Chapter 6 - The Dead Doctor at the Station
Dr. Leonard Vale was my mother’s younger brother.
My uncle.
He had been declared dead after a private plane crashed in Wyoming.
No body was recovered.
Now a bus-station camera showed him alive.
He had Ava.
Federal agents traced them to a motel outside Denver.
The room was empty when police arrived.
But Ava had left a message scratched beneath the table.
LILY IS NEXT.
A second search of the basement revealed a hidden safe.
Inside were birth certificates for six children.
All girls.
All with different names.
Lily and Ava were the only two not marked deceased.
Detective Cole spread the papers across the table.
“This did not begin seven years ago.”
My mother had been involved in something for decades.
The records connected her to a fertility clinic that closed after allegations of missing embryos and false adoptions.
Leonard was the clinic’s medical director.
Evelyn handled finances.
I called my mother.
“Where is Ava?”
“I don’t know.”
“Leonard is alive.”
Silence.
“You knew.”
“I knew he survived.”
“You helped him disappear.”
“I protected my brother.”
“He kidnapped a child.”
“She belongs with him.”
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn sighed.
“Ava is Leonard’s daughter.”
“And Lily?”
My mother hesitated.
“Lily was never supposed to survive.”
The words hollowed me out.
“What did you say?”
“She was born with a condition. We were told she wouldn’t live through the night.”
“But she did.”
“Yes.”
“And then you gave her to us.”
“I gave you a child after Taylor lost yours.”
“You stole her.”
“I saved her.”
The same excuse every criminal used when they wanted gratitude from a victim.
I asked who Lily’s biological mother was.
Evelyn refused.
Then she warned me.
“Stop looking, David.”
“Why?”
“Because the woman who gave birth to Lily is still alive.”
“Where?”
My mother’s voice dropped.
“She is standing much closer to you than you think.”
The hospital room door opened behind me.
Detective Cole entered holding a new DNA result.
She looked from me to the phone.
“David, Taylor and Lily are related.”
My pulse stopped.
May you like
“How?”
“Taylor is her biological aunt.”
