“Don’t tell anyone.”
“I own a bakery.
Secrets cost extra.”
He laughed.
A real laugh.
Then the porch door opened.
Ruth Mercer stood there.
Maribel immediately pulled away.
Ruth looked older than she had four months earlier.
She had testified against Vale.
Nothing erased her guilt, but she had spent every day since helping authorities identify children.
She carried a leather envelope.
“I found something.”
Nolan stood.
“What?”
“Vale kept another ledger.”
Maribel’s happiness disappeared.
“More children?”
“Yes.”
Ruth looked at Grace through the window.
“And something else.”
Her hands began trembling.
Nolan noticed.
“What?”
Ruth entered the house.
They followed.
Grace and Matthew slept beside each other in a wide cradle Mrs.
Bell had arranged temporarily.
Ruth stared at them for a long time.
Then she opened the envelope.
Inside was a medical record.
MARIBEL QUINN.
The date was six weeks before Grace supposedly had been born.
Maribel frowned.
“This is from Matthew’s birth.”
Ruth nodded.
“There are two lines beneath your name.”
She handed Maribel the page.
Maribel read the first.
Infant A — male — live birth.
Her heart began pounding.
Then she read the second.
Infant B — female — live birth.
The room seemed to tilt.
Maribel looked at Ruth.
“What is this?”
Ruth began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
“What is this?”
“You lost too much blood after Matthew was born.”
“I remember.”
“You became unconscious.”
Maribel’s voice dropped.
“No.”
Ruth nodded.
“No.”
“There was another baby.”
Nolan stopped breathing.
Maribel shook her head.
“No.”
“A girl.”
“No.”
“Vale wouldn’t let me tell you.”
Maribel backed into the table.
Ruth continued through tears.
“He said twins were worth more separately.
Wealthy couples preferred infants without siblings or family complications.”
Nolan stared toward the cradle.
“Where did the girl go?”
Ruth covered her mouth.
Maribel followed his gaze.
Grace shifted in her sleep.
A horrible impossible thought entered the room.
Nolan whispered, “Ruth.”
The old woman nodded.
“Eleanor’s baby was stillborn.”
Nolan went white.
“What?”
“She knew immediately.
Vale tried telling her the child had simply been born weak, but Eleanor had seen enough.”
Ruth wiped her eyes.
“Vale had been keeping Maribel’s second baby hidden for almost three weeks, waiting for a buyer.”
Maribel could no longer feel her hands.
“Three weeks…”
Grace was supposedly three weeks younger than Matthew.
Ruth nodded.
“When Eleanor delivered a stillborn daughter, Vale saw an opportunity.
He brought the other baby upstairs and told you she was yours, Nolan.”
Nolan stared at her.
“I held her ten minutes later.”
“I know.”
“I cut the cord.”
Ruth shook her head.
“You cut a cord Vale had tied around the blanket.
There was so much blood.
So much confusion.
He kept you outside until everything was arranged.”
Nolan looked physically ill.
Maribel moved toward the cradle.
