Chapter 3 - THE GHOST FROM THE PASTBefore dawn, a stranger approached the nurses' station asking whether Hannah and the twins had survived the night.
He refused to give his name, but he handed the head nurse a sealed manila envelope addressed directly to me. Inside lay a single photograph showing Hannah standing next to a frightened teenage girl who bore a striking, undeniable resemblance to my mother, Margaret.
Flipped over, the back of the photo bore a handwritten warning:
“Ask Margaret Caldwell what happened to her first daughter.”
Minutes later, my mother arrived at the hospital, sweeping through the halls with her usual aristocratic air, demanding access as the twins’ "doting grandmother."
Claire physically blocked her from entering the NICU, while I confronted her with the photograph in hand.
Margaret turned sheet-white. She confessed that, decades ago, she had given birth at seventeen, and her wealthy parents had forcibly taken the baby away to protect the family name. She claimed she had spent years searching, but all official records had vanished.
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Just then, Hannah—who had wheeled herself down from recovery—saw the photograph. She gasped, recognizing the teenage girl.
"Her name is Lily," Hannah rasped. "She came to the community center where I volunteered. She believed someone connected to the Caldwell family kept moving her or threatening her every time she asked about her birth records. I was helping her trace the files. Two days after this picture was taken... Lily vanished without a trace."
