Chapter 3 - The Name Neither of Them Knew
The first call went to the hospital’s patient-relations office.
The second went to a risk manager named Denise Keller, who returned it before noon because the words possible infant identification issue moved everything else aside.
Denise was careful.
She couldn’t discuss another family’s private medical information. She couldn’t confirm anything significant over the phone. But she did ask them to email photographs of both bracelets and come in the next morning.
Then she asked a question that made Harper look at Mallory immediately.
“Did Judith Nolan contact the hospital after discharge?”
Mallory gripped the phone tighter.
“I don’t know.”
“Please bring that information if you find it,” Denise said. “And bring anything else she may have kept.”
Anything else.
That phrase stayed with Harper.
Back at the townhouse, she opened the bag again and examined the second bracelet more closely.
RUBY KINCAID.
A girl.
Born the same date as Maisie.
Same hospital.
Mallory sat at the kitchen table scrolling through old texts from Judith. At first they looked ordinary.
How’s my girl?
Send me a picture.
Did she ever get that red mark off her ankle?
Harper looked up.
“Her ankle?”
Mallory nodded slowly. “She kept asking about Maisie’s left ankle.”
Harper took the phone and kept reading.
Show me her feet.
Take one without socks.
And then, a week later:
Still no little birthmark?
Harper lowered the phone.
Neither sister spoke for several seconds.
That evening Judith began leaving voicemails.
“You are overreacting.”
Then:
“If you speak to the hospital before you know everything, you’ll make a fool of yourself.”
Then:
“I was trying to protect you.”
Protect you from what, she never said.
Mallory listened to all three messages without responding.
By dinner, she had made one decision that cost her immediately.
She texted her boss at the pediatric dental office and told him she would need two more weeks before returning from leave. She could not leave Maisie with Judith, and daycare that quickly would be expensive.
Harper offered the guest room for as long as they needed.
Mallory nodded, but the strain showed in her face. She had counted on Judith’s help with childcare. They both had.
May you like
Now that help looked like a threat.
And somewhere across town, another baby named Ruby Kincaid had entered their lives without knowing it.
