CHAPTER 3 — The Truth Hidden in a Name
CHAPTER 3 — The Truth Hidden in a Name
The next day, social services arrived.
But something was wrong.
No records existed for Lucy.
No hospital file.
No birth registration for Leo.
No identity at all.
It was as if they had never been part of the system.
That night, Daniel returned to the hospital room.
Lucy sat beside her mother’s bed, still holding Leo tightly.
“She still didn’t wake up,” she whispered.
“What’s your mom’s name?” Daniel asked gently.
“Anna.”
“And your dad?”
Lucy shook her head.
“Mom said he can’t find us.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why would she say that?”
Lucy hesitated.
Then she reached into her small torn backpack and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
She handed it to him.
Daniel unfolded it slowly.
His breath stopped.
A missing person notice.
But the face printed on it…
was him.
His own name.
His own photo.
Daniel looked at Lucy in shock.
“Where did you get this?”
Lucy pointed toward her mother.
“She always kept it,” she whispered. “She said if something bad happened… a good officer would find us.”
Before Daniel could speak, the hospital monitor suddenly beeped faster.
Nurses rushed in.
“Her condition is dropping!”
But outside the hospital window, a black car sat still.
Engine running.
Windows tinted.
Watching.
Waiting.
And Daniel realized something terrifying:
This wasn’t neglect.
May you like
It was a cover-up.
And someone already knew they had been found.
