Chương 5
Then a woman answered.
“Hello?”
Daniel looked at Mara.
“Rachel.”
Silence.
Even through the phone, Mara could feel the change.
A person hearing a name they had not expected.
“Daniel.”
Her voice sounded older than Mara imagined.
“Why did you contact the hospital?”
Rachel did not answer immediately.
“I was hoping you would ask a different question.”
Daniel’s expression tightened.
“What question?”
“Whether Lily is safe.”
Mara watched his face.
“What does that mean?”
Rachel exhaled.
“It means I need to know if she’s there.”
“Who is she?”
“Daniel.”
His grip tightened around the phone.
“Who is she?”
The pause was long.
Too long.
Then Rachel said, “The baby your wife just had.”
Mara felt the room tilt.
Daniel stood.
“That’s impossible.”
“I said the same thing three years ago.”
“Rachel, don’t do this.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
Her voice cracked slightly.
“I’m telling you what I found.”
Daniel turned away from Mara.
“What did you find?”
“A record.”
“What record?”
“One that said the child I gave birth to was connected to your wife.”
Mara’s fingers tightened around Lillian.
“No.”
Rachel heard her.
“Mara?”
Daniel looked back.
“You knew she was there?”
Rachel’s voice changed.
A strange sadness entered it.
“I didn’t know until yesterday.”
“Until yesterday?”
“I saw the announcement.”
Mara felt sick.
“What announcement?”
Rachel answered quietly.
“The hospital posted a birth announcement online.”
Daniel frowned.
“They did not.”
“They did for a few hours.”
Mara and Daniel looked at each other.
“What are you talking about?” Daniel asked.
Rachel swallowed.
“The picture.”
“What picture?”
“The picture of your daughter.”
Nobody spoke.
Rachel continued.
“I recognized something.”
Mara looked down at Lillian.
The baby slept peacefully.
“She has the same mark,” Rachel said.
Daniel went still.
“What mark?”
“The one Lily was born with.”
Mara looked at Daniel.
Neither of them spoke.
Because they both knew there was only one way to find out.
A nurse had examined Lillian moments earlier.
There was no reason to panic.
No reason to jump ahead.
No reason to believe a stranger on the phone.
But Mara felt the fear arrive before the logic did.
“Rachel,” Daniel said slowly.
“Where is Lily’s mark?”
The woman on the phone became silent.
Then she answered.
“On her left shoulder.”
Mara looked at the newborn in her arms.
She remembered the nurse changing Lillian’s clothes after delivery.
She remembered the tiny body.
The tiny movements.
The small patch of skin she had barely noticed.
Daniel was already looking at her.
“What?”
Mara could not speak.
She slowly pulled the blanket down from the baby’s shoulder.
And there, just beneath the edge of the hospital gown, was a small pale birthmark shaped like a crescent.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Rachel whispered through the phone.
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
Mara stared at the crescent-shaped mark on her daughter’s shoulder and waited for someone to tell her what it meant.
Nobody did.
The room remained painfully ordinary.
The same pale walls.
The same plastic chair.
The same half-empty cup of water sitting beside the bed.
Nothing about the hospital changed just because the foundation beneath Mara’s life had started moving.
“Daniel,” she whispered.
He did not answer.
His eyes were fixed on the baby.
Not with fear.
Not exactly.
With recognition.
That was the part Mara could not forgive.
Not yet.
Because for one second, before he looked away, she saw something in his face that told her he had already imagined this possibility.
“You knew.”
Daniel looked at her.
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Then why did you look like that?”
His mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Rachel’s voice came through the phone.
“Daniel.”
He lifted the phone again.
“Stay on the line.”
Mara looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because we need answers.”
“No.”
The firmness in her voice surprised him.
“We need the truth.”
Daniel lowered the phone slightly.
“Mara.”
“You and Rachel have been having conversations behind my back.”
“I was trying to understand what was happening.”
“And now I’m supposed to trust both of you because suddenly there’s a birthmark?”
Rachel interrupted.
“Mara, I understand why you’re angry.”
Mara looked toward the phone.
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“No.”
Rachel’s voice softened.
“But I know what it feels like to hold a child and realize someone else has been making decisions about your life.”
The words landed differently.
Not because Mara trusted her.
Because there was pain in them that sounded familiar.
Pain did not prove innocence.
Mara knew that.
But it was still pain.
“Tell me what happened three years ago,” Mara said.
Daniel looked at her.
“Mara.”
“No.”
She kept her eyes on the phone.
“If there is any chance this involves my daughter, I want every piece of information.”
Rachel was silent.
Then she said, “I gave birth to Lily at this hospital.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I know that.”
“No, you know what you were told.”
Mara noticed the way Daniel reacted.
A small movement.
Almost invisible.
But it was there.
“Rachel.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you.”
“Then stop talking in circles.”
Rachel took a breath.
“When Lily was born, there was another baby in the maternity ward.”
Mara glanced toward the hallway.
The sounds of newborn children filled the distance.
“Another baby?”
“Yes.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer made Mara angry.
“Then why are we here?”
“Because the records changed.”
Daniel looked up.
“What records?”
“Lily’s.”
Rachel’s voice became quieter.
“The paperwork I received after leaving the hospital was not the same paperwork I saw when I was there.”
Daniel frowned.
“You’re saying the hospital switched records?”
“I’m saying something happened.”
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“I know.”
Mara almost laughed.
Everyone knew.
Nobody knew enough.
“How did my name get involved?” she asked.
Rachel paused.
“I found your name when I was looking through old documents.”
“What documents?”
“Copies of my medical records.”
“Why would my name be there?”
May you like
“I don’t know.”
The answer felt like a wall.
