The Girl Who Called Him Daddy

Chapter 3 - The Baby They Took

James could barely understand the words.

“That's impossible.”

Rachel shook her head.

“No.”

She explained.

Her pregnancy had been complicated.

At seven months, she was admitted to a private clinic recommended by Margaret Whitmore.

James knew that clinic.

His mother chaired its charitable board.

Rachel went into premature labor.

Two girls were born.

Ella.

And another baby.

Rachel saw both.

Held both.

Then she developed severe bleeding and lost consciousness.

When she woke, Margaret was beside her.

Margaret told her one baby had died.

Rachel was devastated.

She left the clinic with Ella.

Then Margaret repeated the threat.

Disappear.

Or lose the surviving child too.

James looked toward Sophie again.

“No.”

Rachel's voice broke.

“I thought she was dead.”

Sophie had been brought into James's life two months later.

Margaret told him a distant family acquaintance had died during childbirth and left a baby without relatives.

James, still destroyed by Rachel's disappearance, agreed to become the child's guardian.

Within a year, he legally adopted her.

He never knew the baby was his.

Or Rachel's.

Rachel looked toward the girls.

“I saw Sophie three months ago.”

James frowned.

“Where?”

“At a charity event.”

Rachel had been delivering flowers.

She saw Sophie's photograph on a display.

She nearly collapsed.

The resemblance to Ella was impossible to ignore.

That was when she started investigating.

Hospital records had been altered.

Birth numbers changed.

A death certificate existed for a baby girl who had never died.

James whispered:

“My mother stole our daughter.”

Rachel nodded.

“And gave her to you.”

The cruelty of it was almost impossible to process.

Margaret had created two separate lives.

James believed Rachel abandoned him.

Rachel believed one daughter died and James wanted nothing to do with the other.

And Sophie grew up believing Rachel had never existed.

“Why?” James asked.

Rachel looked away.

“Because your father left a trust.”

James knew immediately which one.

The Whitmore Family Trust.

Control transferred through direct biological descendants.

If James married Rachel and had children with her, Rachel would gain substantial protections and influence.

Margaret hated that.

But there was more.

Rachel pulled out several copies of financial records.

“Your mother was stealing from it.”

James stared at the pages.

Rachel had discovered irregular transfers shortly before the wedding.

Margaret could not allow her to marry James and gain access to the trust records.

So she removed her.

Then turned one of Rachel's own daughters into leverage.

James felt sick.

The woman who raised him had not merely broken his engagement.

She had divided his family.