Chapter 4 The Tape That Should Never Have Existed
No one slept that night.
By two o'clock in the morning, the celebration had transformed into an emergency investigation.
The birthday decorations still hung from the ceilings of Blackwood Manor. Half-eaten slices of cake sat abandoned on fine china. Balloons floated silently beneath the chandeliers, mocking the laughter that had filled the house only hours earlier.
Now the mansion resembled a command center.
Security officers occupied the library.
Lawyers crowded the conference room.
Private investigators arrived carrying laptops and document scanners.
And Ethan Blackwood stood alone before the fireplace, staring at the faded hospital photograph Margaret Donnelly had saved for six years.
Two newborn boys.
Side by side.
One labeled Baby Carter.
The other Baby Blackwood.
Somewhere between that photograph and today...
Someone had stolen a child.
Emily sat quietly beside Noah in the family lounge.
The little boy had finally fallen asleep against her shoulder, exhausted from crying.
His tiny hand still clutched the sleeve of her sweater.
Emily brushed the blond hair away from his forehead.
Her fingers trembled.
Not because she believed everything had already been proven.
Because she was terrified it hadn't.
She had spent six years mourning a son everyone insisted was dead.
Hope was more frightening than grief.
Hope could be taken away.
Again.
Across the mansion, Victoria remained inside the master bedroom.
She had locked the door.
Three times Ethan knocked.
Three times she refused to answer.
Finally he spoke through the heavy oak door.
"Open it."
Silence.
"Victoria."
Nothing.
"I know you're inside."
Several seconds passed.
Then her voice came quietly.
"You already chose her."
Ethan closed his eyes.
"This isn't about choosing anyone."
"It stopped being about us the moment that woman walked into our lives."
"No."
He answered firmly.
"It stopped being about us when you started hiding things."
Inside the room, Victoria leaned against the vanity.
Her makeup had long since washed away.
The elegant billionaire's wife who smiled for magazine covers had disappeared.
Only a frightened woman remained.
She stared at herself in the mirror.
She barely recognized the face looking back.
Not because she felt guilty.
Because she knew something no one else did.
If the surveillance tape still existed...
Everything would collapse.
At exactly 2:47 a.m., Ethan's chief of security entered the study carrying a locked metal evidence case.
"Sir."
Ethan looked up immediately.
"You have it?"
The man nodded.
"Our investigators retrieved it from the hospital archives."
He carefully placed the case on the desk.
"It had been mislabeled under electrical maintenance footage."
Margaret frowned.
"That doesn't happen by accident."
"No."
The investigator agreed.
"It doesn't."
The security seal was broken.
Inside rested a single digital archive drive.
Beside it...
An old handwritten inventory card.
Ethan read the faded label aloud.
East Maternity Corridor Camera 3
Date: October 18
Time: 7:30 A.M. – 8:15 A.M.
Exactly the morning of the fire.
Everyone gathered around the large conference table.
Emily.
Margaret.
Dr. Simmons.
Attorney Michael Reeves.
Three senior investigators.
Two forensic specialists.
Even Noah, now awake again, sat quietly wrapped in a blanket beside Emily.
Only one person was missing.
Victoria.
The video loaded.
Static.
Gray lines flickered across the screen.
Then—
The hallway appeared.
Saint Gabriel Medical Center.
Six years earlier.
The timestamp blinked in the corner.
7:42 A.M.
The corridor looked peaceful.
Nurses pushed supply carts.
Doctors reviewed charts.
Nothing unusual.
Margaret leaned closer.
"That's before the alarms."
The recording continued.
A nurse carried an infant toward the nursery.
Another wheeled medication down the hall.
Then...
Emily appeared.
She sat in a wheelchair wearing a pale blue hospital gown.
Smiling.
Holding a newborn wrapped in a yellow blanket.
Emily covered her mouth.
"My baby..."
She hadn't seen him since that morning.
For six years.
Margaret gently squeezed Emily's hand.
"That's Oliver."
Emily couldn't stop crying.
The baby yawned on the screen.
Tiny.
Healthy.
Alive.
Noah looked at the image.
"He's little."
Emily smiled through tears.
"So were you."
At 7:58...
Another figure entered the corridor.
Victoria.
The room became completely silent.
She wasn't wearing a hospital gown.
She wore expensive clothing beneath a long white coat.
Her hair was perfectly styled.
She wasn't recovering from childbirth.
She was walking.
Dr. Simmons frowned.
"That's impossible."
Ethan looked confused.
"What?"
"A woman who had just given birth hours earlier shouldn't be walking that comfortably."
Margaret nodded slowly.
"She wasn't."
Everyone turned.
Margaret continued quietly.
"Victoria's delivery happened the previous evening."
"Nearly twelve hours before."
On the screen...
Victoria stopped outside Emily's room.
She looked both directions.
Checking whether anyone was watching.
Then...
She went inside.
Emily stared.
"I never saw her."
Margaret answered softly.
"You were asleep."
The investigators froze the frame.
One specialist enlarged the timestamp.
7:59:13.
Victoria entered.
At 8:04...
She exited.
Alone.
No baby.
Ethan frowned.
"That's it?"
"No."
The investigator continued playing.
Exactly forty-three seconds later...
The fire alarms activated.
People began running.
Smoke poured into the hallway.
Nurses rushed toward patient rooms.
The video became chaotic.
Then...
The camera briefly caught another man.
Dark suit.
Black gloves.
Baseball cap pulled low.
He entered Emily's room.
Stayed less than twenty seconds.
Then exited...
Carrying a baby wrapped in a yellow blanket.
Emily screamed.
"That's Oliver!"
The room erupted.
"Pause!"
Ethan ordered.
The investigator froze the image.
The man's face remained hidden beneath the cap.
But one detail stood out.
A silver signet ring.
Engraved with the letter...
R
Margaret gasped.
"I know that ring."
Everyone looked toward her.
"It belonged to Dr. Rhodes."
Silence.
Dr. Alan Rhodes.
Chief Obstetrician.
The physician who supervised both births.
The last doctor to examine Emily.
The last doctor to examine Victoria.
The man who signed nearly every official report after the fire.
Ethan slowly sat down.
"So..."
He struggled to speak.
"The doctor carried Emily's baby away."
Margaret nodded.
"Yes."
Emily whispered.
"Where?"
Nobody answered.
The tape continued.
Smoke thickened.
Visibility disappeared.
Firefighters entered.
Emergency lights flashed.
Then...
The recording ended.
No one spoke for nearly a minute.
Finally Attorney Reeves broke the silence.
"This changes everything."
One investigator agreed.
"It proves the child survived."
"It proves unauthorized access."
"It proves records were falsified."
"But..."
He looked toward Ethan.
"It still doesn't prove Noah is Emily's son."
Emily lowered her head.
She already knew.
Hope hurt.
Evidence wasn't enough.
Not yet.
Just then...
One forensic analyst raised his hand.
"Actually..."
Everyone turned.
"I noticed something."
He replayed the footage.
Frame by frame.
At the moment Dr. Rhodes carried the infant through the corridor...
The baby's blanket slipped slightly.
Exposing the hospital wristband.
The analyst enlarged the image.
Pixel by pixel.
Letter by letter.
Until the name became barely readable.
Silence consumed the room.
Emily stopped breathing.
The analyst whispered.
"I think..."
He enhanced the resolution one final time.
The wristband became clear.
Not perfect.
But readable.
The tiny printed letters formed one unmistakable word.
CARTER
Emily collapsed into Ethan's chair.
Tears streamed down her face.
"My son..."
Noah looked confused.
"Mommy?"
Emily instinctively looked toward him.
The word escaped him naturally.
Without thinking.
Without hesitation.
Mommy.
She began crying even harder.
At that exact moment—
A loud crash echoed upstairs.
Everyone jumped.
Another crash followed.
Glass shattered.
Security radios exploded with voices.
"Sir!"
A guard shouted into his headset.
"Mrs. Blackwood is in the archive room!"
"What?"
"She's destroying documents!"
Ethan shot to his feet.
"Move!"
Five security officers sprinted upstairs.
Ethan followed.
Emily, Margaret, and the investigators close behind.
They reached the private archive room.
The door stood open.
Inside...
Papers covered the floor.
A small fire burned inside the fireplace.
Half-charred folders disappeared beneath orange flames.
Victoria stood frozen beside the desk.
A lighter still in her hand.
Ethan stared.
"What..."
His voice broke.
"...are you burning?"
Victoria looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"I had no choice."
Security immediately extinguished the fire.
One investigator reached into the ashes with protective gloves.
He carefully lifted out several partially burned folders.
One remained almost completely intact.
Across the front...
Large black letters read:
CONFIDENTIAL
BLACKWOOD INFANT CASE
Every person in the room stopped breathing.
Because there had never been...
According to every official record...
A Blackwood infant case.
Only a routine hospital birth.
So why had someone created an entire confidential file...
And why had Victoria been willing to burn it before anyone could read it?
Ethan slowly picked up the surviving folder.
His hands shook as he opened the cover.
The very first page contained one sentence typed across the top.
Emergency Custody Transfer Authorization
Beneath it...
Two signatures.
One belonged to Dr. Alan Rhodes.
The other...
Made Ethan's blood run cold.
May you like
It belonged to his own late father...
Richard Blackwood.
