Claire stayed at Lucas’s eye level.
“I don’t know why.”
Lucas looked disappointed.
She continued immediately.
“But I know what I was told.”
Ethan remained beside her.
Quiet now.
“You were born early,” Claire said. “Both of you.”
She looked at Lucas.
“You had trouble breathing. I started hemorrhaging after the delivery.”
Lucas listened.
“I went into emergency surgery. Your father stayed with me.”
“Then what happened to me?”
Claire swallowed.
“My mother-in-law handled your transfer.”
Lucas frowned.
“Transfer where?”
“St. Matthew’s Pediatric Center.”
Lucas shook his head.
“I never heard of it.”
Claire’s expression changed.
“What did you hear?”
Lucas reached inside his hoodie.
From an inner pocket he removed a badly folded paper card protected by yellowing plastic tape.
“Mason told me never to lose this.”
“Mason?”
“The man who raised me.”
Claire took the card only after Lucas offered it.
At the top:
HALCYON CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION
Below that:
TEMPORARY MEDICAL PLACEMENT
Claire’s eyes moved lower.
Then stopped.
Emergency Family Representative: Margaret Bennett
Ethan looked over her arm.
“Grandma?”
Claire’s face went cold.
Lucas saw it.
“Who is Margaret Bennett?”
Claire looked at him.
“Daniel’s mother.”
“Daniel?”
“Your father.”
Lucas stared at the card.
Then at Claire.
“My grandmother?”
Claire nodded.
Lucas asked the next question quietly.
“Why is my grandmother’s name on the papers from the people who took me?”
This time Claire had somewhere to look.
Home.
At the file she had not opened in eight years.