Chapter 5: The Price of a Daughter
Detective Ortiz fitted a small transmitter beneath my shirt.
Claire stood beside her car, blocking my path.
“You cannot face Melissa without knowing everything,” Claire said.
“Then tell me now.”
“Five years ago, your father threatened to take my baby if I married you.”
“My father wanted grandchildren.”
“He wanted control.
He said I was unsuitable and promised to ruin Ruth financially.”
Ruth lowered her eyes.
“I begged Claire to leave until the baby was born.”
I stepped back.
“So you planned to disappear?”
“For three days,” Claire said.
“Melissa offered us her aunt’s empty house.
She was my friend.
I trusted her.”
“And then?”
“She locked the door.”
Ortiz touched my shoulder.
“We need to move.”
The abandoned clinic stood behind a row of shuttered shops.
I entered through the front while Ortiz and two officers waited beyond the alley.
Melissa sat in the reception area with Sophie beside her.
A gray-haired man in a medical coat stood near the rear exit.
“Daddy!” Sophie jumped from her chair.
Melissa pulled her back.
“Not yet.”
I kept my hands where she could see them.
“Let Sophie come to me.”
“Sign this first.”
She pushed a document across the desk.
It gave her sole custody and required me to deny Claire’s account publicly.
“You expect me to lie?”
“I expect you to protect the daughter you raised.”
Sophie reached toward me.
“Daddy, I want to go home.”
“This is your home now,” Melissa told her.
“No,” I said.
“Home is where a child feels safe.”
The doctor stepped forward.
“Mr.
Hayes, sign the agreement.
A public scandal will hurt everyone.”
“Who are you?”
“Dr.
Martin Vale.”
Claire’s voice sounded from the doorway.
“He delivered Hope.”
Melissa spun around.
“You were told to stay away.”
Claire walked in with Ruth and Detective Ortiz behind her.
“I spent five years doing what you told me.
I’m finished.”
Dr.
Vale moved toward the rear door, but an officer blocked him.
Melissa held Sophie in front of her.
“Take one more step and I leave with her.”
“You have nowhere left to go,” I said.
“I have documents saying Claire abandoned Hope.
I have reports calling Ruth confused.
And I have Ryan’s signature on Sophie’s fertility records.”
I stared at her.
“What fertility records?”
Melissa smiled for the first time.
“You signed storage forms after your surgery six years ago.
You never read the final page.”
Dr.
Vale looked at the floor.
“You used my stored sample without my permission,” I said.
“You wanted children.”
“With my wife, not through a lie.”
“I became your wife.”
Claire placed both hands on the desk.
“After you removed me.”
Melissa tore the transmitter from beneath my collar.
“You thought I wouldn’t notice?” She dropped it into a glass of water.
“Now the police have heard nothing useful.”
Ortiz stepped into view.
“I heard enough.”
Melissa grabbed a folder from the desk and flung its contents into a metal waste bin.
Dr.
Vale struck a switch, and the lights went out.
Sophie screamed.
I moved toward her voice, but a door slammed at the back of the clinic.
When the emergency lights came on, Dr.
Vale was pinned against the wall by an officer.
Melissa and Sophie were gone.
Ortiz lifted a half-scorched document from the bin.
“This is a transfer order,” she said.
“Melissa obtained emergency custody this morning.”
“Can she do that?”
“She gave the court medical reports claiming you are unstable and Claire is dangerous.”
Dr.
Vale’s shoulders sagged.
“She has a hearing at nine tomorrow,” he said.
“If the judge accepts those reports, she can leave the state with Sophie.”
Claire seized his sleeve.
“Where is she taking her tonight?”
“I don’t know.”
My phone vibrated.
May you like
A voice message from Sophie began to play beneath the distant sound of church bells.
“Daddy,” she whispered, “Mommy doesn’t know I have her phone.”
