Chapter 6 - THE SECOND STROLLERThey reached the mansion twelve minutes later.
The nursery was empty.
Adrian nearly tore the door off its hinges.
“Owen!”
Thomas came running from the hallway.
“What happened?”
“Where is he?”
“With Agent Morales downstairs.”
Adrian exhaled once.
Barely.
Then he grabbed Thomas by the shoulder.
“Get him off the property.”
“Why?”
“Now.”
Thomas did not argue.
Mara went directly to the nursery wall.
The bookshelf remained pulled away.
The carved bird seemed suddenly less like a clue and more like a warning.
“There’s another room.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Cassandra says it’s behind the south wall.”
“This is the south wall.”
Mara examined the molding.
The hidden compartment they found earlier was shallow.
But walls can hide more than their visible dimensions suggest.
Adrian noticed a tiny seam near the ceiling.
“Here.”
Thomas returned.
“Owen is leaving through the west gate.”
“With who?”
“Morales and two agents.”
“Tell them not to stop until they reach the field office.”
Thomas nodded.
Together, they removed a section of decorative paneling.
Behind it was steel.
A door.
No handle.
Only a keypad.
Mara stared.
“You didn’t know this existed?”
“No.”
“It’s your house.”
“It was Claire’s family house before we married.”
That changed everything.
“You moved into her house?”
“Yes.”
Mara laughed without humor.
“And somehow nobody thought that mattered.”
Adrian ignored the comment.
He examined the keypad.
Four digits.
“Claire’s birthday?”
“No.”
“Owen’s?”
“No.”
“Wedding anniversary?”
“No.”
Mara thought about the necklace.
The bird.
Emily.
Twenty-two altered birth records.
“Emily’s disappearance date.”
Adrian looked at her.
She entered it.
Nothing.
Then Mara remembered the hospital bracelet.
Baby Girl Monroe.
May 16.
She typed 0516.
The steel door unlocked.
Adrian looked at her.
“How did you know?”
“I didn’t.”
The door opened inward.
Cold air escaped.
A narrow stairway descended.
Thomas drew a flashlight.
They went down.
At the bottom was a room larger than Mara expected.
Metal shelves covered every wall.
Paper files.
Photographs.
Boxes.
An old desktop computer.
And in the center—
A stroller.
Mara stopped.
It looked almost identical to the stroller that had fallen into the pool.
Same brand.
Same dark blue fabric.
Same silver frame.
Only older.
Adrian approached it.
A hospital blanket lay inside.
He touched it.
Mara spotted an envelope beneath the seat.
She opened it.
Two photographs.
The first showed baby Owen.
The second showed another infant.
Identical blankets.
Identical hospital bracelets.
Adrian took the photo.
“Twins?”
“Maybe.”
On the back of the second photograph, Claire had written a name.
ELIAS.
The shoe at the warehouse.
Mara whispered, “The second boy.”
Thomas searched a filing cabinet.
“Here.”
He removed a folder.
COLE / REED.
Adrian’s face changed.
Both surnames.
His.
Claire’s first husband’s.
Inside were two DNA reports.
Adrian read the first.
Owen.
Probability of paternity: 99.99%.
His hands trembled.
The second report.
Elias.
Probability of paternity—
0%.
Mara looked at him.
“Owen is yours.”
“Yes.”
“Elias isn’t.”
Adrian turned the page.
The second test listed the presumed father.
Jonathan Reed.
The room went silent.
Claire had been carrying two secrets.
One child fathered by Adrian.
Another fathered by her first husband.
Except there was still no proof Claire had given birth to either boy.
Thomas opened another file.
“Claire’s medical records.”
Adrian read.
Then stopped.
“She couldn’t have had children.”
“What?”
“She had a hysterectomy eight years ago.”
Mara stared.
“Before you met?”
“Yes.”
“So neither boy is biologically hers.”
“No.”
Then why were the children connected to Claire’s two husbands?
The computer suddenly turned on.
Nobody touched it.
The screen flickered.
A video began playing.
Claire appeared.
Younger.
Terrified.
She sat in this exact room.
“If you’re watching this,” she said, “then the house is no longer safe.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“I’m sorry I lied.”
He whispered, “Claire.”
“I’m sorry for all of it.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“Adrian, Owen is your son.”
His face collapsed with relief.
“But I am not his mother.”
Mara watched.
“There were two women at Haven House. Both gave birth within forty-eight hours of each other.”
A photograph appeared.
Two young women.
Faces blurred.
“One carried Adrian’s biological child.”
Adrian frowned.
Mara looked at him.
Claire continued.
“The other carried Jonathan’s.”
Adrian whispered, “How?”
Claire answered the question.
“Embryos.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“Haven House was not only selling children.”
Claire’s voice shook.
“They were arranging pregnancies.”
Mara felt sick.
“Some women volunteered as surrogates.”
Claire swallowed.
“Some did not fully understand what they had agreed to.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“Jonathan and I discovered the program while he was undercover.”
Claire continued.
“After Jonathan disappeared, I thought he was dead.”
She wiped her eyes.
“Years later, when I married Adrian, I believed that life was over.”
Mara looked at Adrian.
He stared at the screen.
“Then Haven House contacted me.”
Claire’s voice became quieter.
“They had stored genetic material from Jonathan’s investigation. And somehow they had obtained Adrian’s.”
Adrian whispered, “What?”
“They created the two pregnancies to control me.”
Thomas cursed under his breath.
“They told me if I exposed them, both babies would disappear.”
Claire looked down.
“So I pretended to cooperate.”
Mara’s chest tightened.
“Emily helped me.”
The screen showed Emily.
Alive.
Standing in the hidden room.
Mara covered her mouth.
“She was braver than anyone I knew.”
Tears filled Mara’s eyes.
“We moved the children separately.”
Claire looked into the camera.
“Owen eventually went to Adrian.”
“What about Elias?” Mara whispered.
Claire answered.
“Emily took Elias.”
Mara froze.
Her sister.
Not pregnant.
The photograph.
The disguise.
She had been carrying a baby out of a hospital while pretending he was hers.
“Emily was supposed to take Elias to a federal safe location.”
Claire swallowed.
“She never arrived.”
Mara felt hope and terror collide.
The warehouse message.
Elias’s shoe.
Emily alive eighteen months ago.
The video continued.
“If Elias is still alive, Shepherd will never stop looking for him.”
“Why?” Adrian asked the screen.
Claire’s answer came seconds later.
“Because Elias can identify Shepherd.”
Mara frowned.
“He was a baby.”
Claire continued.
“Not because of what he remembers.”
A pause.
“Because of what is inside him.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“What does that mean?”
The screen went black.
Then another file opened automatically.
A medical scan.
Claire’s voice returned.
“Before Elias was moved, Jonathan hid a micro-storage device beneath the skin near the child’s shoulder.”
Adrian stared.
“A data chip?”
“It contains names, payment records, judges, doctors, lawyers, intermediaries. Everyone Jonathan uncovered.”
Mara felt ill.
“They hid evidence in a baby?”
Thomas whispered.
“That’s why Shepherd wants him.”
The video resumed.
“Jonathan believed nobody would search an infant.”
Claire looked ashamed.
“He was wrong.”
The recording ended.
A printer beside the desk suddenly started.
One sheet emerged.
Adrian picked it up.
Coordinates.
Thomas checked them.
“Residential neighborhood.”
Mara looked at the bottom of the page.
A message had printed beneath the coordinates.
YOU WANTED ELIAS.
COME GET HIM.
Adrian reached for his phone.
Thomas stopped him.
“Could be another trap.”
Mara was already heading toward the stairs.
“It probably is.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You’re going anyway.”
“My sister took that child.”
“Yes.”
“If Elias is there, Emily may be too.”
Thomas checked the coordinates again.
His expression changed.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“I know this address.”
Adrian waited.
Thomas looked almost embarrassed.
“It belongs to Mrs. Parker.”
May you like
The cook.
The woman who had been standing beside Mara in the kitchen when the stroller rolled into the pool.
