Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Photograph

By morning, Ashcombe House no longer felt like a home.

Thomas had two security teams rotating at the gates. Every computer linked to the family trust had been disconnected from the network. Brianna’s room had been sealed, and three lawyers who did not work for Malcolm Vane were on their way from New York.

Diego had slept for forty minutes.

Valentina had not slept at all.

He found her sitting under the grand piano with her rabbit.

“You know there are chairs.”

She looked at him.

“Chairs are easier to find.”

He sat on the floor beside her.

For a man in a navy suit, it was an awkward position.

Valentina stared at his knees.

“You’ll wrinkle.”

“I’ve survived worse.”

“Brianna hates wrinkles.”

“Brianna is not here.”

The girl’s face changed.

“Did you find her?”

“No.”

“Is she bad?”

Diego chose his words.

“I think she knows things she should have told me.”

“That means bad?”

“Sometimes.”

Valentina pulled at a loose thread on the rabbit.

“Rosa lied to me too.”

“Yes.”

“But she was good.”

“Yes.”

“So lying can be good?”

Diego closed his eyes briefly.

“No. But people can do a wrong thing because they are trying to prevent something worse.”

Valentina frowned.

“That’s confusing.”

“It is.”

She leaned against the piano leg.

“Do grown-ups get less confused?”

“Absolutely not.”

A small voice came from behind them.

“I knew that already.”

Valeria stood in the doorway wearing a navy cardigan one of the housekeepers had found in storage.

Diego looked up.

“Were you listening?”

“Yes.”

“You’re very direct.”

“Ms. Mercer says wasting words wastes time.”

Claire appeared behind her.

“I regret teaching her several things.”

Thomas entered from the hall with a folder.

“We found Rosa’s old employment file.”

Valentina crawled out from under the piano.

“Did she have a picture?”

“Yes.”

Thomas laid a photocopy on the table.

Rosa Bell was younger in it, perhaps twenty-three, with dark hair pinned at the nape of her neck and a serious expression.

Valentina smiled.

“That’s her.”

Diego stared at the date of hire.

“She started here eight months before Amelia became pregnant.”

Claire nodded.

“Amelia trusted her.”

Thomas opened the folder.

“Rosa was born Rosa Bennett. Changed her surname after marrying Daniel Bell. Widowed before Valentina arrived.”

Valentina looked at him.

“My dad died before I was born.”

Thomas’s voice softened.

“That’s what Rosa told you?”

“Yes.”

Claire moved closer.

“Daniel Bell died two years before the twins were born.”

Diego looked at Valentina.

“Rosa used his surname to give you a legal identity.”

Thomas continued.

“There’s something else. Rosa’s personnel reference came from a woman named Margaret Hale.”

Claire’s face changed.

“The ward supervisor.”

“You know her?”

“She was the senior maternity nurse at St. Catherine’s.”

Diego stood.

“Alive?”

Thomas nodded.

“Retired. Lives in Rhode Island.”

“Call her.”

“I did.”

“And?”

“She hung up when I said Ashcombe.”

Valeria said, “That means she knows something.”

Thomas looked at her.

“You want my job?”

“No.”

“Good. The hours are terrible.”

Diego picked up his coat.

“We’re going.”

Claire said, “I’m coming.”

“No.”

“Diego—”

“You stay with the girls.”

Valeria folded her arms.

“I’m coming.”

“No.”

“That answer is getting boring.”

“This one will remain boring.”

Valentina looked from one to the other.

“I can distract the guards.”

Diego stared at her.

Claire laughed despite herself.

“No one is distracting anyone.”

Two hours later, Diego and Thomas stood outside a weather-beaten house overlooking Narragansett Bay.

Margaret Hale opened the door before they knocked.

She was in her seventies, silver-haired, straight-backed, and furious.

“I told your man I had nothing to say.”

Diego held up Amelia’s photograph.

Margaret’s eyes dropped to the two newborns.

Her anger cracked.

“Where did you get that?”

“Rosa Bell.”

Margaret gripped the door.

“She kept it.”

“She kept more than that.”

“Is Rosa alive?”

“No.”

Margaret closed her eyes.

“When?”

“Three weeks ago.”

She stepped back.

“Come in.”

The sitting room smelled of coffee and sea salt.

Margaret refused to sit.

“What do you know?”

Diego asked.

“About the twins?”

“About all of it.”

Margaret looked at Thomas.

“Who is he?”

“My security chief.”

“Your father’s man?”

“No.”

“Victor’s?”

“No.”

“Malcolm Vane’s?”

Thomas answered. “Definitely no.”

Margaret sat.

“Then lock the door.”

Thomas did.

She looked at Diego for a long time.

“You have Amelia’s eyes when you’re angry.”

“Did you know my daughters survived?”

“Yes.”

The answer struck him cleanly.

“For six years?”

“Yes.”

“And you said nothing.”

Margaret’s jaw tightened.

“I testified to an investigator.”

“Who?”

“Edward Mercer.”

Claire’s brother.

Diego leaned forward.

“When?”

“Three weeks after the hospital.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That there were two babies. That the chart had been changed. That Victor Ashcombe was present. That Malcolm Vane ordered a private transfer.”

“What did Edward do?”

“He recorded me.”

Thomas said, “Do you still have a copy?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because my apartment was broken into two days later.”

Diego stared.

“Did you report it?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“The police found nothing.”

“Why didn’t you contact me?”

Margaret laughed once, bitterly.

“Because the next morning I received a photograph of my grandson walking to school.”

Silence.

Diego’s anger shifted.

“I’m sorry.”

“So am I.”

She looked at the photograph again.

“Amelia knew someone was trying to identify the firstborn. She asked me to help switch the girls’ ankle bands.”

Claire had said ribbons.

Now ankle bands.

Diego frowned.

“Claire told me Amelia switched ribbons.”

“She did. Then she asked me to switch the hospital bands too.”

“So no one knew which child was first.”

Margaret shook her head.

“Someone did.”

“Who?”

“Dr. Rowan.”

Thomas said, “He signed the chart.”

“He also kept a separate operating log.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did Malcolm know?”

“I believe so.”

Diego asked, “Which child did Claire take?”

Margaret looked at him.

“Baby B.”

Diego’s breath stopped.

“You’re certain?”

“Yes.”

“Then Valeria is Baby B.”

“If the child Claire raised is the child she carried out, yes.”

“And Rosa took Baby A.”

Margaret nodded.

“So Valentina is the firstborn.”

“According to what I knew that night.”

Diego thought of Valeria’s sentence.

You took home the wrong twin.

“What did the note mean?”

Margaret looked puzzled.

“What note?”

Diego explained.

Claire’s affidavit.

Rosa’s warning.

The wrong child reached him first.

Margaret shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

Thomas asked, “What happened after Claire left?”

“Chaos. Security searched the floor. Malcolm screamed at staff. Victor disappeared for nearly an hour.”

“Where?”

“I saw him near pathology.”

Diego felt sick.

“Amelia?”

Margaret looked down.

“She was alive at 4:20.”

“The death certificate says 3:58.”

“I know.”

Diego stood so quickly the chair scraped.

“You are telling me my wife was alive after the legal time of death?”

“Yes.”

“Did you see her?”

“Yes.”

“What did she say?”

Margaret’s eyes filled.

“She said, ‘Tell Diego I did not leave him.’”

Diego turned away.

He walked to the window.

For six years he had lived with an image of Amelia slipping away before he could reach her.

Now even the time of her death had been stolen.

Thomas spoke gently.

“Margaret, how did she actually die?”

“I don’t know.”

“You were a nurse.”

“I was locked out of the room.”

“By whom?”

“Hospital security.”

“On whose order?”

“Malcolm Vane said it was the family’s request.”

Diego faced her.

“It was not.”

“I know that now.”

Margaret wiped her eyes.

“Twenty minutes later, they told us she had gone into cardiac arrest.”

“Was Victor there?”

“Yes.”

“Malcolm?”

“Yes.”

“Dr. Rowan?”

“Yes.”

Thomas said, “All three men.”

Margaret nodded.

Diego’s phone rang.

Claire.

He answered immediately.

“What happened?”

Claire’s voice was tight.

“Someone is at the gate.”

“Who?”

“Malcolm.”

Diego looked at Thomas.

“Do not let him inside.”

“He says he has a court order.”

“For what?”

“To remove Valeria from my custody.”

Diego went cold.

“On whose petition?”

Claire paused.

“Brianna Cole’s.”

“What authority does Brianna have over Valeria?”

“According to the filing, she claims Valeria is not your child and that I abducted her six years ago.”

Thomas had already opened his laptop.

Diego said, “Claire, listen carefully. Do not open the door. Do not let the girls near a window.”

“They’re with security.”

Valeria’s voice sounded faintly in the background.

“I can hear you.”

Diego closed his eyes.

“Of course you can.”

Claire said, “There’s more. Malcolm brought a DNA report.”

Diego’s hand tightened around the phone.

“What does it say?”

“That Valentina is your biological daughter.”

“We already know he has that sample.”

“And Valeria is not.”

Diego looked at Margaret.

“Did he test her?”

Claire said, “He claims he has a legally obtained sample from a medical file.”

Valeria’s voice came again.

“That’s impossible.”

Claire said, “Why?”

“Because I haven’t seen a doctor in two years.”

Diego asked, “What about before that?”

Claire went quiet.

Valeria answered.

“A clinic in Vermont.”

Thomas looked up.

“The house Malcolm’s company owned.”

Diego said, “Claire, do not say another word to him. We are coming back.”

He ended the call.

Margaret stood.

“Wait.”

Diego turned.

She walked to a cabinet and removed a small tin box.

“I kept one thing.”

“What?”

“A blood spot card.”

Thomas stepped forward.

“From the hospital?”

Margaret nodded.

“Dr. Rowan gave it to me the day after the births. He said if anything happened, it could prove there were two babies.”

Diego stared.

“Why didn’t you give it to Edward?”

“I was afraid.”

“Why give it now?”

She looked at Amelia’s photograph.

“Because fear has had six years.”

Thomas photographed the sealed card.

Margaret held it out.

“Do not use Malcolm’s laboratory.”

“We won’t.”

Diego took it.

At Ashcombe House, Malcolm Vane stood outside the gates in a dark overcoat, holding a leather folder.

Brianna was beside him.

Diego got out of the car.

Brianna’s expression softened instantly.

“Diego.”

He stopped ten feet away.

“You disabled my cameras.”

“No.”

“You delivered stolen DNA to a lab.”

“I was trying to protect you.”

“From my daughter?”

“From fraud.”

Malcolm stepped forward.

“Diego, emotions are running high.”

“Do not tell me about my emotions.”

Malcolm stopped.

Diego held up Amelia’s photograph.

“You told me there was one baby.”

Malcolm’s face did not change.

“That was the information given to me.”

“By whom?”

“Dr. Rowan.”

“Margaret Hale says you were in the room.”

A flicker.

Small.

But real.

Brianna looked at Malcolm.

“You said she was dead.”

Malcolm’s head turned sharply.

Diego heard it.

“So you did discuss Margaret Hale.”

Brianna realized her mistake.

“I meant—”

“You meant exactly what you said.”

Malcolm’s voice hardened.

“Brianna, be quiet.”

Diego almost smiled.

“There. That sounded honest.”

Malcolm held up the court order.

“This authorizes temporary protective custody of the child known as Valeria Mercer pending identity review.”

Diego did not take it.

“My attorneys will respond.”

“You have no grounds to keep her.”

“I have grounds to keep you off my property.”

“You are making a serious mistake.”

Diego looked through the bars.

Valeria and Valentina stood far back in the foyer, both watching.

He turned to Malcolm.

“Six years ago, someone made the serious mistake.”

Malcolm’s eyes narrowed.

“What are you implying?”

“That my wife gave birth to twins.”

Silence.

Brianna looked at Malcolm.

Malcolm looked at Diego.

Then he said, “That is a fantasy built from forged documents and the testimony of frightened women.”

Diego nodded slowly.

“Interesting.”

“What?”

“I never told you the documents came from women.”

Malcolm’s face finally changed.

Thomas stepped beside Diego.

“Mr. Vane, you should leave.”

Malcolm folded the order.

“You will regret this.”

Valentina’s voice floated from inside the house.

“That sounds like a threat.”

Valeria replied, “It is.”

Diego almost laughed.

Malcolm heard them.

His expression went cold.

He looked past Diego toward the girls.

For only a second.

But Valeria stepped backward.

Diego saw it.

He moved directly into Malcolm’s line of sight.

“Look at me.”

Malcolm did.

“If you ever look at them like that again, our next conversation will happen through prosecutors.”

Malcolm smiled without warmth.

“You still think this is about children.”

Diego felt something settle inside him.

“No.”

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He held up the gold button.

“I think it was always about control.”