Chapter 5 - The Birth Certificate
Ryan laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because his mind rejected the sentence.
“That’s insane.”
Evelyn sat completely still.
Melissa stared at her.
“Mom?”
Thomas continued through the phone.
“Ask her about June 14, 1990.”
Ryan’s birthday.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Claire watched her.
“Tell them.”
Evelyn finally spoke.
“I gave birth that day.”
Ryan exhaled.
“See?”
“To a girl.”
Silence.
Melissa whispered:
“What?”
Evelyn had delivered a daughter at Northstar.
The baby lived only seventeen hours because of severe congenital complications.
Evelyn was devastated.
Her husband, Charles Hale, was overseas.
Arthur controlled everything.
Before Charles returned, Arthur presented Evelyn with another newborn.
A boy.
Ryan.
“He told me the mother had abandoned him.”
Ryan backed away.
“No.”
“I was grieving.”
“No.”
“I accepted what I wanted to believe.”
“You kidnapped me?”
“I raised you.”
“That isn’t what I asked!”
Evelyn cried.
“I didn’t know where you came from.”
Thomas did.
Years later, while digitizing old Northstar files, he found Ryan’s original record.
Mother:
Marianne Vale.
Father:
Unknown.
Marianne was eighteen.
A Northstar research participant.
Her baby had been removed after she was told he died shortly after birth.
Ryan covered his mouth.
Claire suddenly understood why Thomas feared Evelyn.
She represented the Hale family machinery that had stolen Ryan before he could even know his identity.
But Thomas corrected her.
“That’s not why.”
“Then why?”
“Because Evelyn learned the truth twenty years ago.”
Ryan stared at her.
“You knew?”
Evelyn whispered:
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
“I was afraid you’d leave.”
Ryan began crying.
For one second, Claire saw something broken and human in him.
Then he turned on Evelyn.
“You made me into this.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“No.”
Ryan looked at her.
“Don’t.”
“She lied to you. She stole your identity. She deserves consequences.”
Claire touched the bruised skin around her ankle.
“But she didn’t chain me.”
Ryan said nothing.
“You did.”
The distinction mattered.
Then Thomas told Claire to find Ryan’s birth certificate.
Evelyn retrieved it from a safe.
Thomas instructed them to hold it beneath a lamp.
A faint second document became visible beneath the official print.
Old carbon transfer.
Different name.
BABY VALE.
And a handwritten code:
NV-03.
Melissa recognized it.
“Northstar viability.”
Evelyn looked horrified.
Thomas whispered:
“Ryan wasn’t randomly selected for adoption.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“Why him?”
“Because Arthur had already selected who Ryan was supposed to have children with.”
Nobody spoke.
Thomas continued:
“Not Claire.”
Ryan stared.
“Then who?”
May you like
Thomas answered:
“Melissa.”
