Chapter 6 - Emma's Mother
Grace stopped breathing.
Alexander's hand moved toward the security alarm panel.
"Don't call anyone yet," Grace said.
"We don't know who she is."
"She gave us a name."
"A name isn't proof."
On the camera, Jenna lifted both empty hands.
"Please," she said through the intercom. "I don't want money. I don't want to take anything. I just need to know if Emma is alive."
Grace flinched.
Alive.
Alexander looked at her.
"Dana," he said.
Their attorney arrived thirty-five minutes later, along with a private security supervisor. Jenna was brought into a small sitting room near the front entrance. Grace kept Emma upstairs with the nanny until they understood more.
Jenna sat on the edge of a chair, soaked from rain, shaking so hard that Dana gave her a blanket.
"Show me identification," Dana said.
Jenna handed over a driver's license.
Jenna Marie Cole. Age twenty-two.
Dana compared it to the name on Emma's surrender form.
The mother listed there was "Jane Collins."
"That isn't me," Jenna said.
"Can you prove you gave birth to Emma?"
Jenna reached into a plastic grocery bag and pulled out a hospital wristband.
The label had been partially scratched away, but the date matched Emma's birth date.
Then came a photograph.
A newborn wrapped in a striped hospital blanket.
Dark curls.
Round cheeks.
A tiny red birthmark near the left ear.
Grace's knees weakened.
Emma had the same mark.
Jenna began to cry.
"They told me she died."
No one spoke.
"Who told you?" Dana asked.
"A nurse. Then a man from administration. I had complications after delivery. I was drugged. I kept asking for my baby. They said she stopped breathing during the night."
Grace's skin turned cold.
"Did you see her body?"
"No. They said there had been an emergency transfer and that there was nothing I could do."
Alexander's jaw tightened.
"And you accepted that?"
Jenna looked at him with sudden anger. "I was nineteen. I had no family. I had just lost half my blood. I could barely stand. So yes, Mr. Whitmore, for one terrible night, I believed people wearing hospital badges."
Alexander lowered his eyes. "You're right. I'm sorry."
Dana leaned forward. "How did you find Bright Hope House?"
Jenna wiped her face.
"Three weeks ago, I got an envelope with no return address."
She pulled a folded sheet of paper from the bag.
One sentence was printed in black ink.
YOUR DAUGHTER DID NOT DIE. ASK WHAT HAPPENED IN ROOM 614.
Dana went still.
"Room 614 was where you delivered?"
Jenna shook her head.
"No."
May you like
She looked at Grace.
"Room 614 was the office of the man who told me my baby was dead."
