Chapter 16 - THE SECOND BOY
My phone kept ringing.
NOAH VANCE.
I stared at the screen.
Victoria stared too.
Neither of us moved.
Finally, I answered.
"Hello?"
Silence.
Then a child's breathing.
"Mom?"
My heart stopped.
"Noah?"
"Mom, don't come to the courthouse."
I almost dropped the phone.
"Where are you?"
"I don't know."
"Are you with Grandpa?"
"No."
My blood ran cold.
"Then who are you with?"
The child hesitated.
"I don't know."
Victoria leaned closer.
"Ask him what he sees."
I did.
"Noah, look around you."
"I see a red door."
"Anything else?"
"A clock."
"What kind?"
"Old."
I looked at Victoria.
She whispered:
"That's not Noah."
I felt dizzy.
"Who are you?"
The child didn't answer.
Then he asked:
"Mom, why did you name me Noah?"
My heart stopped.
"I didn't."
"What?"
"I didn't name you Noah."
Silence.
Then the child whispered:
"My name is Daniel."
The call ended.
I stared at my phone.
Victoria was crying.
"The baby."
I shook my head.
"No."
"The photograph."
"No."
"Claire, your mother had twins."
I couldn't breathe.
"But I raised Noah from birth."
"Maybe."
"What do you mean, maybe?"
Victoria pointed to the photograph.
"Look at the date."
I did.
Three days earlier.
Then I noticed something else.
The photograph had been taken inside a hospital.
The woman holding the newborn was my mother.
The man beside her was Grant.
And the baby had a small birthmark behind his left ear.
Noah had the same birthmark.
I remembered it.
I had noticed it when Noah was a baby.
I had kissed that tiny mark a thousand times.
But if there were two babies...
Then which one had I raised?
I called my father.
He answered immediately.
"Claire."
"Tell me the truth."
Silence.
"Was I adopted?"
Nothing.
"Was I?"
My father finally said:
"Yes."
I closed my eyes.
"When?"
"After you were born."
"Why?"
"Because your grandfather took you."
"From whom?"
"From Grant."
I felt sick.
"Why?"
"Because Grant wanted you."
"He was my biological father?"
"Yes."
"And Mom?"
"Your biological mother."
I looked at Victoria.
"What happened to the other baby?"
My father was silent.
Then:
"Your mother gave birth to twins."
"Where is the other one?"
"I don't know."
I whispered:
"His name is Daniel."
My father's breathing changed.
"How do you know that name?"
"Because he just called me."
Silence.
Then my father said something that terrified me.
"Claire..."
"What?"
"Daniel died six months after he was born."
I looked at Victoria.
May you like
"Then who just called me?"
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