CHAPTER 5 — THE WOMAN WHO NEVER STOPPED LOOKING
CHAPTER 5 — THE WOMAN WHO NEVER STOPPED LOOKING
I didn't sleep that night.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Lily's pale face beneath torn garbage bags.
Then I saw another image.
An empty coffin.
A mother standing over it, believing her baby had died.
If what Detective Mills had uncovered was true, then two little girls had been stolen from their lives in different ways.
One had been told she belonged to people who never truly wanted her.
The other had been told her child no longer existed.
At 6:40 the next morning, Detective Mills returned to the hospital carrying a thick file and two paper cups of coffee.
She looked exhausted.
"So are they arrested?" Marcus asked before she even sat down.
She nodded.
"Richard Collins, Margaret Collins, and Vanessa Collins were all booked overnight."
"For attempted murder?" I asked.
"For now, attempted murder, aggravated child abuse, unlawful imprisonment of a minor, administering a controlled substance to a child, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice."
I closed my eyes.
The words sounded unreal.
Those charges belonged in crime documentaries.
Not beside the names of the people who had tucked me into bed when I was little.
Or at least pretended to.
"The prosecutor expects additional charges," Detective Mills continued.
"Because of the adoption?"
She nodded.
"We're now investigating possible fraud, document tampering, and whether anyone at St. Catherine's Hospital accepted money to falsify records."
Marcus folded his arms.
"So someone inside the hospital helped them."
"We believe so."
A gentle knock interrupted us.
Dr. Patel smiled from the doorway.
"I have better news today."
Every muscle in my body tensed.
"Lily?"
"She's awake."
I didn't wait for another word.
Lily looked impossibly small against the white hospital pillows.
Her curls were tangled.
Her cheeks were pale.
But her eyes—
Her beautiful brown eyes—
opened the second she heard my voice.
"Mommy?"
I burst into tears.
She reached toward me with her tiny hand.
"You crying?"
I laughed through the sobs.
"Happy tears, baby."
Marcus leaned over the bed.
"Hey, sunshine girl."
She smiled weakly.
"I missed my birthday."
His eyes filled immediately.
"No."
He kissed her forehead.
"We're just moving it."
Later, after Lily fell asleep again, Detective Mills quietly pulled me into the hallway.
"We identified the woman connected to your adoption."
I felt my pulse race.
"My biological mother?"
"Yes."
"Is she..."
I couldn't finish.
"Alive?"
The detective smiled gently.
"Yes."
Tears instantly blurred my vision.
"Does she know?"
"No."
"Know what?"
"That you're alive."
She handed me a photograph.
It had been taken only six months earlier.
A woman in her early fifties stood outside a small flower shop.
She had silver beginning to thread through dark hair.
Laugh lines around gentle eyes.
And when I looked at her...
I forgot how to breathe.
Marcus looked over my shoulder.
"Oh my God."
She looked exactly like me.
Not identical.
But unmistakably.
The same eyes.
The same smile.
The same tiny scar above the left eyebrow.
I touched the photograph with trembling fingers.
"What's her name?"
"Evelyn Carter."
The name meant nothing.
Yet somehow...
Everything.
"She never stopped looking for you," Detective Mills said softly.
"What?"
The detective opened another folder.
"For twenty-nine years she filed missing-child requests."
My throat tightened.
"Every birthday."
Another page.
"Every five years she requested the hospital reopen the investigation."
Another.
"She hired two private investigators."
Another.
"She exhausted nearly all of her savings."
Marcus whispered,
"She never gave up."
Detective Mills nodded.
"Everyone told her grief had made her irrational."
"But she was right."
"Yes."
I sat down because my legs refused to hold me.
"They told her..."
"...that her daughter died."
The detective nodded.
"But she always insisted they had taken the wrong baby."
Two hours later another detective entered carrying exciting news.
"We located her."
My heart stopped.
"Where?"
"About ninety miles away."
"What did you tell her?"
He hesitated.
"As little as possible."
"Why?"
"Because after twenty-nine years..."
He smiled faintly.
"...we didn't think it was appropriate for a stranger over the phone to say, 'Your daughter is alive.'"
Instead, officers had asked Evelyn Carter to come to the station regarding new evidence connected to an old hospital investigation.
She had agreed immediately.
Without hesitation.
At noon Detective Mills' phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then looked directly at me.
"She's here."
I couldn't move.
Marcus squeezed my shoulder.
"You don't have to do this today."
"I do."
My voice barely came out.
"I've waited twenty-nine years without even knowing it."
The meeting was arranged in a private family room at the hospital.
Not because detectives expected danger.
Because they expected heartbreak.
I stood facing the window when the door opened behind me.
No one spoke.
I turned slowly.
The woman from the photograph stood only a few feet away.
She looked older than the picture.
More fragile.
Her hands shook.
So did mine.
For nearly a full minute...
Neither of us moved.
Then she whispered,
"Rachel?"
My knees nearly gave out.
No one had ever spoken my name like that.
Like she'd been carrying it inside her for decades.
"I don't know what to say," I admitted.
She smiled through tears.
"I've practiced this conversation every day for twenty-nine years."
Her voice cracked.
"And now I've forgotten every word."
I laughed.
Then cried harder.
She reached into her purse.
"I brought something."
Inside was a tiny knitted baby cap.
Yellow.
Faded with age.
"I made this while I was pregnant."
She held it carefully.
"The hospital told me my daughter died before I could dress her."
I stared at the little cap.
Then at her.
"You kept it?"
"I kept everything."
She opened another envelope.
Inside were birthday cards.
Twenty-nine of them.
One for every year I had been alive.
None had ever been mailed.
Each was addressed simply:
To My Daughter.
Marcus quietly turned away, giving us privacy.
Even Detective Mills wiped at her eyes.
Then Evelyn looked toward the hospital room where Lily slept.
"May I..."
She couldn't finish.
"You want to meet her?"
She nodded.
"If she'll let me."
I smiled through tears.
"Lily loves meeting kind people."
A few minutes later we entered the room together.
Lily had just awakened.
She blinked at the unfamiliar woman.
"Hi."
Evelyn knelt beside the bed.
"Hi."
Lily studied her face for several seconds.
Then tilted her head.
"You look like Mommy."
Everyone laughed softly.
Evelyn covered her mouth as tears spilled freely.
"I've always hoped someone would say that."
Lily reached out one small hand.
"You sad?"
Evelyn nodded.
"A little."
Lily offered her stuffed rabbit.
"When I'm sad..."
She smiled sleepily.
"...Bunny helps."
Evelyn accepted the rabbit as though it were the most precious gift she'd ever received.
Because perhaps it was.
The quiet moment ended when Detective Mills received another call.
Her expression changed instantly.
She walked into the hallway.
Marcus followed.
When they returned...
Neither looked relieved anymore.
"What happened?" I asked.
The detective took a slow breath.
"We searched your parents' safe deposit box this morning."
My stomach tightened.
"What did you find?"
She placed a single photograph on the table.
It showed two newborn babies.
One was me.
The other...
was another little girl.
Both wore matching hospital bracelets.
Written across the back, in my mother's handwriting, were seven chilling words.
One was enough. The other had to disappear.
May you like
Then Detective Mills looked me in the eyes and said the sentence that changed everything once again.
"We no longer believe you were the only baby stolen that night."
