Chapter 18 - The Old Maternity Wing
St. Matthew's Hospital looked like a dead ship in the rain.
Most windows were boarded. The maternity wing leaned behind a chain-link fence covered in weeds.
Police surrounded the building, but Evelyn had already sent instructions.
Daniel comes in alone, or the evidence burns.
Ortiz refused.
Daniel went anyway—with a wire, a small tracker in his shoe, and officers positioned at every exit.
He entered through the old emergency doors.
The hallway smelled of mold and wet plaster.
A battery lantern glowed at the far end.
"Evelyn?"
"Room 214," her voice called.
Daniel followed peeling signs to the former nursery.
Evelyn stood behind a metal table stacked with files.
No gun visible.
"Where's Emma?" Daniel asked.
"Safe with your wife. I kept my word."
"You kidnapped her."
"Thomas took her first."
"And you kept her."
Evelyn's jaw tightened. "I needed you to listen."
"You could've called."
"Would you have believed a woman your parents taught you was dead?"
"You knew I was alive for twenty years."
That hit.
Evelyn looked away.
"At first I wanted you back. Then I learned what Richard had become because of me, because of Thomas, because of all of us. I was ashamed."
"So you blackmailed him."
"I needed money to survive."
"You took money to stay silent while other families lived the same lie I did."
Her eyes flashed. "Do not judge what you didn't live through."
Daniel stepped closer. "I lived through the result."
Silence.
Then Evelyn slid a folder toward him.
"These are the real names of every child. Give me immunity and I give the state everything."
"I'm not the state."
"You're the only one everyone cares about."
Daniel laughed bitterly. "That's the problem. You all keep using me as the reason for what you do."
A sound came from behind the nursery wall.
Daniel turned.
Someone coughed.
Evelyn's face changed.
"Don't."
Daniel moved toward the door.
She grabbed his arm.
"Daniel, no."
He shoved the door open.
Michael sat tied to a chair in the old delivery room.
Blood ran from his forehead.
Behind him stood Thomas Vale with a pistol.
Daniel froze.
Thomas smiled sadly.
"Family reunion."
Evelyn whispered, "I told you not to come here."
Thomas aimed at Michael.
"She lied to you about one thing, Danny."
Daniel's eyes stayed on the gun.
"What?"
Thomas looked at Evelyn.
"She didn't build this network with Richard."
May you like
He cocked the pistol.
"She built it before him."
