By the time Daniel returned to St. Matthew's, dawn had begun whitening the eastern edge of the sky.<\/p>\n
Rebecca came with him. Evelyn remained at East Harbor speaking with police. Robert had not moved from Mara's room.<\/p>\n
Daniel entered carrying no cedar box, no papers, no relic from Thomas. For the first time all night, his hands were empty.<\/p>\n
Mara saw exhaustion in his face.<\/p>\n
He bent over the bassinet and touched his son's cheek.<\/p>\n
"Still Baby Ellison?"<\/p>\n
Mara looked at him.<\/p>\n
"Still Baby Ellison."<\/p>\n
Daniel nodded.<\/p>\n
There was no argument this time.<\/p>\n
Rebecca entered behind him and sat near the window.<\/p>\n
Robert looked toward her.<\/p>\n
She did not acknowledge him.<\/p>\n
Daniel turned to his father.<\/p>\n
"Why was Elliot coming to this hospital?"<\/p>\n
Robert rubbed his forehead.<\/p>\n
"Patricia worked here before Rebecca was born."<\/p>\n
"As what?"<\/p>\n
"Records administration."<\/p>\n
Mara felt a cold realization.<\/p>\n
"Birth records."<\/p>\n
Robert nodded.<\/p>\n
Daniel stared.<\/p>\n
"Mom knew how Thomas altered mine."<\/p>\n
"Eventually."<\/p>\n
"Did she help him?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Are you sure?"<\/p>\n
Robert hesitated.<\/p>\n
Daniel closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
"Of course."<\/p>\n
Robert raised a hand.<\/p>\n
"I don't think she helped forge your record."<\/p>\n
"That's different from knowing."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Mara asked, "What was Elliot bringing her?"<\/p>\n
Robert shook his head.<\/p>\n
"I thought it was evidence against Thomas."<\/p>\n
"Why not give it to police?"<\/p>\n
"Because Elliot didn't trust them."<\/p>\n
Rebecca frowned. "Why?"<\/p>\n
"Thomas had friends in local government. Samuel knew officers through security work. Elliot believed anything he surrendered might disappear."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked toward Mara.<\/p>\n
"So he trusted Mom."<\/p>\n
Robert nodded.<\/p>\n
"Despite exposing your affair?"<\/p>\n
"He was furious with me, not Patricia."<\/p>\n
Mara understood.<\/p>\n
Elliot had threatened Robert's family with truth, but that did not mean he wanted to hurt Patricia.<\/p>\n
Daniel pulled out his phone.<\/p>\n
"Samuel said the backpack would be where Elliot was trying to go."<\/p>\n
Rebecca looked around the room.<\/p>\n
"This hospital is enormous."<\/p>\n
Mara said, "Seventeen years ago, where would Patricia have told him to leave something?"<\/p>\n
Robert thought.<\/p>\n
"Medical records."<\/p>\n
Daniel shook his head.<\/p>\n
"Too obvious."<\/p>\n
Rebecca suddenly looked toward the door.<\/p>\n
"Mom had a locker."<\/p>\n
Robert frowned.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"When she was dying, she gave me an old key ring. There was a brass key she said belonged to a staff locker she'd forgotten to clear."<\/p>\n
"Do you still have it?"<\/p>\n
"No. I threw the keys away after she died."<\/p>\n
Daniel sighed.<\/p>\n
Mara asked, "Did she tell you the locker number?"<\/p>\n
Rebecca closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
"Maybe."<\/p>\n
She thought.<\/p>\n
"Two hundred something."<\/p>\n
Robert whispered, "214."<\/p>\n
Everyone looked at him.<\/p>\n
"How do you know?"<\/p>\n
"Patricia used 214 as the PIN on our old garage door."<\/p>\n
Rebecca stared.<\/p>\n
"She told me it was lucky."<\/p>\n
Robert gave a faint, sad smile.<\/p>\n
"It was her hospital locker."<\/p>\n
Daniel stood.<\/p>\n
"Where were staff lockers seventeen years ago?"<\/p>\n
Mara pressed the nurse call button.<\/p>\n
The same nurse who had first told Mara about Evelyn entered.<\/p>\n
Mara explained only that they were trying to locate an old staff locker connected to a deceased family member.<\/p>\n
The nurse frowned.<\/p>\n
"Administration used lockers in the old records wing."<\/p>\n
"Does it still exist?"<\/p>\n
"The wing does. Records moved years ago."<\/p>\n
"What is there now?"<\/p>\n
"Mostly storage."<\/p>\n
Daniel asked, "Can we access it?"<\/p>\n
"Not without facilities or security."<\/p>\n
Mara looked at him.<\/p>\n
"Then ask security."<\/p>\n
Within twenty minutes, a hospital administrator and security supervisor arrived. Daniel explained that police were investigating evidence connected to a storage-unit burglary and that Samuel Ortega had directed them toward the hospital.<\/p>\n
The supervisor called the investigating officer.<\/p>\n
Permission came faster after that.<\/p>\n
Mara could not go.<\/p>\n
She hated it.<\/p>\n
Daniel noticed.<\/p>\n
"I'll call."<\/p>\n
"Video."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Robert said, "I'm coming."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at him.<\/p>\n
This time he nodded.<\/p>\n
Rebecca joined them.<\/p>\n
Mara remained with her son while their video feed moved through corridors she had never seen.<\/p>\n
The old records wing occupied part of the basement.<\/p>\n
Rows of beige lockers stood behind stacked chairs and unused medical equipment.<\/p>\n
Numbers had faded from many doors.<\/p>\n
Rebecca found 214.<\/p>\n
A new padlock hung through the latch.<\/p>\n
Daniel stared.<\/p>\n
"That's not seventeen years old."<\/p>\n
The security supervisor agreed.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Robert looked around.<\/p>\n
"Samuel."<\/p>\n
Daniel touched the lock.<\/p>\n
"Recently installed?"<\/p>\n
"Looks like it."<\/p>\n
Security cut it.<\/p>\n
Inside sat a black plastic case.<\/p>\n
Nothing else.<\/p>\n
Rebecca exhaled.<\/p>\n
"Document case."<\/p>\n
Daniel opened it only after the officer on the phone approved.<\/p>\n
Inside were three sealed evidence bags.<\/p>\n
One contained Evelyn's letter.<\/p>\n
Another held photocopies of identity documents.<\/p>\n
The third contained a small photograph.<\/p>\n
No backpack.<\/p>\n
Daniel lifted the photograph.<\/p>\n
Mara watched through the phone.<\/p>\n
The image had been taken through a rain-streaked windshield.<\/p>\n
Ahead, Elliot's car was visible approaching a curve.<\/p>\n
A vehicle followed dangerously close behind.<\/p>\n
Only part of the second vehicle appeared.<\/p>\n
Robert leaned closer.<\/p>\n
"That's Evelyn's."<\/p>\n
Rebecca shook her head.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Daniel enlarged the image on his phone after photographing it.<\/p>\n
The vehicle looked similar to Evelyn's old sedan.<\/p>\n
But Robert pointed toward the rear.<\/p>\n
"Her car had a broken left taillight that month."<\/p>\n
Both lights in the photograph were intact.<\/p>\n
Rebecca whispered, "Mom's car?"<\/p>\n
Robert stared.<\/p>\n
"Same model."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at him.<\/p>\n
"Patricia and Evelyn drove the same car?"<\/p>\n
"Different years. Same model."<\/p>\n
Mara felt the old eyewitness confusion suddenly make sense.<\/p>\n
At night, in rain, the vehicles could easily have been mistaken for one another.<\/p>\n
Daniel asked, "Which one had intact lights?"<\/p>\n
Robert closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
"Patricia's."<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Rebecca shook her head.<\/p>\n
"But Mom's recording said Evelyn chased Elliot."<\/p>\n
Robert looked devastated.<\/p>\n
"Then Patricia lied."<\/p>\n
Mara stared at the photograph.<\/p>\n
"Or Samuel wants us to think she did."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked toward the other evidence.<\/p>\n
"Where's the original?"<\/p>\n
Rebecca turned the photograph over.<\/p>\n
Writing covered the back.<\/p>\n
NOT ORIGINAL. FRAME FROM VIDEO.<\/p>\n
Daniel frowned.<\/p>\n
"Video?"<\/p>\n
Robert whispered, "There was no traffic camera there."<\/p>\n
Mara said, "Someone was following behind."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at the angle.<\/p>\n
The photograph had indeed been captured from a vehicle behind the pursuing sedan.<\/p>\n
"Samuel."<\/p>\n
Rebecca stared.<\/p>\n
"He said he was watching from across the street."<\/p>\n
Mara nodded.<\/p>\n
"He followed too."<\/p>\n
Robert looked sick.<\/p>\n
"Then he recorded everything."<\/p>\n
Daniel searched the case.<\/p>\n
No tape.<\/p>\n
But there was a note.<\/p>\n
THE VIDEO IS WITH THE BACKPACK. DO NOT TRUST A SINGLE FRAME.<\/p>\n
Mara immediately understood.<\/p>\n
"A still photograph can make one car look like the pursuer without showing what happened before or after."<\/p>\n
Daniel nodded.<\/p>\n
Samuel was forcing them toward the full record.<\/p>\n
Rebecca opened Evelyn's letter.<\/p>\n
Daniel stopped her.<\/p>\n
"That's mine."<\/p>\n
Rebecca looked at him.<\/p>\n
"Sorry."<\/p>\n
He took it.<\/p>\n
Mara expected him to read immediately.<\/p>\n
He didn't.<\/p>\n
Instead he folded it and placed it inside his jacket.<\/p>\n
Robert watched.<\/p>\n
"Aren't you going to read it?"<\/p>\n
"Not with an audience."<\/p>\n
Mara felt something shift in him.<\/p>\n
For once, Daniel was distinguishing privacy from secrecy.<\/p>\n
The identity documents were next.<\/p>\n
Daniel photographed each.<\/p>\n
His birth certificate appeared among them.<\/p>\n
Mother: Patricia Ellison.<\/p>\n
Father: Robert Ellison.<\/p>\n
A second certificate lay beneath it.<\/p>\n
Mother: Evelyn Vale.<\/p>\n
Father: blank.<\/p>\n
Daniel stared.<\/p>\n
"So Dad's name wasn't originally there."<\/p>\n
Robert looked confused.<\/p>\n
"I signed an acknowledgment."<\/p>\n
Mara asked, "Was it filed?"<\/p>\n
"I thought so."<\/p>\n
Daniel turned another page.<\/p>\n
A handwritten note from Thomas read:<\/p>\n
Robert is biological father. Keep supporting affidavit separately.<\/p>\n
Daniel looked toward his father.<\/p>\n
"Did Thomas have DNA evidence?"<\/p>\n
"No. This was before home tests were common."<\/p>\n
"Then how did anyone know?"<\/p>\n
Robert said, "Evelyn and I knew."<\/p>\n
Evelyn and Robert had treated certainty as enough.<\/p>\n
Daniel turned to the next document.<\/p>\n
A laboratory report.<\/p>\n
Dated eight years ago.<\/p>\n
Rebecca leaned closer.<\/p>\n
"DNA?"<\/p>\n
Daniel read.<\/p>\n
Probability of paternity: 0%.<\/p>\n
Robert stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
Mara stared through the phone.<\/p>\n
Daniel read it again.<\/p>\n
Robert whispered, "That's impossible."<\/p>\n
Rebecca looked toward Daniel.<\/p>\n
"Whose sample?"<\/p>\n
Daniel's hand shook.<\/p>\n
"Thomas and me."<\/p>\n
Mara frowned.<\/p>\n
"Thomas tested whether he was your father?"<\/p>\n
Daniel nodded.<\/p>\n
"And he wasn't."<\/p>\n
Robert exhaled.<\/p>\n
"Of course he wasn't."<\/p>\n
Daniel turned the page.<\/p>\n
Another report.<\/p>\n
This one compared Daniel to a sample labeled R.E.<\/p>\n
Probability of paternity: 0%.<\/p>\n
No one moved.<\/p>\n
Robert's face emptied.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Daniel stared at him.<\/p>\n
"R.E."<\/p>\n
Robert shook his head.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Robert Ellison."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Mara felt her stomach tighten.<\/p>\n
"Could it be someone else?"<\/p>\n
Daniel checked Thomas's note.<\/p>\n
It identified the sample.<\/p>\n
Robert Ellison \u2014 toothbrush obtained 8\/14.<\/p>\n
Robert sat against the lockers.<\/p>\n
"That's wrong."<\/p>\n
Rebecca whispered, "Dad."<\/p>\n
"It's wrong."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked toward Mara's image.<\/p>\n
She could see fear beneath his anger now.<\/p>\n
If neither Thomas nor Robert was his father, another foundational fact had disappeared.<\/p>\n
Rebecca asked, "Who else was Evelyn with?"<\/p>\n
Robert shook his head.<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at Thomas's notes.<\/p>\n
There was one more page.<\/p>\n
Three initials.<\/p>\n
T.V.<\/p>\n
R.E.<\/p>\n
S.O.<\/p>\n
Daniel stared.<\/p>\n
"Thomas Vale. Robert Ellison."<\/p>\n
Rebecca completed it.<\/p>\n
"Samuel Ortega."<\/p>\n
Mara felt cold.<\/p>\n
Daniel turned the paper over.<\/p>\n
One sentence.<\/p>\n
Two eliminated. One refused testing.<\/p>\n
Robert looked toward him.<\/p>\n
"Samuel."<\/p>\n
Daniel whispered, "Samuel could be my father."<\/p>\n
The hospital corridor seemed suddenly silent.<\/p>\n
Then Mara's room door opened upstairs.<\/p>\n
She looked away from the phone.<\/p>\n
A man stood outside.<\/p>\n
Older. Gray-haired. Wet jacket.<\/p>\n
Mara had never seen him before.<\/p>\n
He looked at the baby.<\/p>\n
Then at Mara.<\/p>\n
"Mrs. Ellison?"<\/p>\n
She tightened her grip around her son.<\/p>\n
"Who are you?"<\/p>\n
The man slowly raised both hands.<\/p>\n
"My name is Samuel Ortega."<\/p>\n
By the time Daniel returned to St. Matthew's, dawn had begun whitening the eastern edge of the sky. Rebecca came with him. Evelyn remained at East Harbor speaking with police. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9439,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9419\/revisions\/9439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}