and Sophie.”
Claire sobbed.
Twins.
Mara looked toward a sound off camera.
“I hear them coming.”
The video ended.
The second tape showed Evelyn.
You will sign, Mara.
The third tape showed Nathan holding a newborn while Mara screamed in the background.
My stomach turned so violently a nurse rushed in.
Reed stopped the video.
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Find them.”
“We will.”
“Find Mara too.”
His silence told me what he feared.
But fear was not fact.
May you like
I held Grace tighter.
“Find all of them.”
