Chapter 5 - THE BLOOD CARDS
The court issued temporary orders within forty-eight hours.
June remained with me because I had given birth to her and no verified evidence supported changing custody.
Ava remained with Rebecca for the same reason.
Luke received no access to either infant while the criminal investigation continued.
He received supervised phone contact with Eli only if Eli agreed.
Eli refused.
The hospital’s first blood comparisons did not establish parentage. Newborn blood types could exclude possibilities, but only DNA testing could answer the larger question.
The state laboratory requested cheek swabs from Luke, Rebecca, me, June, and Ava.
Rebecca’s donor records were subpoenaed for comparison.
Luke complied only after another court order.
His resistance fueled public speculation once someone leaked the hospital incident.
The story appeared online:
FATHER ACCUSED OF SWITCHING INFANTS IN MATERNITY WARD.
No names appeared initially.
By evening, a photograph of Luke leaving the hospital identified all of us.
I turned off my phone.
Rebecca left hers on.
“I need to know what they’re saying.”
“You don’t.”
“I have spent three years explaining why I wanted to be a single mother. I know what strangers do with silence.”
She showed me one post claiming we had staged the switch for a lawsuit.
Another suggested both women were unstable after delivery.
We stopped reading.
Detective Cole examined Luke’s folder.
It contained copies of prenatal test summaries, clinic billing codes, and two numbers matching the paper found in his pocket.
One number appeared in my Northbridge file.
The other appeared in Rebecca’s.
Luke claimed he obtained the information as part of legal work for the clinic and believed the hospital had mismatched deliveries.
“Did you tell hospital staff?” Detective Cole asked.
“I acted because time mattered.”
“Why switch blankets?”
“To prevent panic.”
“Why open identification bands?”
“To correct them.”
“Why hide June?”
“I didn’t hide her. I placed her somewhere safe.”
“Why silence the alarm?”
“I did not.”
His answers made sense only if everyone else accepted that he alone possessed the truth.
The hospital identified the administrative login used to silence the alerts.
The account had been reactivated remotely from a laptop connected to Northbridge Fertility’s network.
The former nurse whose name appeared on the login was Susan Bell.
She had left hospital employment after falsifying medication records.
She now worked as patient-coordination manager at Northbridge.
Police visited her home.
It was empty.
On her kitchen table lay a printed map of the maternity floor.
May you like
Two rooms had been circled.
Mine and Rebecca’s.
