Chương 2
"What discrepancy?"
"We are still determining that."
"That's not an answer."
"No, it isn't."
Grace appreciated that Karen did not pretend otherwise.
"We have placed a temporary hold on routine discharge procedures," Karen continued. "Nothing will be administered to either baby without additional verification. Our pediatric team and patient-safety staff are reviewing the records now."
Daniel looked from Noah to the bassinet.
"Are they okay?"
"Both infants are clinically stable."
"That's not what I asked."
Karen paused.
"At this moment, we have no evidence that either baby has been harmed."
At this moment.
Grace hated those three words instantly.
"What was wrong with the band?"
Karen hesitated.
"The identifier on one band does not reconcile with an earlier record."
"What earlier record?"
"We're reviewing that."
"You already know enough to lock us in a room."
"We're asking you to remain here."
Grace gave a short, humorless laugh.
"That's a nicer way of saying it."
Noah made a soft snuffling noise. Grace lowered her head until her lips touched his hair.
His hair.
She had spent hours memorizing the way it lay against his scalp. She knew the slight flattening on one side of his nose. She knew he made three quick movements with his mouth before he began crying for real. She knew that if she placed one finger against his palm, he would close his hand around it with surprising strength.
She knew him.
The thought came before she could stop it.
Did she?
Her chest tightened so fast she almost couldn't breathe.
Daniel saw it.
"Hey."
Grace shook her head.
"Don't."
He came closer to the bed anyway, careful not to touch Noah without asking.
"He's ours."
"I know that."
"Both of them are."
"I know."
But the words were beginning to mean something different.
Across the room, Diane started crying silently.
Grace looked at her.
"No."
Diane wiped her face.
"I am so sorry."
"Don't cry yet."
"Grace—"
"Don't cry before I know what you did."
Chloe turned toward her mother.
"Seriously. Tell us."
Diane pressed both hands together. Her fingers trembled.
"I didn't switch them."
Richard scoffed.
Daniel spun around.
"Dad, shut up."
"I'm trying to stop everyone from pretending—"
"You reached for my newborn son."
"I was checking the bracelet."
"You don't check a newborn by grabbing him out of his mother's arms."
Richard's jaw tightened.
"I wasn't going to grab him."
Grace looked at him.
"You were."
Richard met her eyes and, after a second, looked away.
It was the closest thing to an apology she had ever seen from him.
Karen Holt turned to Diane.
"Mrs. Miller, if you have information relevant to the babies' identification, I need you to tell us now."
Diane took a slow breath.
"There was a problem with one of the bracelets yesterday."
Grace went cold.
"Yesterday?"
Diane nodded.
"When?"
"In the afternoon."
"Yesterday afternoon?"
"Yes."
"You knew yesterday?"
Diane closed her eyes.
Daniel took one step backward.
"Jesus Christ, Mom."
"I didn't know for certain."
"What did you see?"
Diane looked at Karen rather than at her son.
"There were two bassinets in the nursery alcove outside the room they had them in for observation."
Karen's expression changed.
"You entered that area?"
"I was allowed in the hallway."
"That wasn't the question."
"No."
"What do you mean, no?"
"I wasn't supposed to go that far."
Richard made a disgusted sound.
Diane turned on him with sudden anger.
"Not now, Richard."
Grace had never heard her use that tone with him.
For a second, even Richard seemed surprised.
Diane continued.
"The scanner system wasn't working properly. A nurse said they were doing manual checks until it came back. One of the babies had a loose bracelet. They removed it."
"Which baby?" Karen asked.
Diane swallowed.
"I thought it was Baby B."
Grace looked down at Noah again.
Before they had chosen which names belonged to which bundle of warm skin and astonishingly small fingers, the nurses had called them Baby A and Baby B.
Baby A had been born first.
Baby B fifty-six seconds later.
Daniel had joked that Baby B had already mastered being late.
Grace had laughed even though she was shaking on the operating table.
It was one of the few things she remembered clearly from the delivery.
"What happened?" Karen asked.
Diane rubbed her thumb over the knuckle of her other hand.
"A nurse brought a replacement bracelet. Someone called her from the doorway. She set it down. I moved one of the bassinets."
Daniel stared at her.
"You what?"
"I was trying to take a picture."
Chloe made a strangled sound that might have been a laugh if none of this had been happening.
"A picture?"
"I know how it sounds."
"It sounds insane."
"I wasn't thinking."
"You moved a hospital bassinet so you could take a better photo?"
"The light was bad."
Nobody spoke.
Even Grace, despite everything, almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was so completely Diane.
Diane had once rearranged three tables at a restaurant because the birthday photographs would have a fire extinguisher in the background. She had made Daniel retake an engagement picture because a trash can appeared behind Grace's shoulder. She had opinions about lamps, napkins, collar shapes, wrapping paper, and which side of a face looked more "awake."
Of course the worst mistake of their lives might begin because Diane Miller didn't like the light.
"I moved it maybe two feet," she said. "The nurse came back. She picked up the replacement band. I saw her look at the bassinet card, and then she put it on the baby."
Karen's voice stayed controlled.
"Did you see which identifier was on the band?"
"No."
"Then why did you think something was wrong?"
Diane looked at Grace.
"Because of his ear."
Grace's grip on Noah loosened slightly.
May you like
"What?"
"The second baby had a little fold at the top of his left ear when he was born. Daniel showed me the picture. I noticed it because Daniel had the same thing when he was a baby."
