Chapter 6
Melissa began shaking.
“Ryan used my name.”
The detective placed a photograph of Sophie on the table.
She had dark hair, pale skin, and the same blue-gray eyes as Melissa.
As me.
As Emily.
This was bigger than Noah.
Diane and Ryan had been searching for women who matched Melissa’s appearance and medical profile.
Emily refused to cooperate and vanished.
Julia died after discovering the plan.
I had given birth to a healthy boy.
Sophie was their backup.
Police traced Dr. Mercer’s burned files to a private fertility foundation funded by Diane’s late husband. The foundation claimed to help families who could not afford treatment.
Instead, Mercer collected medical records and identified women whose babies might suit Diane’s plan.
My marriage had never been an accident.
Ryan met me at a charity event sponsored by that foundation.
He already knew my blood type, family history, and fertility results before he asked for my phone number.
I ran to the bathroom and became sick.
Mara held my hair.
“You survived him,” she said. “Now we find Sophie.”
The blood in Ryan’s car belonged to Caleb.
He had been stabbed after the failed hospital abduction.
Detectives found him alive in a roadside clinic. He finally agreed to talk in exchange for protection.
Ryan had attacked him because he blamed Caleb for losing Noah.
Caleb revealed that Sophie was being held at Dr. Mercer’s rural property.
Police reached the property before midnight.
They found Sophie locked in a basement room designed to resemble a nursery.
She was frightened but alive.
Dr. Mercer was arrested while trying to escape through the woods.
Ryan was not there.
Sophie told police he had left an hour earlier after receiving a call from Diane.
That made no sense.
Diane was in jail.
Then investigators checked the detention center’s phone records.
Holloway, Ryan’s attorney, had visited her.
Their conversation was protected by attorney-client privilege, but a hallway camera captured Diane passing him a note.
Holloway left the jail and made a call from a disposable phone.
Elena confronted him outside the courthouse.
“If you are helping a fugitive, privilege will not save you.”
Holloway denied everything.
But his confident expression cracked when the detective mentioned Emily.
The following morning, the custody hearing resumed.
Noah’s sedative test, the forged records, and Sophie’s rescue changed everything.
Dr. Mercer had already admitted that Ryan paid him to falsify my psychiatric history.
The judge dismissed the petition.
She granted me sole temporary custody and issued permanent protective orders against Diane, Ryan, Mercer, and Caleb.
I held Noah and cried.
It was the first victory I had felt since the nightmare began.
Then Holloway stood.
“There is another matter, Your Honor.”
Elena looked at him sharply.
Holloway placed a sealed envelope before the judge.
“My client asks the court to order a paternity test.”
The room went silent.
He claimed Ryan was not Noah’s biological father.
I laughed because the accusation was absurd.
Ryan and I had tried for a child for nearly a year.
There had been no one else.
But Holloway produced fertility clinic records showing that Ryan was sterile.
The dates appeared legitimate.
The judge asked whether I would consent to testing.
“Yes,” I said. “Test all three of us.”
Three hours later, a technician collected our samples.
Ryan submitted his through his attorney.
The next morning, Elena received the preliminary result.
Ryan was not Noah’s biological father.
Even worse, the laboratory reported that my DNA did not match Noah’s either.
I stared at Elena.
“That’s impossible.”
She read the report again.
Then her face changed.
“No,” she said. “It means someone switched the samples.”
The hospital called before we could demand a second test.
A nurse had disappeared from the maternity ward on the night Noah was born.
Her employee file used a false address.
Her photograph showed a woman I recognized.
May you like
She had been in my delivery room.
And she was standing beside Ryan in our wedding album.
