CHAPTER 36 — THE FIRST DAUGHTER
The elevator opened onto a long corridor beneath the river.
The walls were older than the hospital above them. Rust stained the ceiling. Water dripped through cracks in the concrete.
Margaret could barely walk.
Claire and Rose supported her together.
Rose’s voice was cold.
“You expect me to believe you are my mother?”
Margaret reached beneath her shirt and removed a chain.
A tiny silver bracelet hung from it.
The name ROSE had been engraved across the metal.
“I put this on your wrist the day you were born.”
Rose stared at the bracelet.
“They told me you died,” Margaret continued. “Gray Tide took you before I left the recovery room.”
“Who told you?”
“My husband.”
Claire stopped walking.
“My father?”
Margaret looked at her.
“The man you believed was your father worked for them.”
Claire felt the floor shift beneath her.
“He raised me.”
“He watched you.”
Daniel found a directory painted on the wall.
ARCHIVE.
NURSERY.
TRANSFER.
ORIGIN.
The word ORIGIN had been circled in red.
Lily began shaking.
“I’ve been here.”
Claire knelt beside her.
“When?”
“The woman with the white hair brought me.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Dr. Miriam Vane.”
Daniel stared at her.
“She died twenty years ago.”
“No,” Margaret said. “She disappeared twenty years ago.”
A low mechanical sound moved through the corridor.
Every door opened simultaneously.
Inside each room stood an empty hospital bed.
The blankets were still warm.
Dana checked the nearest monitor.
“Someone moved the patients minutes ago.”
A child’s drawing had been left on the pillow.
It showed Claire, Rose, Lily, and Olivia’s baby standing beneath a black wave.
Above them was a woman with white hair.
Written beneath the drawing were four words.
THE FAMILY IS COMPLETE.
Then a voice spoke from the corridor behind them.
“Not quite.”
They turned.
Sarah stood alone, unarmed.
May you like
Blood ran down one side of her face.
“Your mother has one more daughter.”
