Chapter 5
June came to the estate before sunrise.
Seventy-two.
Small.
Silver-haired.
Terrified even after three years.
She looked at Claudia once and then refused to look again.
I understood.
Fear can survive retirement.
She sat beside Elena, not me.
That told me who she believed needed truth first.
“Elena, I’m sorry.”
Elena’s hands tightened.
“For what?”
June closed her eyes.
“Your baby did not survive delivery.”
Elena cried without sound.
Ruby sat upstairs with Nora now. We had finally persuaded Elena to let her sleep.
June continued carefully.
“You were sedated. Claudia came downstairs from Mrs. Blackwood’s maternity suite later that night.”
My stomach tightened.
Lydia had given birth to Emma.
Healthy.
June remembered because she helped fasten the identification band herself.
Then Lydia’s condition deteriorated.
I was called away to another floor while doctors worked on her.
That was when Claudia moved.
“She told staff there was a security threat against the Blackwood infant,” June said.
I looked at my sister.
“What threat?”
“None,” June whispered.
Claudia stayed silent.
June said the baby had to be moved anonymously until Blackwood security secured the hospital.
Nobody questioned her.
She was my sister.
Estate administrator.
Family authority.
Then she learned Elena had lost her child downstairs.
Two hours later, she ordered the Blackwood baby taken to Elena’s recovery room with a new temporary identification band.
“Why would anyone agree?” I asked.
June looked ashamed.
“Because she said you ordered it.”
Of course.
My name again.
Used where I wasn’t present.
“She said Mr. Blackwood wanted the child removed from succession danger and placed with a loyal household woman temporarily.”
Elena stared.
“Temporarily?”
June nodded.
That word changed everything again.
Claudia had not necessarily intended the lie to last three years.
Not at first.
I turned.
“How long was Elena supposed to keep Emma?”
My sister finally spoke.
“Three days.”
Elena looked at her.
I felt cold.
“What changed?”
Claudia’s face tightened.
Then June answered.
“Lydia died.”
Silence.
My wife died before dawn.
I remembered that part.
What I did not know was that my daughter remained alive elsewhere in the same hospital.
June continued.
“After Mrs. Blackwood died, Claudia told us the baby had died too.”
“And you believed her?”
“No.”
I stared.
June’s voice broke.
“That’s why I hid the bracelet.”
She had taken the original band Claudia ordered destroyed, slipped the hospital photograph beside it, and stitched both into the hem of the charity blanket before the baby left with Elena.
May you like
She could not stop Claudia.
So she sent the truth with the child.
