Chapter 13 - Claire Is Alive
Rachel showed Daniel the photograph.
He stared at Claire’s face for a long time.
“That’s her.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
He sounded like a man seeing a ghost.
They checked security footage with Dunn’s help.
Claire entered the hospital at 8:14 a.m.
She wore a cap and glasses.
She stood near the elevators for eleven minutes.
Then disappeared into a stairwell.
At 8:31, Sophie appeared on another camera walking to the vending machines with a nurse.
Rachel’s blood ran cold.
Claire had been less than thirty feet away from her daughter.
“Why didn’t she approach her?” Daniel asked.
Rachel looked at him.
“Maybe she did.”
They found Sophie in the family waiting room coloring.
Rachel crouched.
“Did anybody talk to you near the vending machines?”
Sophie shook her head.
Then stopped.
“A lady helped me when my dollar got stuck.”
Daniel knelt beside her.
“What lady?”
“She had glasses.”
“What did she say?”
Sophie shrugged.
“She said I looked like someone she used to know.”
Rachel’s stomach turned.
“Did she touch you?”
“She fixed my hair.”
Daniel and Rachel looked at each other.
DNA.
Claire could have taken a hair sample.
“Anything else?” Rachel asked.
Sophie thought.
“She told me to keep Bunny safe.”
Daniel stood.
“Claire knows we found the drive.”
Dunn entered the waiting room holding his phone.
“I found something.”
He showed them traffic-camera footage.
Claire leaving the hospital.
Getting into a car.
The driver’s face was visible.
Rachel recognized him immediately.
Victor Lang.
Daniel cursed.
Rachel stared.
“She’s working with him.”
“Or she’s his prisoner,” Daniel said.
Dunn shook his head.
“She got into that car willingly.”
Rachel felt betrayed by a woman she had never met.
Then another message arrived.
This one from Claire.
RACHEL, DANIEL IS WRONG ABOUT ME.
A second message.
VICTOR ISN’T THE ONE WHO SWITCHED THE BABIES.
A third.
YOUR MOTHER DID.
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