Chapter 4 - The Hidden File
Absolute chaos erupted in the pediatric ward as nurses scrambled to lock down the elevators.
I pushed past the detective and ran directly into my son's hospital room.
The crib was empty and the heart monitor wires were dangling uselessly over the mattress.
I turned around and grabbed Eleanor by the sleeve of her expensive coat.
I demanded to know where her daughter had taken my innocent child.
Eleanor feigned pure shock and screamed for the police to arrest me for assault.
Detective Reynolds pulled me away and threatened to put me in handcuffs if I did not calm down.
Security guards confirmed that my wife had slipped out of the emergency room twenty minutes ago.
She had bypassed the security desk and taken our son straight out the back loading dock.
I slumped against the cold tile wall feeling entirely helpless and broken.
Brenda the child protection worker knelt down beside me with a sympathetic look.
She checked to make sure Eleanor and the detective were distracted by the security footage.
Brenda discreetly slid a crumpled manila folder into the pocket of my jacket.
She whispered that she was not supposed to show me this highly classified information.
She told me my wife had lived in another state under a completely different maiden name.
I waited until I was allowed to leave the hospital and rushed to my car.
I turned on the dome light and tore open the sealed manila folder.
The documents inside detailed a horrific medical history from a decade ago.
My wife had given birth to a little girl seven years before she ever met me.
That little girl had died under incredibly mysterious circumstances involving severe malnutrition.
The cause of death was officially ruled an accident due to a lack of concrete evidence.
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I flipped to the last page and saw a familiar signature on the old police report.
The detective who had officially cleared my wife of those murder charges was Detective Reynolds.
