Chapter 3 - THE DARK HALLWAY
Hospital security locked the maternity floor.
Dr. Hart moved me into a room under another name.
The leather folder disappeared into evidence.
Luke did not enter the building.
Instead, someone wearing hospital scrubs accessed the records office and removed the original trust documents.
Security footage showed a woman with silver hair.
Luke’s mother, Margaret Brooks.
Margaret had always called me weak.
She had attended every miscarriage and told me to stop grieving.
She knew the children were boys.
She knew Luke caused the injuries.
And she helped him hide it.
Police traced Luke’s escape to a transport officer named Daniel Mercer.
Mercer had been paid through a Brooks family shell company.
Then Dr. Hart gave me an old audio recording.
The first Caroline’s voice trembled through the speaker.
“Margaret says Luke gets angry because the baby belongs to the trust before it belongs to us.”
She paused.
“He keeps saying accidents happen in kitchens.”
The recording ended with a door slamming.
I cried for the sister I had never met.
Then a nurse brought a sealed envelope found beneath my pillow.
Inside was a photograph of the unidentified man.
His face was partially hidden.
On the back, someone had written:
HE IS NOT HERE TO SAVE YOU. HE WANTS THE CHILD TOO.
The note carried Margaret’s handwriting.
I did not know whether it was warning or manipulation.
Then my hospital phone rang.
Luke’s voice came through.
“If you tell them where the folder is, I’ll leave you alive.”
I looked at Dr. Hart.
She began recording.
I said:
“You killed my sister.”
Silence.
Then Luke answered:
“She made the same mistake you did.”
“What mistake?”
“She thought carrying the heir made her powerful.”
The line went dead.
Police traced the call to the old Brooks estate.
The house where the first Caroline died.
When investigators entered, they found a nursery prepared for my unborn son.
On the wall was a plaque.
BABY LUKE BROOKS JR.
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My child already had a name chosen by the people who tried to kill him.
Read Chapter 4 to discover what Margaret planned to do after Caroline gave birth.
