Chapter 2 - The Missing Twin
Detective Mara Ellis slammed her unmarked sedan into park outside St. Anne’s Emergency Department entrance, her blue strobes flashing against the rain-slicked pavement.
Two uniformed officers rushed into the lobby behind her as Mara made a straight line for the pediatric unit. Within minutes, she had secured the floor, stationed a guard at the nursery entrance, and pulled Claire into a private consultation room.
"We ran the audio feed from the bug in your handbag," Mara said, laying a tactical tablet on the table. "Our tech unit intercepted the transmission. The signal was being bounced off a private server owned by a firm called Apex Bio-Tech—a direct subsidiary of Bright Tomorrow."
"Apex Bio-Tech?" Claire asked, wiping her eyes. "That’s the clinical lab that handles regional organ donor registries and specialized bone marrow matching."
"Exactly," Mara said grimly. "And it gets worse. While my officers were sweeping Tessa Lane's abandoned apartment, forensic techs found a second medical file buried beneath the floorboards in her bathroom closet."
Mara swiped her screen, displaying a series of high-resolution ultrasounds.
"The ultrasound found in her folder mentioned Twin A — 31 weeks," Mara explained. "We just found the second document from an off-grid clinic in the valley. The second image was labeled Twin B. Tessa wasn't carrying a single child, Claire. She was carrying twins."
Claire gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "Where is the second baby?"
"When Tessa dropped Baby Boy 19 in the hospital chapel at 2:12 this morning, she was only carrying one bassinet," Mara noted. "According to the birth records we seized from the valley clinic, she went into labor thirty-six hours ago. Both babies were delivered alive and healthy."
"Nolan took Twin B," Claire breathed, the horror dawning on her with sickening clarity. "He didn't just want a child. He needed a specific donor candidate. If Baby 19 was ranked number nineteen in tissue compatibility, then Twin B..."
"Twin B was the primary match," Mara finished. "The ideal tissue recipient wasn't an outsider buying on a black market. Someone high up in Nolan’s donor network needed a perfect pediatric match—a match so rare that only a custom-bred biological sibling could provide it."
Before Claire could respond, the hospital's internal phone on the wall rang sharply.
Claire answered it on speaker. "Dr. Dawson."
"Claire..." A weak, frantic female voice cried out over a static-heavy connection. "Claire, please... don't let him take the boy... he took Sarah... he took my daughter..."
"Tessa?" Claire yelled into the receiver. "Tessa Lane, is that you? Where are you?"
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"He has her at the facility... the farm in Oakridge..." Tessa sobbed, her breathing shallow and labored. "He told me if I went to the police, he would make sure Twin B never opened her eyes... Please, Claire... save my babies!"
The line went dead with a sharp, mechanical click.
