Chapter 1 - Baby A
Claire was already barely conscious when Anna saw Eleanor raise the medicine cup.
The mansion hallway glowed beneath crystal chandeliers. Claire sat slumped in a wheelchair, one hand resting weakly across her heavily pregnant belly.
Eleanor gripped her jaw.
“Swallow.”
Claire turned away.
Eleanor forced the liquid between her lips.
Claire coughed violently. Medicine spilled down both corners of her mouth and darkened the front of her beige maternity dress.
Anna ran forward.
“Stop! She can’t swallow!”
She grabbed Eleanor’s wrist.
Eleanor tore free and shoved her backward.
Anna struck the wheelchair handle.
The brake had not been set.
The chair shot forward.
“Claire!”
The polished marble gave almost no resistance.
Claire’s fingers dragged uselessly along the armrests as the wheelchair gathered speed.
Then it slammed into the stone pedestal beneath a decorative statue.
The chair stopped.
Claire didn't.
Her body was thrown sideways onto marble.
She lay still.
Seconds later the double doors opened.
Ethan entered.
He saw overturned wheelchair.
Then Claire.
“Claire?!”
He dropped beside her.
Before he could lift her, Claire’s hand suddenly clamped around his wrist.
“Don’t let her take the baby.”
Ethan slowly looked at Eleanor.
But Eleanor wasn't looking at him.
She stared at Claire’s stomach.
“That medicine wasn’t for Claire.”
Something beneath Claire’s dress moved sharply.
A small empty vial rolled from beneath the wheelchair.
Ethan picked it up.
The printed label read:
BABY A.
His face changed.
“There was never supposed to be a Baby B,” Eleanor whispered.
Then a newborn began crying behind the closed double doors.
Claire's eyes opened fully.
Ethan stood.
“What baby is in my house?”
Eleanor took one step backward.
Anna covered her mouth.
The crying continued.
Ethan reached for the doors.
Eleanor shouted:
“DON’T!”
He stopped.
Not because she had authority over him.
Because fear in her voice was unlike anything he had ever heard.
Claire whispered from floor:
“Ethan... if you open that door, call the police first.”
He stared down.
“You know what’s behind it?”
Claire’s eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
“Is it yours?”
She hesitated.
That single pause terrified him more than answer would have.
Paramedics arrived before he opened the doors.
Claire needed immediate assessment after the fall.
Her pregnancy remained viable. Fetal heartbeat was present, though unusually fast.
One paramedic examined empty vial.
“This isn't standard household medication.”
Eleanor tried taking it.
Ethan pulled it away.
“What did you give her?”
“Something prescribed.”
“To whom?”
Eleanor stared at BABY A.
“Her baby.”
Behind the doors, the newborn started crying again.
Ethan looked at Claire.
Then Eleanor.
May you like
Then the vial.
And for the first time he realized there might be two completely different babies inside the same mystery.
