Chapter 5 - I Followed a Hospital Nurse into Roman’s Locked Library, Where a Recording Changed Everything I Believed
Teresa had worked nights in maternity.
She remembered a doctor named Conrad Vale.
He controlled the transfer paperwork.
He also worked for Bright Harbor.
"Why didn't you tell the police?"
"I tried," she said.
Her husband lost his job afterward.
Then someone left a photograph of their daughter.
I understood her silence.
I hated that I understood.
Teresa led us to Roman's library.
She had kept a cassette from the hospital.
It held a voicemail from a frightened colleague.
The voice trembled through the speakers.
"Conrad is changing the infant records."
A scrape interrupted her.
"He says the donations depend on it."
The recording ended abruptly.
Roman recognized the speaker.
"My sister, Evelyn."
I stared at him.
He had told me he had no sister.
He corrected himself quietly.
"I had one."
Evelyn died in a fire five years ago.
The same month Leo was born.
I asked why her name was missing from his family portraits.
"Because I couldn't look at them."
For the first time, he sounded small.
Detective Park arrived with an emergency warrant.
She collected the recording and the documents.
I watched every item disappear into evidence bags.
Roman offered to make coffee.
I almost laughed.
He owned half the block downtown.
Yet his hands shook around a kettle.
Then the library door opened.
A man stood beneath the hallway light.
I knew his crooked smile.
I knew the scar beside his mouth.
My son's father had been gone six years.
But Tyler Hayes was standing in front of me.
May you like
"Megan," he said.
"You have to stop trusting Roman."
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