Chapter 10 - Rachel’s confession
The surviving guards were restrained with medical straps.
Ortiz used the facility’s landline to contact state authorities while Caroline and Emily helped release the sedated children.
Ethan remained wrapped around Rachel.
He refused to let go.
Caroline stood across the ward, watching the woman who had stolen her daughter.
“Tell me everything.”
Rachel looked at Emily.
“I was twenty-two. I worked nights in the maternity unit. Voss told me certain mothers had requested confidential adoptions.”
“You carried Emily out.”
“Yes.”
“While I was unconscious.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she was alive?”
Rachel’s voice broke.
“I knew.”
Caroline crossed the space between them and slapped her.
The sound silenced the ward.
Ethan stepped in front of his mother.
“Don’t hurt her.”
Caroline stared at the boy.
He had already seen too much violence.
She lowered her hand.
Rachel touched her reddened cheek.
“I deserved that.”
“You deserve prison.”
“I know.”
“Why did you keep helping him?”
“At first, I believed the babies were being placed with families. Then I found forged surrender forms. Voss showed me photographs of Ethan sleeping in his crib. He said my son would disappear if I talked.”
Ethan looked up.
“You told me I was sick when I was little.”
“You were not sick. I was hiding you.”
Caroline struggled to control her breathing.
“Why was Emily kept here?”
Rachel looked at the girl.
“She developed a rare immune profile. Northstar used her blood for compatibility research.”
Emily folded her arms tightly.
“They told me my parents abandoned me.”
Caroline’s voice softened.
“I never did.”
Emily looked at her with distrust sharpened by years of manipulation.
“I don’t know you.”
“I know.”
The words nearly broke Caroline.
Ortiz returned from the office.
“State units are moving, but the bridge is blocked. We need to evacuate before Rusk arrives.”
Rachel pointed toward a basement safe.
“The nursery ledger is inside.”
“What opens it?” Ortiz asked.
“Lily’s hospital band.”
Caroline stared at her.
“Lily isn’t here.”
“The band is sewn into the pink blanket.”
Pierce had taken both the baby and blanket to the ranger station.
Ortiz contacted him through the landline.
No answer.
She tried again.
Nothing.
Then Sheriff Rusk’s voice came through the facility intercom.
“Detective Ortiz, step away from the children.”
Headlights surrounded Northstar House.
Rusk had arrived with four deputies.
Ortiz checked her ammunition.
“They’ll claim we abducted patients and attacked staff.”
Rachel shook her head.
“Rusk won’t leave witnesses.”
Caroline looked at the rows of sedated children.
“We cannot move everyone through the tunnel.”
“There’s a medical transport bus in the underground garage,” Emily said.
“Keys?”
“Voss keeps them in the star room.”
Ethan looked toward the ceiling.
“The room with stars.”
Rachel nodded.
“Voss keeps the original records there.”
Ortiz and Caroline followed Rachel into a locked office painted dark blue. Hundreds of silver stars covered the ceiling.
A safe occupied the far wall.
Rachel opened a desk drawer and retrieved the bus key.
Beside it lay a photograph of Voss with a wealthy couple and a sick teenage boy.
The Hollis family.
Caroline recognized the woman.
Margaret Hollis chaired the hospital board.
The boy beside her had the same unusual gray-green eyes as Lily.
Pierce’s suspicion had been correct.
Lily was not merely a random donor.
Rachel looked at the picture.
“Nora Bell was hired as a surrogate for Margaret and Jonathan Hollis. The embryo was created from Jonathan’s DNA and an anonymous donor. When Lily was born, Margaret rejected her because she wanted a son.”
“Then why use Lily as a donor?” Caroline asked.
“Benjamin Hollis developed liver disease. Lily is his biological half-sister.”
Ortiz photographed the evidence.
“Where is Benjamin now?”
Rachel pointed toward a schedule on the wall.
TRANSFER SURGERY: 2:00 A.M.
Caroline checked the clock.
1:38.
“Pierce has Lily,” she said.
Rachel’s face became terrified.
“Voss knows the ranger station.”
Outside, Rusk ordered the house to surrender.
Ortiz opened the underground garage.
They loaded children into the medical bus while Rachel drove. Caroline stayed beside Emily and Ethan. Ortiz covered the exit.
The bus burst through the garage doors.
Deputies fired at the tires.
Rachel drove into the snow.
Rusk’s patrol vehicles followed.
Caroline called the ranger station from the bus radio.
Pierce finally answered.
His voice was breathless.
“Do not come here.”
“Where is Lily?”
A man spoke behind him.
Dr. Voss.
“She is exactly where she was always meant to be.”
The line disconnected.
Ethan looked at Caroline.
“Caleb said they’d cut her.”
Rachel pressed harder on the accelerator.
The bus slid across the icy road.
May you like
In the distance, flames rose from the ranger station.
👉 Dr. Voss had reached Lily before them, and the burning ranger station suggested the planned donor surgery had already been moved elsewhere.
