Chapter 13 - Two Rebeccas in the CorridorBeth placed the baby carrier on the floor but kept one hand around the handle.
Hospital security surrounded both ends of the corridor.
Rebecca stood in front of Emma’s ICU door.
“You don’t have to do this.”
Beth laughed.
“You’ve had thirty-two years to be the good daughter. Don’t explain choices to me.”
“You were a child when they took you.”
“So were you when they kept you.”
The words carried the same wound Rachel once expressed.
Lorraine had divided daughters by assigning one a public life and the others hidden purposes.
Beth revealed that Harold did not create the impersonation plan.
Rachel’s adoptive trust did.
Its security system required personal confirmation from a biological sister if the original beneficiary became unavailable.
Lorraine could not pass as Rachel.
Rebecca could.
But Rebecca would never knowingly approve the theft.
So Northgate trained Beth.
“She promised you my life?” Rebecca asked.
“She promised me my name back.”
“Your name is Becca.”
“That girl died in Northgate.”
“No. They told you she did.”
Beth’s grip tightened around the carrier.
The stolen infant began crying.
Nora stepped from the nurses’ station.
“The baby needs to return to her mother.”
Beth looked toward her.
“The baby is evidence.”
“No. She is a baby.”
The simple sentence disrupted Beth.
Northgate had trained her to see children as proof, leverage, and access.
Nora continued.
“You brought her here safely. Put her down and let us return her.”
Beth slowly released the handle.
Security moved closer.
Then the false fire alarm activated.
Doors unlocked automatically.
The corridor lights changed.
Beth ran.
She did not take the infant.
She headed toward the stairwell leading to the roof.
Rebecca followed despite Marcus shouting for her to stay.
On the roof, snow blew across the helipad.
Beth stood near the edge holding Lorraine’s phone.
A live call displayed Harold and Lorraine inside a vehicle.
“Jump,” Lorraine told her.
Rebecca stopped.
Beth stared at the screen.
“You said I could come home.”
“You failed.”
“You asked me to become her.”
“You could not.”
Rebecca saw the truth.
Lorraine never intended to restore Becca.
She needed an impersonator willing to disappear after the evidence was created.
Beth had always been disposable.
Rebecca moved closer.
“Give me the phone.”
Beth looked at her.
“You want me arrested.”
“I want you alive long enough to tell the truth.”
“You have Emma, Marcus, Rachel, Charlotte, Josh. What do I have?”
“A name they couldn’t erase.”
Beth began crying.
“My name doesn’t open any door.”
“It can open mine.”
The rooftop access door burst open.
Marcus, Detective Grant, and officers entered.
Beth stepped backward.
Rebecca reached her before she reached the edge.
The sisters collided against the safety rail.
Marcus pulled them both away.
Beth released the phone.
It struck the roof and continued playing.
Harold said, “Move to the next child.”
Lorraine replied, “Josh will be easier.”
Everyone turned toward the access door.
Josh was no longer in the nurses’ station.
His phone lay beside the crushed paper cup from the first confrontation.
A message glowed on the screen:
May you like
Come alone if you want to know why you were the only Bennett child never injured.
👉 While the hospital focused on Beth, Harold and Lorraine lured Josh into the role his family had prepared for him since childhood.
