Chapter 2 - Emily Dawson
Claire refused to leave the ballroom until Daniel answered one question.
“Who is Emily Dawson?”
Daniel looked around at the staring guests.
“Not here.”
Claire’s voice hardened.
“Here.”
Vanessa answered for him.
“My sister.”
Emily Dawson had been thirty-one when she became pregnant two years earlier.
Healthy.
Excited.
Twenty-nine weeks into pregnancy, she began experiencing unusual fetal movements and severe abdominal pressure.
Her obstetrician referred her to a private maternal-fetal program.
The physician overseeing consultation:
Dr. Daniel Mercer.
Claire stared at husband.
Daniel was not currently practicing medicine. He ran Mercer Biomedical, the family diagnostics company.
But before joining company full-time, he had trained as maternal-fetal medicine specialist.
“You treated Lily’s mother?”
“I consulted on her case.”
“Why have you never told me?”
“Because it had nothing to do with us.”
Lily heard him.
“Yes, it did.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Mommy said he told her the baby died.”
Daniel closed eyes.
Emily had suffered an emergency at thirty-one weeks.
Hospital records showed fetal cardiac activity became undetectable.
Daniel told Emily preliminary imaging indicated fetal death.
But before standard delivery procedure occurred, Emily was transferred.
Where?
Daniel hesitated.
“Mercer Research Pavilion.”
Vanessa stared.
“You told us she went to another hospital.”
“It was another medical facility.”
“Why?”
Daniel claimed a second scan produced contradictory readings.
Emily consented to transfer for specialized imaging.
Then what happened?
Daniel said he left case after transfer.
“Who took over?”
“My father.”
Claire froze.
Dr. Richard Mercer.
Founder of Mercer Biomedical.
Dead three years.
Confirmed death.
No resurrection.
“What happened to Emily?”
Daniel said she left facility forty-eight hours later.
Without baby.
Vanessa shook head.
“No. Emily vanished.”
Daniel insisted Emily signed discharge herself.
Then Lily interrupted.
“She came home.”
Vanessa turned.
“What?”
Lily’s eyes filled.
“One night.”
“When?”
“After hospital.”
Nobody had known.
Lily said Emily entered her bedroom after midnight.
She looked sick and frightened.
She hugged Lily.
Then whispered:
“If anyone says the baby died, don't believe them until you see the blue light.”
Blue light?
Daniel’s face changed.
Claire noticed.
“What is the blue light?”
“Nothing.”
“Daniel.”
“Old imaging equipment.”
Claire looked down as baby moved again.
Lily stared at movement.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Mommy called it the second heartbeat.”
