Chapter 5
The package arrived forty minutes later.
No return address.
No delivery company.
Someone simply left it outside our hotel room.
Claire noticed it first.
"Don't touch that."
Ryan stared at the small brown box.
His mother's words still hung over us.
Rebecca left something for Lily.
I called hotel security.
They reviewed the hallway camera.
At 9:16 a.m., a man in a baseball cap walked down the hall, placed the box outside our door, then left through the stairwell.
His face never appeared clearly.
Security wanted to call police.
Ryan agreed.
For once, I did too.
Two officers arrived.
We explained the damaged windshield.
The threatening messages.
The package.
We did not explain the possible baby switch.
Not yet.
I couldn't bear the idea of saying it aloud to strangers.
After the package was examined and cleared as harmless, an officer opened it.
Inside was a child's stuffed rabbit.
Yellow.
Worn.
One ear had been repaired with blue thread.
Underneath it was an envelope.
LILY.
My daughter's name.
Written by someone I had never met.
My hands shook as I opened it.
Inside was a flash drive.
And a letter.
Emily,
If you're reading this, Diane finally lost control.
I stopped.
Claire whispered, "Keep going."
I swallowed.
My name is Rebecca Hart.
By the time you receive this, I may not be alive.
I know that sounds dramatic.
Diane always told Ryan I was dramatic.
Maybe some things never change.
I want to begin with the one thing that matters most.
Lily is innocent.
Whatever you learn, do not let anyone make that child feel unwanted.
My vision blurred.
I looked toward the adjoining room.
Lily was watching cartoons.
The letter continued.
Ryan and I were engaged years ago.
I left because Diane gave me a choice.
Disappear, or she would destroy my mother.
At the time, my mother had been using prescription medication after surgery. Diane obtained medical records, photographs, and enough private information to threaten her career.
I believed her.
I left.
I was pregnant and didn't know it.
The pregnancy ended early.
Years later, Ryan and I saw each other once.
Only once.
It was a mistake.
He was already married to you.
My chest seized.
I looked at Ryan.
He went pale.
"What?"
I handed him the page.
He read it.
His face collapsed.
"No."
I laughed bitterly.
"You said you hadn't seen her."
"I don't remember this."
"Oh, stop."
"I swear."
"She says you slept with her."
Ryan stared at the letter.
Claire moved between us.
"Finish reading."
I wanted to throw the paper at him.
Instead, I continued.
Ryan had been drinking at a family charity event.
He may genuinely not remember all of it.
That does not excuse what happened.
I regretted it immediately.
I discovered I was pregnant two months later.
I planned to raise the child alone.
Then Diane found out.
My hands began trembling harder.
I contacted her because I needed family medical information.
That was my mistake.
She became obsessed with the possibility that my daughter belonged to Ryan.
She demanded a prenatal DNA test.
I refused.
The night I went into labor, I learned that you were also at St. Matthew's.
I believed it was coincidence.
Now I don't.
"She planned it," Claire whispered.
Ryan shook his head.
"How could Mom plan when Emily went into labor?"
I remembered something.
"My labor was induced."
Ryan stared at me.
"Because the doctor said Lily's growth had slowed."
I looked at him.
"Who recommended that doctor?"
Neither of us needed to answer.
Diane.
I kept reading.
Your mother-in-law arranged for my doctor to transfer my delivery to St. Matthew's at the last minute.
She said it was because the neonatal unit was better.
I later discovered she had also been speaking to your obstetrician.
My daughter was born seventeen minutes after yours.
Baby Girl Eighteen.
I knew Diane was in the nursery.
I saw her.
I was recovering from anesthesia and couldn't walk.
I begged a nurse to stop her.
By morning, Diane told me my baby had developed complications and had been moved.
But I heard another nurse call the baby in my room Seventeen.
I screamed.
Everyone told me I was confused.
The letter blurred.
I wiped my eyes.
For three days, I demanded DNA testing.
Diane threatened me.
She told me if I kept making accusations, she would tell Ryan I deliberately became pregnant to destroy his marriage.
I didn't care.
Then my daughter was returned to me.
I had her tested privately two weeks later.
She was mine.
But the paternal result shocked me.
Ryan was not her father.
I stopped.
Everyone stared at me.
"What?"
Ryan whispered.
I read it again.
Ryan was not Rebecca's baby's father.
The room seemed to tilt.
Claire said, "Then why would Diane switch anything?"
I kept reading.
That was when I realized Diane's fear had never been about paternity.
It was about blood type.
I frowned.
Blood type?
I turned the page.
Ryan, there is something your parents never told you.
Thomas Hart was not your biological father.
Ryan sat down.
"No."
The letter continued.
Diane had an affair shortly after marrying Thomas.
You were the result.
Thomas knew.
He raised you anyway.
Rebecca was not biologically related to the Hart family.
But Rebecca's daughter's blood test exposed something Diane had hidden for decades.
At the hospital, Rebecca's baby was accidentally tested under Lily's temporary chart after Diane moved the cards.
The results created a genetic inconsistency connected to Ryan.
Diane panicked.
She believed the records could expose the truth about Ryan's parentage.
That was why she moved the babies.
Not to steal one.
Not to give one away.
To confuse the medical trail.
I stared at Ryan.
His face was blank.
Claire whispered, "This is insane."
I kept reading.
Margaret stopped the full switch.
At least, I believe she did.
But Diane spent hours manipulating records afterward.
I do not believe Lily was permanently switched.
However, I cannot prove it.
There is one person who can.
Thomas.
Ryan stood.
"My father?"
The letter continued.
Thomas knew what Diane had done.
He found the original nursery records.
He confronted her.
He contacted me three years ago and apologized.
He said he had hidden evidence inside the lake house.
If something happened to him, I was supposed to retrieve it.
I never got the chance.
Six months later, I became sick.
Cancer.
By the time Thomas died, I was already too weak to travel.
If you are reading this, find what he hid.
Diane will do anything to stop you.
Anything.
The letter ended with one sentence.
The rabbit belonged to my daughter, Grace.
Please tell Lily someday that Grace would have wanted her to have it.
I lowered the paper.
"Grace."
Ryan whispered the name.
"Where is she?"
There was one page left.
I turned it over.
Rebecca had written only an address.
Savannah, Georgia.
Below it:
Grace lives with my sister, Hannah.
Ryan grabbed his keys.
"We're going."
"No."
He looked at me.
"Emily."
"You lied about Rebecca."
"I told you I didn't remember."
"That's not good enough."
"I need to know what happened."
"So do I."
"We go together."
I stared at him.
Part of me wanted him gone.
Part of me wanted him where I could see him.
Before I could decide, the hotel room door opened.
We all turned.
Lily stood there holding the yellow rabbit.
"Mommy?"
I forced my voice to remain steady.
"Yes?"
She hugged the rabbit.
"Can I keep her?"
I looked at the toy.
Rebecca's daughter had once held it.
Maybe Grace had slept with it.
Maybe Rebecca had packed it away knowing one day another little girl would receive it.
"Yes."
Lily smiled.
"What's her name?"
I looked at Ryan.
He was crying.
"Grace," he whispered.
Lily nodded seriously.
"That's pretty."
Then she walked back toward the television.
My phone buzzed.
A new message.
Unknown number.
You have the rabbit.
That means Rebecca betrayed me.
I stared at it.
Diane.
Another message appeared.
Do not go to the lake house.
I showed Ryan.
May you like
His expression changed.
"Then that's exactly where we're going."
