Chapter 2 - The Woman Upstairs
Rebecca Shaw was not supposed to be inside Ethan’s house.
But she was not a stranger.
She had once been Eleanor’s private maternity nurse.
Seven years earlier, Rebecca had cared for Ethan’s late wife, Claire, after a difficult pregnancy loss. She left the family shortly afterward and eventually became neonatal discharge coordinator at St. Matthew’s Medical Center.
The same hospital where Sophie had been born.
Rebecca descended the staircase slowly.
She carried no baby.
The crying continued upstairs.
“Where is she?” Ethan demanded.
Rebecca ignored him and looked at Sophie.
Then at Eleanor.
“You actually did it.”
Anna tightened her grip around Sophie.
“Did what?”
Eleanor pushed herself upright.
“I needed to know whether the other child was here.”
Ethan’s fury returned.
“So you put a pillow over my daughter?”
“I needed Sophie to scream.”
“You could have hurt her!”
“I know.”
There was no excuse in Eleanor’s voice.
That surprised Anna.
Eleanor wasn't claiming heroism.
She looked ashamed.
But still terrified.
Rebecca reached bottom step.
“The pillow wasn't supposed to touch Sophie.”
Ethan looked sharply at her.
Rebecca pointed toward pillow.
“That bracelet was hidden there for me.”
Now Eleanor looked confused.
“You put it there?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Rebecca didn't answer.
Ethan ordered security upstairs.
They found a portable speaker inside guest nursery.
The second baby cry had been prerecorded.
No second infant.
No hidden child.
No secret room.
Someone had placed speaker behind curtains and remotely triggered it after Sophie began crying.
Ethan felt relief for half a second.
Then anger returned stronger.
Someone had staged entire sequence.
But who?
Security found no intruder upstairs.
Rebecca admitted entering through service staircase twenty minutes earlier after receiving anonymous message:
COME TO COLE HOUSE TONIGHT.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO TWIN A, WAIT UPSTAIRS.
YOU WILL HEAR HER.
Rebecca had believed message because of something she had seen six months earlier at St. Matthew’s.
Sophie had not originally been registered as a twin.
Ethan knew that.
He had been present when she was born.
One baby.
One delivery.
One daughter.
Rebecca looked directly at him.
“That bracelet isn't from Sophie’s birth.”
“Her name is on it.”
“Yes.”
“Then explain it.”
Rebecca swallowed.
“The bracelet was printed three days later.”
Ethan frowned.
Three days after Sophie was born, she and her mother Emma had already gone home.
Rebecca continued.
“Someone reopened Sophie’s hospital record.”
“Why?”
“To create a second infant.”
Ethan looked toward bracelet.
“Twin A?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
May you like
She pointed at TWIN B.
“To create Sophie.”
