Chapter 4 - NORA’S TRUE NAME
The emergency doors unlock with a heavy mechanical click.
Nora stares at Claire.
Michael’s words remain suspended in the room.
The fake nurse standing in front of you.
Claire looks at Nora’s face again.
Thirty-five to forty-five years old.
Too old to be the infant taken eight years earlier.
Michael hears her confusion.
“Not Nora herself. Her daughter.”
Nora lowers her head.
Helena moves toward her.
“You raised Claire’s baby?”
“For eight years.”
“Where is she?” Claire asks.
Nora does not answer.
The exterior doors begin opening.
Cold wind sweeps through the maternity corridor.
Marcus Vale, the resort’s night-security supervisor, appears at the far end with two guards.
He is not related to Nora despite the surname.
Behind them stand three men in dark winter coats.
One holds the medical transport case.
Nora grabs the key card from the floor.
“Close the sliding wall.”
Claire refuses.
“No more hiding.”
“You cannot protect Ethan from those men.”
“Then tell me where my daughter is.”
Nora looks toward Rebecca.
The answer is already in the room.
Claire follows her gaze.
“No.”
Rebecca looks from one woman to another.
“What?”
Nora’s eyes fill with tears.
“Blackridge changed the bracelets twice that night.”
Claire tightens her arms around Rebecca.
“Helena gave birth to a girl.”
“Yes.”
“So did I.”
“Yes.”
“Which child did Michael take?”
Nora’s voice breaks.
“Yours.”
Helena grips the duplicate bracelet.
“That is impossible.”
“Michael believed he was taking your baby. The administrator switched the bassinets before he arrived.”
Claire stares at Rebecca.
“You are my biological daughter?”
Nora nods.
Rebecca’s knees weaken.
Claire catches her.
Helena’s face becomes hollow.
“Then where is mine?”
Nora looks toward the men entering the corridor.
“With the man carrying the transport case.”
The tallest man removes his hood.
He is Dr. Samuel Crane, former director of Blackridge Maternity Center.
His face has appeared in Helena’s old court documents.
He was declared dead after a boating accident seven years earlier.
Crane smiles.
“Mrs. Bennett, step away from the infant.”
Michael’s voice comes through Claire’s phone.
“Do not listen to him.”
Crane looks toward the phone.
“You have always been dramatic, Michael.”
The security guards close the doors behind the men.
Claire understands.
The alarm did not summon help.
It trapped them with the people already controlling the resort.
Helena faces Crane.
“Where is my daughter?”
Crane gestures toward the transport case.
The case is too small to contain a child.
Helena’s expression changes.
“What is inside?”
“Her medical records.”
“Where is she?”
Crane ignores her.
He looks at Rebecca.
“The Bennett girl is more valuable than we expected.”
Claire positions the wheelchair between him and the children.
“You are not touching either of them.”
Crane smiles politely.
“Your recovery will be difficult if you remain agitated.”
Nora whispers, “He will sedate you and alter the incident report.”
Rebecca grips Claire’s phone.
“The call is still connected.”
Crane looks toward the ceiling.
“The mountain signal will disappear shortly.”
Michael says, “I am inside the service tunnel.”
Crane’s smile fades.
Marcus Vale moves toward the west door.
A loud alarm sounds below.
One of the emergency generators has been shut down manually.
The lights flicker.
Crane turns to his men.
“Take the newborn.”
Nora steps in front of Ethan.
The first man reaches for her.
Rebecca throws a metal water bottle against the emergency-glass panel.
The impact triggers a local fire alarm.
Sprinklers activate.
The corridor fills with water and steam.
Claire pushes Ethan’s bassinet toward the towel compartment while Nora and Helena block the doorway.
Crane’s men struggle on the wet floor.
Michael bursts through the service entrance wearing a snow-covered coat.
Rebecca runs toward him, then stops.
Every lie he told now stands between them.
“Dad?”
Michael looks at her.
For one second, guilt overwhelms him.
Then Crane tackles him.
The two men crash against the wall.
Marcus Vale reaches for Rebecca.
Helena knocks his arm away.
Nora grabs the medical transport case.
Crane sees her.
“Put that down!”
Nora runs toward Claire.
A gunshot cracks into the ceiling.
Everyone freezes.
Crane holds a compact pistol.
“Give me the case.”
Nora looks at Claire.
“This contains the original birth records.”
Crane aims at her.
“And proof that your daughter is alive,” he tells Helena.
Nora throws the case toward Rebecca.
The girl catches it against her chest.
Crane swings the gun toward her.
Michael lunges again.
The weapon slides beneath the bassinet.
Ethan begins crying.
Claire pulls him close.
Marcus restrains Crane while Helena secures the gun.
For a moment, it appears the danger has ended.
Then Nora opens the emergency exit.
Snow blows into the corridor.
A black vehicle waits beyond the glass tunnel.
A young girl sits inside.
She appears eight years old.
She has Helena’s dark eyes.
Nora points toward her.
“That is your daughter.”
Helena moves toward the window.
The girl lifts one hand.
Then the vehicle begins reversing.
Helena runs after it.
Nora grabs her.
“It is a trap!”
The transport case opens in Rebecca’s arms.
Inside are two original birth certificates.
One lists Rebecca Bennett as Claire’s biological daughter.
The second lists Helena’s daughter under another name.
Lily Crane.
The legal father is Samuel Crane.
Helena looks toward the restrained doctor.
“You raised my child as your own?”
Crane smiles despite the blood at his lip.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
The black vehicle stops.
The rear door opens.
A woman steps out.
She is wearing a white physician’s coat.
Claire recognizes her immediately from photographs in Michael’s office.
Dr. Olivia Bennett.
Michael’s sister.
A woman who supposedly died before Rebecca was born.
She holds Lily’s hand.
May you like
Then she calls through the storm:
“Michael, tell Claire why you chose one daughter and abandoned the other.”
