Chapter 10 - The Missing Hospital File
Emily knew Noah was Ryan’s child.
There had never been another man.
But when Detective Torres requested the original hospital records, she discovered that part of Emily’s file was missing.
The prenatal DNA screening report had been accessed twice.
Once by Emily’s doctor.
And once by an employee who resigned the day after Ryan’s arrest.
That employee was Victor’s wife, Susan Walsh.
Susan had worked in hospital administration for eleven years.
She had access to patient records, birth certificates and laboratory results.
When police arrived at her home, she was gone.
Her closet was empty.
Her bank account had been drained.
On her desk, investigators found a printed flight itinerary to Canada.
But she had never boarded the plane.
“She wants us to believe she left the country,” Torres said.
James looked at a photograph found in Susan’s desk drawer.
It showed Susan holding a newborn baby twenty-seven years earlier.
The child was Ryan.
On the back, someone had written:
My son, even if no one can ever know.
Emily read the sentence twice.
“Linda isn’t Ryan’s mother.”
“No,” Torres said. “Susan is.”
Victor and Susan had given Ryan to Linda to raise after Susan became pregnant as a teenager.
The family had hidden the truth for decades.
Ryan believed Linda was his mother and Victor was his uncle.
In reality, Victor was his father.
And now Emily understood why they had protected him.
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Ryan was not merely their nephew.
He was their son.
