Lily slept beside me in the bassinet.

I sat in the dark with my laptop open.

The photograph was still on my phone.

I enlarged it.

The baby's face was too small to see clearly.

I enlarged it again.

Dark hair.

Small nose.

Round cheeks.

Then I zoomed in on the birthmark.

My hands began shaking.

It wasn't simply similar.

It looked identical.

I opened the folder containing Lily's newborn photographs.

There it was.

A photograph taken the day after she was born.

Lily asleep in the hospital bassinet.

The same tiny mark.

I put the two images side by side.

I stared at them for nearly an hour.

Then my attorney called.

“Jennifer.”

“Yes?”

“We found something.”

I sat upright.

“What?”

“There is a hospital record connected to Chloe.”

My heart started beating faster.

“What hospital?”

She told me the name.

I recognized it immediately.

The same hospital where I had delivered Lily.

I stood.

“What?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“When was Chloe admitted?”

There was a pause.

“Three months ago.”

“I know.”

“No.”

Her voice became quieter.

“She was admitted on the same night you were.”

I stopped breathing.

For several seconds, I couldn't move.

“What?”

“Jennifer, I checked the dates twice.”

She continued.

“You and Chloe were both patients that night.”

My fingers tightened around the phone.

“That can't be right.”

“It is.”

I looked at Lily.

She was sleeping peacefully.

I remembered that night.

The hospital lights.

The smell of disinfectant.

The pain.

The nurses rushing around me.

Daniel holding my hand.

At least, I thought he had been.

I remembered asking him where he had gone.

He had told me he never left.

He had told me he stayed beside me the entire night.

My attorney continued.

“There is another detail.”

“What?”

“Chloe wasn't registered under her own name.”

I frowned.

“Why?”

“We don't know yet.”

“Then find out.”

“We're trying.”

I looked at the clock.

2:17 a.m.

“What else?”

She hesitated.

“Her baby was registered as a female.”

I swallowed.

“Lily is female.”

“I know.”

“That's not what I mean.”

“I know.”

Silence.

Then she said:

“Jennifer, the birth times are only a few hours apart.”

My stomach dropped.

“What time was Chloe's baby born?”

“2:43 a.m.”

I closed my eyes.

Lily had been born at 5:11 a.m.

Only two hours and twenty-eight minutes apart.

I whispered:

“Where was Daniel?”

My attorney was silent.

I already knew the answer.

But I needed to hear it.

“Hospital records show Daniel's visitor badge was scanned at 2:51 a.m.”

My eyes opened.

Eight minutes after Chloe's baby was born.

I couldn't speak.

Eight minutes.

Daniel had told me he was beside me.

But at 2:51 a.m., he had been somewhere else.

Near Chloe.

Near her newborn baby.

I looked at Lily.

My daughter moved her tiny hand.

I reached down and touched her fingers.

Then my phone buzzed.

A new message.

Unknown number.

I opened it.

If you want the truth, come to St. Mary's tomorrow. Alone.

Another message followed.

Ask for Nurse Margaret.

Then a third.

And Jennifer… don't trust Daniel's version of what happened that night.

I stared at the screen.

My hands went cold.

I read the message again.

Then again.

I didn't know who had sent it.

But they knew my name.

They knew about Daniel.

They knew about the hospital.

And they knew there was something about that night I had never been told.

I looked at Lily.

For the first time since she was born, a terrible thought entered my mind.

Not that she wasn't my daughter.

I couldn't let myself think that.

But perhaps someone had done something that night.

Something Daniel had spent three months hiding.

I picked up the photograph of Chloe's baby.

The tiny birthmark stared back at me.

Then I looked at the clock.

2:31 a.m.

Exactly three months earlier, somewhere in that same hospital, Chloe's baby had been born.

And eight minutes later, Daniel had walked into the nursery.

I had one question left.

What had he done there?

The next morning, I was going to find out.