Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Cream Coat Called Again, and Her Demand Exposed the Lie Behind My Son’s Birth Certificate
At dawn, my phone rang once.
The caller blocked her number.
"Megan, stop asking about the foundation."
Her voice was careful and low.
I heard a train behind her.
"Let me speak to Leo."
"He is safe for now."
"That isn't an answer."
A pause.
Then a little cough.
"Mom?"
My knees buckled.
"Leo, sweetheart, I'm here."
"I want my blanket."
I covered my mouth.
The woman took the phone back.
"Bring the original birth certificate. Alone."
The line went dead.
Roman reached for my shoulder.
I stepped away.
I did not want comfort.
I wanted evidence.
Detective Park traced the train sounds.
Three rail yards matched the recording.
She told me not to attend a meeting alone.
I agreed, then opened my document box.
Leo's birth certificate had lived there five years.
The paper looked ordinary.
Except for one faint indentation.
Beneath the hospital seal was another name.
I held it beneath a lamp.
MERCER.
Roman saw it too.
"What does that mean?"
He did not answer immediately.
"It means someone altered the record."
"Who could do that?"
"Someone inside the hospital."
I remembered Leo's birth.
A rushed transfer between maternity wards.
A nurse who refused to give her name.
My mother had died that winter.
I had been alone.
Roman promised to find the original register.
I made him promise something else.
"No secrets about my child. Ever again."
He met my eyes.
"No more secrets."
Then Teresa appeared at the doorway.
Her hands shook around a breakfast tray.
"Miss Hayes," she whispered.
May you like
"I was working at that hospital."
And she began to cry.
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