Daniel Carter knew something was wrong before he even closed the front door.
The house was silent.
Not peaceful.
Silent.
“Anna?”
No answer.
He stepped farther inside.
That was when he saw the clothes.
Anna’s gray sweater lay near the hallway.
One shoe was beside the kitchen door.
A towel had been dropped near the stairs.
Then Daniel saw the stain.
A large pool of dark red liquid stretched across the tile.
For one terrible second, he couldn’t breathe.
“Anna?”
He ran forward.
Then a man stepped from the kitchen.
Daniel stopped.
“Michael?”
Michael Bennett was Anna’s older brother.
He looked exhausted.
His sleeves were wet.
There was something red on one cuff.
Daniel’s eyes dropped to it.
Then back to the floor.
“What happened here?”
Michael answered immediately.
“She had an accident.”
Too quickly.
Daniel stared at him.
“What kind of accident?”
“She fell.”
“Where is she?”
Michael hesitated.
That hesitation changed everything.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Where is my wife?”
Michael raised both hands.
“She isn’t here.”
“I can see that.”
“Daniel, calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down.”
Daniel pointed at the floor.
“My wife’s clothes are everywhere.”
“There is something that looks like blood in my hallway.”
“You have it on your shirt.”
“And you won’t tell me where Anna is.”
Michael looked toward the front door.
Daniel noticed.
“Were you leaving?”
“No.”
“Then look at me.”
Michael did.
Daniel asked again.
“Where is she?”
“At St. Matthew’s.”
The anger vanished from Daniel’s face.
“The hospital?”
Michael nodded.
Daniel grabbed his keys.
Michael stepped in front of him.
“You can’t go yet.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Move.”
“You need to hear what happened first.”
“Move.”
“Daniel—”
“Get out of my way.”
Michael didn’t.
Daniel shoved him aside.
Michael grabbed Daniel’s arm.
That was when the confrontation exploded.
Daniel pulled away.
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing!”
“You were here.”
“Yes.”
“She ended up in a hospital.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re covered in whatever that is.”
Michael looked toward the stain.
“It’s not what you think.”
“Then tell me what it is!”
Michael opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“You’re hiding something.”
Michael finally said:
“I promised Anna I wouldn’t tell you until the doctor spoke to you.”
Daniel froze.
“Tell me what?”
Michael looked terrified.
“It’s about the baby.”
Daniel stopped moving.
“What baby?”
Michael said nothing.
Daniel stared at him.
“Anna isn’t pregnant.”
Michael looked down.
That was answer enough.
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“Is she?”
Michael whispered:
“She didn’t know.”
Daniel felt the room shift beneath him.
“What are you talking about?”
Michael took a breath.
“Anna collapsed this afternoon.”
“She had severe abdominal pain.”
“I came over because she called me.”
“She thought something was wrong with her stomach.”
“Then she started bleeding.”
Daniel looked at the red stain.
Michael quickly added:
“But that isn’t all blood.”
“What?”
“The jar broke.”
“What jar?”
“Tomato sauce.”
Daniel stared at him.
Michael pointed toward the kitchen.
A shattered glass jar lay near the counter.
Red sauce covered the lower cabinets.
Some of it had mixed with water from the towel Michael used to clean the floor.
The terrifying red stain Daniel had seen from the doorway was mostly tomato sauce.
Mostly.
But not entirely.
Daniel’s anger disappeared.
“What happened to Anna?”
“Paramedics took her.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I did.”
Daniel pulled out his phone.
Six missed calls.
He had been in a meeting with his phone silenced.
His stomach dropped.
“Why are her clothes on the floor?”
“The paramedics cut part of her shirt.”
“She was overheating.”
“Her shoe came off when we moved her.”
Michael looked exhausted.
“I wasn’t trying to hide what happened.”
“I was trying to figure out how to tell you.”
Daniel whispered:
“Is the baby alive?”
Michael looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
They drove to St. Matthew’s.
Daniel barely spoke.
At the emergency department, a doctor met them.
Dr. Elena Reeves.
She was still wearing clinical scrubs.
“Mr. Carter?”
“Where is my wife?”
“She’s stable.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“And the baby?”
Elena paused.
“There are several things we need to explain.”
Daniel hated that sentence immediately.
“Is my child alive?”
Dr. Reeves looked directly at him.
“Yes.”
Daniel almost collapsed from relief.
Then she continued.
“But this isn’t a normal pregnancy.”
Daniel frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Elena motioned toward a private consultation room.
“Your wife appears to have been pregnant without realizing it.”
“That can happen in unusual circumstances.”
“But that’s not the part we’re concerned about.”
Daniel sat down.
Michael remained near the door.
Dr. Reeves placed an ultrasound image on the table.
Daniel looked at it.
Then at her.
“I don’t understand.”
Elena pointed.
“This is the fetus.”
Daniel nodded.
Then she moved her finger.
“And this is why Anna collapsed.”
There was another shape.
Another sac.
Daniel stared.
“Twins?”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
The second structure wasn’t another developing baby.
It appeared to be evidence of an earlier implantation that had stopped developing.
Anna had apparently begun the pregnancy with two embryos.
One continued normally.
The other did not.
But the dates created a problem.
Based on the surviving baby’s development, Anna was farther along than anyone expected.
Nearly seven months.
Daniel stared at the doctor.
“Seven months?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Anna said the same thing.”
“She hasn’t looked pregnant.”
“Some pregnancies are not obvious.”
Daniel tried to process it.
Seven months.
A child.
His wife had been carrying their baby for most of the year.
Neither of them knew.
Then Elena asked:
“Has Anna had any medical treatment during the past year?”
Daniel frowned.
“What kind?”
“Fertility treatment?”
“No.”
“Hormone therapy?”
“No.”
“Any procedures involving reproductive medicine?”
“Absolutely not.”
Dr. Reeves went quiet.
Daniel noticed.
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Because of something we found in her medical record.”
Anna had been admitted to St. Matthew’s eight months earlier after fainting at work.
Daniel remembered.
It had seemed minor.
Dehydration.
She stayed for only a few hours.
But Dr. Reeves had discovered an additional entry in Anna’s electronic chart.
A procedure code.
Daniel read it.
EMBRYO TRANSFER — PRIVATE REPRODUCTIVE SERVICES.
He looked up.
“No.”
Elena nodded slowly.
“Anna says she never had this procedure.”
“She didn’t.”
“Were you with her during that admission?”
“For most of it.”
“Did she leave the emergency department?”
“No.”
Michael stepped forward.
“Wait.”
Everyone looked at him.
“I picked Anna up that night.”
Daniel frowned.
“I thought I did.”
“No.”
“You got called back to work.”
Daniel remembered.
Michael was right.
He had left around midnight.
Michael collected Anna the next morning.
Dr. Reeves asked:
“Did anything unusual happen?”
Michael’s face changed.
“There was a nurse.”
“What nurse?”
“She told me Anna had been moved upstairs for observation.”
“For how long?”
“Maybe three hours.”
Daniel stared.
“You never told me that.”
“I didn’t think it mattered.”
The hospital had no official record of Anna being moved.
But an old security archive did.
At 1:17 a.m., Anna was transported by wheelchair from the emergency department.
A woman in medical clothing pushed her.
Anna appeared groggy.
At 4:06 a.m., she returned.
Same wheelchair.
Same woman.
Daniel leaned toward the screen.
“Who is she?”
Dr. Reeves enlarged the image.
The badge was partially visible.
DR. CLAIRE BENNETT.
Michael stopped breathing.
Daniel looked at him.
“Bennett?”
Michael went pale.
“My family name.”
“Who is Claire Bennett?”
Michael didn’t answer.
Daniel stood.
“Michael.”
Finally he whispered:
“My sister.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Anna never told me she had a sister.”
Michael shook his head.
“Not Anna’s sister.”
“Mine.”
Michael and Anna had always called each other brother and sister.
But now Michael revealed something Daniel had never known.
They weren’t biological siblings.
Michael had been adopted by Anna’s parents when he was six.
Before that, he lived with his biological mother.
Dr. Claire Bennett.
Daniel looked toward the security image.
“How old is your mother?”
“She’d be sixty-two.”
The woman in the footage looked younger.
Michael leaned closer.
Then shook his head.
“That’s not my mother.”
“Then who is she?”
Michael stared at the badge.
“My mother had a daughter before me.”
“Her name was Claire too.”
“My half-sister.”
“Where is she?”
Michael looked at Daniel.
“She died twelve years ago.”
Another dead person appearing in a recent hospital record.
Daniel was beginning to recognize a pattern.
Dr. Reeves searched deeper.
The badge number did belong to Claire Bennett.
But it had remained active long after her reported death.
It had accessed Anna’s chart.
Ordered medication.
Reserved a procedure room.
And entered the embryo-transfer code.
Daniel’s hands began shaking.
“Whose embryo?”
Dr. Reeves answered carefully.
“We don’t know yet.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Anna is my wife.”
“I understand.”
“If somebody did something to her without consent—”
“We are investigating exactly what happened.”
Daniel looked at Michael.
“You knew there was something wrong.”
Michael shook his head.
“Not this.”
“Then what were you hiding at the house?”
Michael closed his eyes.
“Anna found something before she collapsed.”
That afternoon, Anna had been cleaning a cabinet.
Behind old documents, she found a small medical envelope.
Inside was a plastic hospital bracelet.
Not hers.
The bracelet belonged to:
BABY BENNETT — FEMALE
Date of birth:
Twenty-nine years earlier.
Anna’s birthday.
Daniel frowned.
“Anna’s last name wasn’t Bennett.”
“No,” Michael said.
“She was born Anna Mitchell.”
The bracelet had been hidden inside Anna’s late mother’s belongings.
Beside it was a photograph.
Two newborn girls.
One labeled:
ANNA.
The other:
CLAIRE.
Daniel stared.
“Anna had a twin?”
Michael nodded.
“That appears to be what she discovered.”
But Claire Bennett—the supposedly dead doctor whose credentials were used eight months earlier—was older than Anna.
So she couldn’t be the newborn Claire in the photograph.
There were two Claire Bennetts.
Michael’s older half-sister.
And Anna’s unknown twin.
Someone had reused the same name.
Dr. Reeves requested original birth records.
The hospital archives showed Anna Mitchell had been born alongside another female infant.
The second baby’s record was later sealed.
No death certificate.
No discharge record.
Only:
TRANSFERRED — BENNETT FAMILY.
Michael sat down.
“My family?”
Daniel looked at him.
“You were adopted by the same family that received Anna’s twin?”
Michael shook his head.
“I never knew.”
The families had been connected for decades.
And suddenly Anna’s mysterious hospital procedure looked much less random.
The next morning Anna was strong enough to speak.
Daniel sat beside her.
She looked exhausted.
“Michael told you?”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
“I don’t think any of us know all of it.”
Anna started crying.
“I thought I was dying.”
Daniel held her hand.
“The baby is stable.”
Anna touched her stomach.
“I still can’t believe there’s a baby.”
Then she looked toward Michael.
“I need the envelope.”
Michael gave it to her.
Inside was one more item he hadn’t shown Daniel.
A handwritten note from Anna’s late mother.
IF ANNA EVER BECOMES PREGNANT WITHOUT KNOWING WHY, FIND BABY CLAIRE.
Daniel stared.
Her mother had anticipated this.
Years earlier.
The investigation moved quickly after that.
The procedure code in Anna’s chart was real.
But the embryo-transfer description was false.
No embryo had been transferred.
Instead, someone had performed a different reproductive procedure and hidden it under that code.
Dr. Reeves explained that Anna’s pregnancy itself appeared naturally conceived.
Daniel was the likely father.
Independent testing later confirmed it.
Daniel was the baby’s biological father.
Anna was the biological mother.
Nobody had secretly implanted another couple’s embryo.
Daniel felt enormous relief.
But the mystery became stranger.
If the procedure wasn’t meant to create the pregnancy—
what was it for?
Dr. Reeves found the answer.
Someone had taken biological samples from Anna.
Blood.
Tissue.
Egg cells.
The procedure happened before Anna became pregnant.
Daniel stared.
“They weren’t trying to give her a baby.”
Elena shook her head.
“They were collecting something.”
Why?
Because Anna’s unknown twin had a rare genetic marker.
A marker connected to an old Bennett family study.
Michael’s biological mother had worked in reproductive genetics.
So had his half-sister Claire.
Before Claire’s reported death, she had investigated cases involving newborn identity errors at St. Matthew’s.
Anna and her twin were one of those cases.
They had been separated at birth.
One raised by the Mitchell family.
The other by the Bennetts.
That meant Anna’s missing twin had grown up as:
Claire Bennett.
But not the older Claire.
A younger woman with the same name.
Michael stared.
“My adopted family raised Anna’s twin?”
Apparently.
The Bennett family had used the name Claire twice.
Why?
Nobody knew.
Then hospital security identified the woman who moved Anna eight months earlier.
Facial comparison found a close match.
Anna.
Daniel stared at the image.
“She looks like my wife.”
Michael whispered:
“Because she’s her twin.”
Claire Bennett was alive.
Anna’s twin had returned.
And she had used the credentials of Michael’s dead half-sister—also named Claire Bennett—to enter the hospital.
Daniel was furious.
“She took Anna while she was sedated.”
“Yes.”
“She collected biological material from her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Nobody could answer.
Until Claire contacted them herself.
She didn’t run.
She asked to meet at the hospital.
When she entered the room, Daniel understood immediately.
She looked almost exactly like Anna.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Different hair.
Anna stared at her.
“Claire?”
The woman nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
Anna’s voice shook.
“You’re my sister?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you do this to me?”
Claire started crying.
“I thought I was saving both of us.”
Claire explained that she had been diagnosed with a rare inherited condition.
Doctors initially believed it came from the Bennett family.
But genetic testing revealed she wasn’t biologically related to them.
She searched sealed hospital records and discovered Anna.
Her twin.
Then she discovered something else.
The twins’ biological mother wasn’t the woman Anna believed was her mother.
The Mitchells had adopted Anna privately.
The Bennetts had taken Claire.
Both adoptions had been hidden behind altered birth records.
Their biological mother had worked at St. Matthew’s.
Her name:
Rebecca Hale.
Daniel recognized it.
Rebecca Hale had been a respected reproductive specialist.
She had also disappeared thirty years earlier.
Claire believed Rebecca had been involved in an illegal fertility program.
She was wrong.
Rebecca had been trying to expose it.
Certain doctors had collected biological material from patients without proper authorization.
Rebecca discovered the records.
Then her own twin daughters became leverage against her.
The babies were separated.
Records changed.
Rebecca disappeared.
Claire spent years trying to reconstruct what happened.
When she found Anna, she panicked.
Instead of telling her the truth, she secretly collected samples to confirm their relationship and determine whether Anna carried the same genetic risk.
“What you did was wrong,” Anna said.
Claire nodded.
“I know.”
“You could have asked me.”
“I was afraid you’d disappear if the people who hid us learned I found you.”
Daniel asked:
“Who are those people?”
Claire looked toward Dr. Reeves.
“Someone is still inside this hospital.”
The altered procedure record hadn’t been created by Claire.
She had used the old Bennett credentials to access Anna.
But someone else later changed the procedure description.
Someone knew Claire had returned.
Someone wanted the event to look like an unauthorized embryo transfer if it was ever discovered.
Why?
To discredit Claire.
And hide the real purpose of the old program.
Dr. Reeves audited the record.
The alteration came from an administrator account.
DR. THOMAS HALE.
Anna froze.
“Hale?”
Claire nodded.
“Our mother’s brother.”
Their uncle.
Thomas Hale had worked at St. Matthew’s for forty years.
He was now retired.
He had also signed Rebecca Hale’s missing-person paperwork.
Thomas was questioned.
He denied everything.
Then Daniel showed him the security footage.
Thomas stopped talking.
Claire showed him the original newborn photograph.
His expression changed.
Finally Anna asked:
“What happened to our mother?”
Thomas looked at both sisters.
“She didn’t abandon you.”
Claire whispered:
“We know.”
Thomas lowered his head.
“She found out what the hospital was doing.”
Rebecca discovered that several physicians were manipulating fertility and newborn records for wealthy private clients.
Some wanted secret adoptions.
Some wanted paternity hidden.
Others wanted inheritance disputes avoided.
Rebecca copied the records.
The doctors threatened her daughters.
Thomas claimed he helped separate Anna and Claire to keep them safe.
Anna stared at him.
“You separated newborn sisters?”
“I thought it would be temporary.”
“But it lasted twenty-nine years.”
Thomas had no answer.
Then Daniel asked the question nobody else had.
“If Rebecca was trying to expose them, where is she?”
Thomas looked toward the floor.
“I don’t know.”
Claire didn’t believe him.
She produced a bank statement.
For twenty-nine years, money had been transferred annually to a private care facility.
Authorized by Thomas Hale.
Patient name:
REBECCA H.
Anna stood.
“Our mother is alive?”
Thomas began crying.
“She was.”
“Was?”
“She died three months ago.”
Claire looked shattered.
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because she made me promise.”
Rebecca had suffered neurological damage after an accident shortly after the twins were born.
She spent decades in assisted care.
During lucid periods, she continued documenting what happened at the hospital.
Before she died, she gave Thomas a box.
For Anna and Claire.
Inside were original records.
Birth certificates.
Photographs.
Audio tapes.
And a letter.
My daughters,
If you are reading this, the hospital secret survived longer than I did.
You were not separated because one family wanted you.
You were separated because someone needed two versions of the same child.
Anna stopped reading.
Daniel frowned.
“What does that mean?”
The next file explained.
The illegal program wasn’t only changing newborn identities.
It was testing how easily one biological identity could support two legal identities.
Twins were ideal.
Same age.
Similar genetics.
Often similar appearance.
One identity could be used to cover the actions of the other.
Medical records.
Financial records.
Travel.
Inheritance.
Anna and Claire had been selected because they were identical twins.
Rebecca discovered it before the plan could fully begin.
So she tried to take both girls away.
She failed.
Daniel looked at Claire.
“That explains the same name.”
Exactly.
The Bennetts had named Claire after an older deceased daughter.
The repeated name created overlapping records.
For years, transactions made by one Claire Bennett could be attributed to another.
Even death records became unreliable.
That was how Anna’s twin had later used her dead adoptive sister’s credentials.
The system had been designed to allow it.
Claire had unknowingly used the same mechanism the original program created.
But Rebecca’s final file contained another surprise.
Anna and Claire weren’t the only twins.
Seven pairs had been recorded.
Most had never learned about each other.
One pair was marked:
ACTIVE — CARTER.
Daniel froze.
“Carter?”
His family name.
Anna looked at him.
Rebecca’s notes contained two male infants born thirty-two years earlier.
BABY CARTER A
BABY CARTER B
Daniel’s birthday.
Daniel stared at the page.
“I don’t have a twin.”
Claire looked at him sadly.
“Anna said the same thing yesterday.”
Daniel demanded his birth records.
The official record showed one baby.
Daniel Carter.
But Rebecca’s copied nursery log showed two.
Baby A discharged with Margaret Carter.
Baby B transferred six hours later.
Destination removed.
Daniel sat down.
His anger was gone.
Exactly as it had disappeared when he first learned the red stain wasn’t what he thought.
Now there was only disbelief.
Anna reached for his hand.
“Daniel…”
He barely heard her.
The entire mystery had started with him walking into his house and believing something terrible had happened to his wife.
Instead, Anna’s collapse had exposed a secret connecting both of their families.
She had a hidden twin.
And apparently—
so did he.
Rebecca Hale’s box contained one final photograph.
Two women stood outside St. Matthew’s.
Rebecca Hale.
And Daniel’s mother, Margaret Carter.
Each woman held a newborn.
Daniel immediately recognized himself in Margaret’s arms.
Then he looked at the baby Rebecca was holding.
On the back:
DANIEL — BABY A.
MICHAEL — BABY B.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Anna slowly turned toward her brother.
Michael Bennett.
The man Daniel had confronted beside the red stain.
Michael looked confused.
“What?”
Daniel showed him the photograph.
Michael stared.
“No.”
Claire looked at the dates.
Same birthday.
Same hospital.
Same nursery.
Michael whispered:
“I was adopted when I was six.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Do you know where you were before that?”
Michael shook his head.
“Foster homes.”
Daniel stepped closer.
Not angrily this time.
He studied Michael’s face.
The jaw.
The eyes.
The small scar near his eyebrow.
Features he had seen hundreds of times without ever questioning them.
Claire ordered independent DNA testing.
The result arrived two days later.
Daniel Carter and Michael Bennett were identical twins.
The two men sat across from each other in silence.
Michael finally laughed once.
“So when you almost punched me in your hallway…”
Daniel shook his head.
“Don’t.”
“You were trying to punch your twin brother.”
“Michael.”
Anna actually smiled for the first time since the hospital.
But the humor disappeared when Claire opened Rebecca’s last audio recording.
Rebecca’s voice was weak.
“Daniel and Michael were not supposed to meet.”
“They did not know each other when Anna married Daniel.”
“But once Anna and Michael became family, the old program noticed.”
Daniel frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Rebecca continued:
“Someone has been watching both twin pairs.”
“Anna and Claire.”
“Daniel and Michael.”
“And if Anna becomes pregnant…”
Everyone looked toward her hospital room.
Rebecca’s recording finished:
“…they will come back for the child.”
Daniel looked at Anna.
Then at the ultrasound image.
Their unborn baby.
The baby wasn’t the reason the mystery began.
The baby was the reason an old mystery had restarted.
Dr. Reeves checked the fetus’s medical file.
Someone had already accessed it.
Three times.
Before Anna even knew she was pregnant.
The first access happened five months earlier.
The second three months earlier.
The third—
that morning.
User:
R. HALE.
Rebecca Hale.
Impossible.
She was dead.
Claire whispered:
“Someone is using Mom’s identity.”
Just as she had used the dead Claire Bennett identity.
Just as the old hospital program had taught people to do decades earlier.
Daniel looked at Thomas Hale.
“Who has access to Rebecca’s credentials?”
Thomas went pale.
“There is one person.”
“Who?”
“Her former research partner.”
“Name.”
Thomas hesitated.
Then answered:
Dr. Evelyn Mercer.
Claire froze.
“Evelyn Mercer died before we were born.”
Thomas looked at her.
“No.”
“She disappeared.”
That evening, Daniel returned home.
The clothes were gone.
The broken sauce jar had been cleaned up.
The red stain had disappeared.
The hallway looked ordinary again.
But Daniel no longer saw the house the same way.
Michael stood beside him.
“Hard to believe this started here.”
Daniel looked at his newly discovered twin brother.
“It didn’t.”
Michael understood.
It had started thirty years earlier.
Maybe earlier.
Then Anna called from the hospital.
Her voice sounded frightened.
“Daniel.”
“What happened?”
“Someone left something in my room.”
“What?”
“A hospital bracelet.”
Daniel gripped the phone.
“What does it say?”
Anna read it slowly.
BABY CARTER — A.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Then Anna whispered:
“There’s another one.”
Daniel opened his eyes.
“What?”
A second newborn bracelet had been placed beside the first.
BABY CARTER — B.
Michael stared at him.
Daniel asked:
“Anna, did anyone come into your room?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“A woman wearing clinical clothes.”
The same kind of clothing that had made everything look so confusing when Daniel first arrived at the hospital.
“What did she look like?”
Anna hesitated.
“Like Dr. Reeves.”
Daniel looked toward Michael.
“But it wasn’t her.”
“Then who was it?”
Anna’s answer made both men go silent.
“She said her name was Evelyn Mercer.”
Daniel tightened his grip on the phone.
“What did she want?”
Anna looked toward the two bracelets beside her bed.
“She said we misunderstood Rebecca’s warning.”
Daniel felt cold.
“What warning?”
Anna repeated the woman’s words:
‘The second baby was never Daniel or Michael.’
Daniel couldn’t speak.
Then Anna added:
“She said Rebecca was warning us about my pregnancy.”
Michael stared at the phone.
Daniel whispered:
“Anna… what did she say about the baby?”
There was a long silence.
Finally Anna answered:
“She said the doctors need to look again.”
“Why?”
Anna’s voice trembled.
“Because there may not be one heartbeat anymore.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Anna continued:
“They think there are two.”
And suddenly the scattered clothes, the red stain, Michael’s hesitation, Anna’s hidden twin and Daniel’s missing brother all pointed toward a terrifying possibility.
The secret that had followed two sets of twins for nearly thirty years might now have reached the next generation.
And someone inside St. Matthew’s had known about Anna’s babies before Anna herself knew they existed.
