Chapter 6: The Face on the Hospital Video
Marcus didn't sleep that night.
At 8:17 p.m., he sat at the kitchen island with his laptop open, the flash drive resting beside a glass of untouched water.
Nia sat across from him with Eli asleep in her arms.
Diane had been sent to the guest room under the condition that she stay away from them while Marcus contacted an attorney. Terrence had left the house after providing his phone number and copies of the documents he'd received.
The relatives were gone.
The dishes had been washed.
The wineglasses had been put away.
For the first time all day, the house was quiet.
But Marcus had never felt less at home.
He looked at Nia.
"Do you want me to watch this?""
She studied the flash drive.
"I don't know.""
"We don't have to.""
"If there's something on it that explains why your mother has been doing this, we need to know.""
Marcus nodded.
He inserted the drive.
A single video file appeared on the screen.
The filename was a date followed by a string of numbers.
He checked the properties.
The recording had been created eighteen months earlier, shortly after Eli's birth.
Marcus frowned.
"Why would your mother have a video from the hospital that old?""
Nia didn't answer.
He opened the file.
The footage showed a brightly lit hospital room. A Black woman in a pale blue gown sat propped against the pillows, her face tired and swollen from crying.
Nia.
Marcus leaned closer.
She looked younger, frightened, and physically exhausted.
A nurse adjusted something beside the bed.
Then the camera shifted.
A man stood near the doorway.
Marcus stopped breathing.
The man was tall, dressed in a dark jacket, and holding a folded piece of paper.
He looked directly at the camera.
Then he turned toward Nia.
Marcus paused the video.
"Who is that?""
Nia stared at the screen.
Her lips parted.
"I don't know.""
He looked at her.
"Are you sure?""
"I've never seen him before.""
Marcus replayed the footage.
The man approached the bed.
The audio was faint, but a few words were clear.
"She doesn't know yet," the man said.
A second voice answered from behind the camera.
"Then make sure she doesn't find out.""
Marcus paused the video again.
He recognized the second voice.
Diane.
He stood so abruptly that his chair struck the cabinets.
"Your mother filmed this?""
Nia looked horrified.
"She told me she never entered the room after I gave birth.""
Marcus rewound the footage.
The man leaned closer to the bed, placing the folded paper on the blanket.
Nia appeared to be asleep.
Then he said something that made Marcus grip the edge of the counter.
"Your son isn't the only one we need to protect.""
The video ended.
Marcus stared at the black playback window.
"What does that mean?""
Nia shook her head.
"I don't know.""
He replayed the last twenty seconds.
The man placed the paper on the blanket.
Nia shifted in her sleep.
The camera moved toward the bedside table, capturing a hospital wristband, a water cup, and a small plastic card.
Marcus zoomed in on the paused image.
The card displayed a patient number.
But the name was partially hidden beneath the folded paper.
He increased the brightness.
A few letters became visible.
*...ELLE BROOKS.*
Nia leaned toward the screen.
"Michelle?""
Marcus turned.
"What?""
"Michelle Brooks.""
"Who is she?""
Nia looked as if she were searching through a memory she had tried to bury.
"She was another patient on the maternity floor. I remember hearing a nurse call that name. I never met her.""
"How do you know she was on the same floor?""
"Because I heard her crying in the next room.""
Marcus looked back at the screen.
The video showed a patient card, a stranger in the room, and Diane's voice saying something must remain hidden.
He took out his phone.
"I'm calling my mother.""
Nia caught his wrist.
"Don't tell her what we found.""
He hesitated.
"Why?""
"Because if she knows we've seen this, she might destroy whatever else she has.""
Marcus studied her face.
Then he put the phone down.
"All right. We'll do this properly.""
He saved a copy of the video to a secure folder and sent a message to his attorney, requesting an urgent meeting the next morning.
Then he called the hospital's public information line and asked how to request his own child's birth records and verify a document's authenticity.
The representative explained that confidential records could not be released without appropriate authorization.
Marcus understood.
He wasn't asking for someone else's medical information.
He wanted to establish whether the document his mother had supplied was genuine and whether the video had been altered.
After the call, he returned to the footage.
This time, he examined the opening seconds.
The camera had been positioned behind a chair.
A reflection appeared in the glass cabinet opposite the bed.
Marcus paused.
There were two people reflected in the glass.
Diane.
And another woman standing behind her.
The woman had short hair and wore a hospital visitor badge.
Marcus enlarged the image.
The resolution was poor, but the visitor badge appeared to contain a printed name.
*M. BROOKS.*
He turned to Nia.
"The woman in the reflection might be Michelle Brooks.""
Nia stared at the image.
"Why would she be standing there?""
"I don't know.""
"Why would your mother be filming me?""
"I don't know that either.""
Nia looked down at Eli.
The baby's fingers curled around the collar of her blouse.
"I remember that night," she whispered.
"Not everything. But I remember waking up and seeing your mother talking to someone in the hallway.""
Marcus sat beside her.
"Did you hear what they said?""
"Only a little.""
"What?""
Nia closed her eyes.
"Your mother said, 'The families must never find out.''"
Marcus felt cold.
"What families?""
"I don't know.""
He took her hand.
"Why didn't you tell me this before?""
"Because I thought it was a dream. I was on medication. I had been awake for nearly two days, and I was terrified something would happen to Eli.""
Marcus squeezed her fingers.
"You don't have to remember everything tonight.""
Nia nodded, but her eyes remained fixed on the laptop.
Then the screen flashed.
A new notification appeared.
The video file had been modified.
Marcus stared at it.
"That's impossible.""
He checked the folder.
The original file was still there, but a second file had appeared beside it.
A document.
No filename.
Just a string of numbers.
Marcus opened it.
The page contained a single scanned form with a hospital logo at the top.
Beneath the logo were two patient names.
Michelle Brooks.
Nia Reed.
The form appeared to be a transfer authorization, dated the night Eli was born.
At the bottom was a signature.
Diane Reed.
Marcus read the document twice.
Then he noticed the destination field.
The transfer wasn't from one hospital room to another.
It was from one hospital to another.
And the receiving institution was a private medical facility in another state.
Nia stood so quickly that she nearly woke Eli.
"That's where she took me.""
Marcus turned.
"What?""
Nia's face was white.
"I remember the drive now. Your mother said the first hospital couldn't keep me comfortable, so she arranged for me to be transferred. But I woke up in a different room, and nobody would tell me why.""
Marcus looked back at the form.
The receiving hospital's name was unfamiliar.
He picked up his phone and searched the name.
A private maternity clinic appeared.
Its website was still active, but its patient services page listed a notice about a temporary closure.
Marcus read the announcement.
The clinic had shut down eighteen months earlier following an investigation into irregularities in patient recordkeeping.
He looked at the date.
The closure had occurred three weeks after Eli's birth.
Nia pressed a hand against her mouth.
"Marcus, what happened to me there?""
"I don't know.""
He stared at the transfer form.
Then he noticed a handwritten notation in the margin.
Infant identity verification pending.
His heart began to pound.
"What does that mean?"" Nia whispered.
Marcus couldn't answer.
He looked at Eli, asleep in his mother's arms.
Then he returned to the laptop and enlarged the document.
The form listed an infant identification number.
It was not the same number printed on Eli's birth certificate.
Marcus compared them again.
Different numbers.
Different reference codes.
Different dates of entry.
His hands went numb.
He looked at Nia.
"Your mother-in-law may have been involved in something at the hospital that neither of us understands.""
Nia shook her head.
"No. She wouldn't do that to Eli.""
Marcus wanted to agree.
He wanted to believe there was an innocent explanation, that the woman who had raised him couldn't have been involved in something so disturbing.
But the documents were real enough to investigate.
And the video had captured Diane's voice.
A sudden knock sounded from the guest-room hallway.
Marcus closed the laptop halfway.
Diane stood in the doorway, her burgundy dress replaced by a cream robe.
She looked exhausted.
Her eyes fell on the screen.
Then on the document in Marcus's hand.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Finally, she whispered, "You weren't supposed to find that.""
Marcus stood.
"What happened at that clinic?""
Diane looked at Nia.
Then at Eli.
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I was trying to protect this family.""
"From what?""
She shook her head.
"You have to understand. Everything I did, I did because I was afraid.""
Marcus moved toward her.
"Afraid of what, Mom?""
Diane looked directly at him.
May you like
Then she said the words that made Nia sink into the nearest chair.
"Because the baby who left that hospital may not have been the baby who entered it.""
