Chapter 4 - The Deathbed Confession
The next morning, Sarah waited until Robert left for his office. She packed Lily’s bags and dropped her off at a trusted friend's house under the guise of a playdate.
Then, Sarah drove straight to the run-down tenement building on the edge of the city where public records showed Rose Callahan lived.
The hallway smelled of stale cooking grease and damp plaster. Sarah knocked on the peeling green paint of Apartment 3B.
The door opened slowly. Rose stood there, looking even more frail and exhausted than she had the day before. When she saw Sarah, her face went deathly pale.
"I told you to leave us alone," Rose whispered, trying to slam the door.
Sarah slammed her foot in the gap. "I know everything, Rose. I know about the $10,000 a month. I know about the Mitchell family trust. And I know Emma is my biological daughter."
Rose froze. Her shoulders slumped, and the fight left her eyes. She stepped back, letting the door swing open.
The apartment was tiny, but spotlessly clean. Emma was sitting on a small cot in the corner, coloring with broken crayons. When she saw Sarah, her face lit up.
"Pretty lady!"
"Hi, Emma," Sarah said gently, kneeling beside her. She handed Emma a brand-new box of sixty-four crayons and a coloring book she had bought on the way. "Can you do me a big favor? Can you go color in the kitchen for a little bit? I need to talk to your grandma."
Emma’s eyes went wide with joy. "Sixty-four colors! Thank you!" She scrambled off the bed and ran into the tiny kitchen.
Sarah turned to Rose, her face hardened into stone. "Why did you do it? How could you take my baby?"
Rose sank onto the edge of the cot, burying her face in her weathered hands. She began to weep, dry, racking sobs.
"I didn't have a choice, Sarah," Rose whispered. "Six years ago, I was a neonatal nurse at Westbrook Memorial. My husband was dying of cancer, and we were drowning in medical debt. Eleanor Mitchell approached me. She told me that you had given birth to twins, but 'Infant B'—Emma—was born with a minor heart murmur."
"A heart murmur?" Sarah gasped. "That's completely treatable!"
"Not to Eleanor Mitchell," Rose said, looking up with tear-filled eyes. "To Eleanor, a Mitchell child must be physically perfect. She said a disabled child would ruin the family’s image and dilute the legacy. She wanted Emma gone. She told me if I didn't take the baby and disappear, she would use her influence to fire me, ruin my husband's care, and make sure we ended up on the streets."
Rose wiped her eyes. "I didn't take Emma for the money, Sarah. I took her because I knew if I didn't, Eleanor would have sent her to some corrupt private orphanage overseas where she would have died. I wanted to protect her. I grew to love her like my own."
"But the payments stopped," Sarah said, her voice shaking. "Why?"
"I have terminal lung cancer, Sarah," Rose said softly. "I have weeks left, maybe days. When I told Eleanor I was dying and that Emma needed to be provided for, she stopped the payments. She told me that once I died, Emma would 'disappear' into the state care system anyway, and the problem would solve itself."
Sarah’s blood boiled. Initiate phase two.
Eleanor and Robert weren't just going to let Emma rot. They were waiting for Rose to die so they could permanently erase any trace of the twin's existence.
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Suddenly, Sarah's phone rang. It was her friend, the one watching Lily.
"Sarah! You need to come back right now!" her friend panicked. "Two men in dark suits just showed up with a court order signed by Robert. They took Lily! They said they were taking her to her grandmother’s estate for 'safekeeping'!"
