Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Was Dead
For three full seconds nobody moved.
Rose Mercer blinked on the giant screen. She was forty-one now, with close-cropped hair and a pale scar near her eyebrow. The picture was live. A clock in the corner showed the same time as the one above the ballroom doors.
“Turn that off!” Vivian screamed.
The audiovisual technician looked toward security. Claire stepped in front of his console.
“Touch it,” she said, “and I send the recording to every reporter in this room.”
Daniel took my elbow. “Emma. Listen to me.”
“Were you going to tell me you knew her?”
He stared at the screen, not at me. “I haven't seen Rose in fourteen years.”
On-screen, Rose lifted a photograph of a newborn wrapped in a striped hospital blanket.
“My daughter was alive when they took her. I heard her cry. Vivian Sterling told me she died twenty minutes later.”
A ripple moved through the guests. A famous surgeon near the stage put down his champagne and edged toward the exit.
Rose continued, “A nurse later showed me an intake tag with my daughter's name. The hospital had labeled her a private placement.”
Vivian got to her feet. “That woman has been paid to lie.”
“You paid me to disappear,” Rose answered through the speakers. “You have the receipt.”
Daniel took a step backward. I saw him searching the room for someone and followed his gaze to a dark-haired woman in a burgundy gown: Meredith Price, the foundation's general counsel. She was already typing on her phone.
“Daniel,” I said, “why are you looking at Meredith?”
“Because she handled the original settlement.”
“Original?”
He caught himself. Too late.
Rose lifted a second photograph. This one showed a girl around thirteen, standing outside a foster home, with the same dark eyes as the woman holding the case beside me.
Claire made a sound like she had been struck.
Rose's voice trembled. “They never told me where my baby went. But two weeks ago, Emma found her.”
The photograph enlarged. Guests turned toward Claire.
“No,” Claire whispered. “No, that's not possible.”
I wanted to hold her. Before I could move, Meredith pushed past a waiter and said to Daniel, very quietly, “The adoption file was supposed to be destroyed.”
Claire heard her.
May you like
She held up the brass key. “Then tell me why I found this in my father's safe.”
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