There’s a second page.
I stared at the screen.
SEND IT.
The typing dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
Appeared again.
My phone rang.
Vanessa.
I answered immediately.
“What does the second page say?”
She didn’t speak.
“Vanessa?”
When she finally answered, her voice sounded strange.
“I don’t understand it.”
“Read it to me.”
“I think you should see it.”
“Vanessa, please.”
Paper rustled on the other end.
Then she began reading.
“The boy Claire took home is not the Cole infant.”Shop Baby Gear
My knees weakened.
I grabbed the bathroom counter.
Vanessa continued.
“The error was discovered too late. Richard says the truth must remain buried until the third child can be located.”
I stared at
myself in the mirror.
Third child.Find Family Lawyer
“What third child?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is there a name?”
“No.”
I heard her turn the page.
Then she gasped.
“What?”
Silence.
“Vanessa, what?”
“Oh my God.”
“Tell me.”
“There’s something written at the bottom.”
“What?”
“It’s not part of the letter. It looks like Natalie wrote it later.”
“Read it.”
Vanessa went quiet.
Then, very slowly, she said:
“It says, ‘I finally know who took the third baby.’”
My heart hammered.
“And?”
Vanessa inhaled sharply.
“She wrote a name.”
I gripped the phone.
“Whose?”
There was a knock at my hotel door.Book Hotels
Three slow knocks.
I froze.
Vanessa whispered my name through the phone.
Another knock.
