Chapter 4 - The Baby Was Given a Different Name
Hannah moved quickly.
Saint Agnes had arranged the newborn placement through a private agency called Bright Horizons Family Services.
The agency had dissolved.
But state records remained.
Claire’s daughter had been listed under a temporary name.
Baby C.
Female.
Born at thirty-one weeks.
Four pounds, three ounces.
Claire stared at every number.
“She was tiny.”
Michael held her hand.
“She was alive.”
That sentence broke them both.
The file showed the infant spent nineteen days in neonatal care.
Claire began crying harder.
Nineteen days.
Somebody had held her baby.
Somebody had fed her.
Somebody had watched machines breathe and beep beside her.
And Claire had been at home believing there was nothing left to save.
“Who took her?”
Hannah turned a page.
The placement had not gone through a traditional adoption.
It had been labeled temporary kinship guardianship.
Claire frowned.
“Kinship?”
“That usually means the child was placed with a relative.”
Michael looked at Hannah.
“Whose relative?”
The guardian’s name had been sealed.
Hannah filed for access based on probable fraud.
Meanwhile, Claire searched old family photographs.
Eleanor had disappeared for nearly a month after Claire’s supposed miscarriage.
At the time, Eleanor claimed she was helping an ill cousin in Connecticut.
Michael remembered something else.
“My aunt Rebecca.”
Claire looked up.
“Your mom’s younger sister?”
“She moved away around then.”
Rebecca Bennett had been estranged from Eleanor for years.
Claire had met her only twice.
Michael called.
Disconnected.
They searched public records.
Rebecca had changed her last name.
Rebecca Foster.
And three years earlier—exactly the year Claire’s daughter was born—Rebecca became legal guardian to an infant girl.
Name:
Lucy Foster.
Claire stared at the birth month.
Same month.
Same premature gestational age.
Michael whispered:
“No way.”
Claire found Rebecca on social media.
Her account was private.
But the profile picture showed Rebecca standing beside a little blonde girl around three years old.
Claire zoomed in.
Michael stopped breathing.
The girl had his eyes.
Claire’s chin.
And around her wrist was a tiny hospital identification bracelet kept inside a clear memorial charm.
Michael whispered:
“That’s her.”
Claire wouldn’t allow herself to believe it yet.
“Pictures aren’t proof.”
Hannah agreed.
But she had another development.
The court released the sealed guardian name.
Rebecca Foster.
Claire’s knees weakened.
Lucy wasn’t just similar in age.
She was the child taken from Saint Agnes.
Their child.
Michael immediately reached for his keys.
Claire stopped him.
“No.”
“That’s our daughter.”
“And Rebecca has raised her for three years.”
“She knew.”
“We don’t know what she knew.”
Claire was furious.
But she refused to repeat Eleanor’s mistake.
A child was not property to be grabbed because adults were angry.
“We do this right.”
Michael stared at her.
Then nodded.
Hannah contacted Rebecca’s attorney.
An answer came within an hour.
Rebecca was willing to meet.
But only without Eleanor.
May you like
And she had a message for Claire.
Tell her I’ve been waiting three years for someone to finally ask the right question.
