PART 3
Daniel’s last sentence stayed with me long after he finished speaking.
Someone knew they had been found.
Hannah looked at me.
“Who?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know yet.”
Then he reached into the SUV and pulled out a second folder.
“I’ve spent eighteen months trying to find out what happened at that hospital.”
He handed it to Hannah.
She opened it with trembling fingers.
Inside were copies of medical records, photographs, and old correspondence.
One document immediately caught my attention.
It was Lucy’s original birth record.
But there was something strange about it.
The mother’s name was correct.
The father’s name was blank.
Hannah stared at the page.
“I never knew this existed.”
Daniel pointed to the bottom.
“Look at the date it was filed.”
She did.
Her face changed.
“It was filed two weeks after Lucy was born.”
Daniel nodded.
“Someone created a second record.”
“Why?”
“So the original could disappear.”
Before anyone could say another word, my phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Hello?”
There was silence.
Then a man’s voice.
“You should have left the lunchbox closed.”
My blood ran cold.
I stepped away from Noah.
“Who is this?”
“You don’t understand what you’ve gotten yourself involved in.”
The call ended.
I immediately showed Daniel the number.
He stared at it.
“I’ve seen it before.”
“Where?”
“In one of the records.”
He opened his folder and searched through several pages.
Then he stopped.
“This number belongs to a private medical investigator.”
Hannah’s face went pale.
“What does a medical investigator want with my daughter?”
Daniel looked at Lucy.
“That is what I’ve been trying to find out.”
Suddenly, Noah tugged my sleeve.
“Mom.”
I looked down.
He was holding the velvet pouch from the large lunchbox.
“I didn’t open this.”
I took it carefully.
Inside was a tiny silver bracelet.
A hospital identification bracelet.
The name printed on it was:
BABY GIRL — MOTHER: HANNAH CARTER
But beneath the name was another number.
A patient identification number.
Daniel stared at it.
“That number…”
“What?”
He pulled another document from his folder.
The number matched.
Exactly.
He looked at Hannah.
“That was Lucy’s original hospital identification number.”
Hannah covered her mouth.
“Then why was it in that lunchbox?”
Nobody answered.
Noah suddenly pointed toward the street.
“The man is leaving.”
We all turned.
The black SUV was already moving away.
Daniel ran toward his vehicle.
“I’ll follow him.”
Hannah grabbed his arm.
“Don’t!”
He stopped.
She looked terrified.
“If someone really has been watching Lucy, don’t follow them alone.”
Daniel nodded reluctantly.
Then my phone vibrated again.
This time it was a text.
A photograph appeared.
It showed Noah standing in our yard that morning, surrounded by the lunchboxes.
The picture had clearly been taken from across the street.
Underneath it were seven words:
“The boy should have stayed out of this.”
My stomach twisted.
Noah saw my face.
“Mom?”
I immediately pulled him against me.
“You did nothing wrong.”
Daniel looked at the photograph.
His jaw tightened.
“This isn’t about Lucy anymore.”
He looked at Noah.
“Whoever sent this knows where you live.”
Then a second photograph arrived.
This one was different.
It showed the inside of our house.
Our kitchen.
Taken from somewhere inside.
And in the corner of the photograph was something I recognized immediately.
The old baby monitor we had stopped using years ago.
I stared at it.
Then at my house.
Someone had been inside.
While we were standing outside…
someone had been watching us.
And beneath the photograph was one final message:
“Tomorrow, bring Lucy to the hospital alone.”
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