Chapter 9 - Room 712
Dr. Daniel Crest did not answer his phone.
His clinic said he was attending a medical conference in Chicago.
The conference had no record of him.
By noon, police had frozen his clinic’s electronic files and placed an officer outside the building.
That was when the hospital lab called.
The forged consent form had my real signature because the signature had not been drawn.
It had been copied digitally from a document I actually signed.
“Which document?” I asked.
The administrator looked embarrassed.
“A records release from your maternal-fetal medicine office.”
My stomach dropped.
Lauren’s fertility clinic and my high-risk pregnancy specialist shared the same parent medical network.
Dr. Crest did not need Diane to steal my signature.
He could have accessed it.
Ortiz said, “We’re auditing every time your chart was opened.”
An hour later they found fourteen unauthorized accesses.
Nine came from Dr. Crest’s clinic.
Five came from Patricia Shaw’s hospital login.
This had started before the triplets were even born.
Ethan paced beside the window.
“Why Rose?”
“Because she was Baby C,” I said.
He looked at me.
“The last one delivered. The last bassinet. The one closest to the door.”
Caleb added softly, “And Grandma thought she didn’t have a mark.”
We all went quiet.
Detective Ortiz received a call and stepped into the hall.
When she returned, her face was different.
“We found Patricia Shaw’s car.”
“Where?” Ethan asked.
“Behind Dr. Crest’s clinic.”
“And Patricia?”
“No.”
“What did you find?”
Ortiz sat down.
“Infant security bands.”
My skin prickled.
“How many?”
“Seven.”
Lauren whispered, “Seven?”
“Some are old. Different hospitals. Different systems.”
Ethan stopped pacing.
“So they’ve done this before.”
“That is one possibility.”
The unknown baby from Room 418 had been safely returned to her mother because Caleb saw the bracelet. But seven old bands meant other parents might never have known.
A nurse brought me water. My hand shook so badly I spilled it.
Ortiz continued.
“There was also a key card labeled 712.”
“The room where Marissa had Rose.”
“Yes.”
“Why would a fertility doctor have a key to an abandoned surgical room?”
“He wouldn’t. But a hospital nurse could make one.”
Ethan’s phone rang.
It was Mark, Lauren’s husband.
He had been on a business flight when everything happened. He had landed, seen forty-three missed calls, and was now racing from the airport.
Ethan put him on speaker.
Mark’s voice shook.
“Is Lauren okay?”
“She’s alive.”
“And the babies?”
“All three of ours are safe.”
Mark exhaled.
Then he asked, “Why are detectives at my father’s office?”
Lauren shut her eyes.
Ethan said, “Because your family is involved.”
“My family?”
“Your father knew about the placement.”
Mark went silent.
Then he said something none of us expected.
“My father warned me yesterday that Diane was planning something illegal.”
Lauren’s head snapped up.
“What?”
Mark continued, “He told me to get you away from her before the babies were born.”
Lauren stared at the phone.
“If Douglas warned you... then who promised you the shares?”
Mark’s answer came slowly.
“He never did.”
Someone had been sending Lauren messages from a phone she believed belonged to Douglas Vane.
And the person behind them knew exactly how to manipulate her.
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