Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WEARING MY BRACELET
For one second, none of us moved.
Then Adrian handed the phone to Marco.
“Where?”
“East elevator.”
“How long ago?”
“Less than two minutes.”
Adrian turned toward the elevators.
I caught his arm.
“Wait.”
He looked at me.
“If she's pretending to be me, why would she come here?”
“I don't know.”
“Then don't chase her.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Claire.”
“You don't know what she wants.”
“I know what she has been doing.”
“You don't know that.”
He stared at me.
I pointed at the photograph.
“She was wearing my bracelet.”
His eyes dropped to my wrist.
The silver bracelet was still there.
Adrian's face tightened.
“That bracelet hasn't left you since we met.”
“I know.”
“Then why does she have a copy?”
“I don't know.”
Marco's phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
“She's gone.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“Check every exit.”
Marco nodded and disappeared.
I should have left.
Instead, I stood there holding the photograph.
Something about it bothered me.
Not the coat.
Not the hair.
The bracelet.
I had never owned another one.
My mother had given it to me on my twenty-first birthday.
There was a tiny engraved flower inside the clasp.
A detail nobody could see unless they had held it.
I turned to Adrian.
“Does the photograph show the clasp?”
He took the phone back.
He zoomed in.
The silver chain was visible.
The clasp was not.
Then I noticed something else.
“Stop.”
He froze the image.
“What?”
“Her hand.”
He enlarged it.
There was a ring on the woman's finger.
My heart dropped.
It was a narrow gold band with a small emerald.
Adrian looked at me.
“You recognize it?”
“Yes.”
“Whose?”
I swallowed.
“Vanessa's.”
Silence.
Adrian's face became unreadable.
“You're sure?”
“I saw her wear it.”
“When?”
“The first year we were married.”
I remembered Vanessa appearing at a charity dinner.
She had smiled at Adrian.
Then deliberately placed her hand on the table where I could see the ring.
I had never forgotten it.
Adrian took a slow breath.
“That ring disappeared three years ago.”
“Why?”
“She said she lost it.”
I looked at him.
“You never told me.”
“I didn't think it mattered.”
“It matters now.”
He looked toward the elevator.
“Marco.”
Marco returned immediately.
“Boss?”
“Find Vanessa Russo.”
Marco hesitated.
“She’s here.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Vanessa Russo is the patient in the maternity wing.”
I stared at him.
“I know.”
“No,” Marco said quietly.
“You don't.”
He pulled out his phone.
“Her admission file lists a different reason for being here.”
Adrian looked at him.
“What reason?”
Marco hesitated.
“She isn't here as a patient.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“Then why?”
“She checked in under another name.”
My pulse increased.
“Which name?”
Marco looked directly at me.
“Claire Bennett.”
I felt the hallway tilt.
Adrian caught my elbow.
I pulled away.
“No.”
“Claire—”
“No.”
I looked at Marco.
“Who admitted her?”
“Private intake.”
“Paid by whom?”
“We're still tracing it.”
Adrian's voice became cold.
“Do it.”
Marco walked away.
I turned to Adrian.
“You knew Vanessa was here.”
“I knew she was here.”
“And you didn't tell me.”
“I didn't know she had checked in under your name.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if I had known, I would have stopped her before you ever saw her.”
I looked away.
The anger was still there.
But beneath it was fear.
A nurse approached.
“Ms. Bennett?”
I turned.
“Yes?”
The nurse looked confused.
“Your husband asked us not to disturb you.”
My stomach tightened.
“My husband?”
She looked at Adrian.
Then at me.
“I'm sorry.”
Adrian's voice was controlled.
“Who told you I was her husband?”
The nurse's face went pale.
“A woman.”
“What woman?”
“She looked like Ms. Bennett.”
I felt cold.
“What did she say?”
“She told us she was Claire Bennett and that her husband would be arriving shortly.”
Adrian and I looked at each other.
The nurse continued.
“She also asked about your baby.”
My hand immediately covered my stomach.
“What did she ask?”
“Whether the baby was a boy.”
My heart pounded.
“What else?”
The nurse hesitated.
“She asked how far along you were.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“And what did you tell her?”
“That Ms. Bennett was sixteen weeks.”
His expression darkened.
“Anything else?”
The nurse shook her head.
Then she remembered something.
“She left something at the desk.”
“What?”
“A bracelet.”
My blood ran cold.
The nurse pulled a small plastic evidence bag from her pocket.
Inside was a silver bracelet.
It looked exactly like mine.
Adrian stared at it.
I couldn't breathe.
The nurse handed it to me.
I examined the clasp.
My fingers shook.
There was the tiny engraved flower.
But underneath it was another marking.
Three numbers.
I looked at Adrian.
He recognized them too.
“What is that?”
He didn't answer.
“Adrian.”
His eyes remained on the bracelet.
“Six-seventeen was the room number where my mother died.”
I stared at him.
His mother had died before I met him.
A heart attack.
At least, that was what I had always been told.
“Why would Vanessa have this?”
Adrian took the bracelet from my hand.
His expression changed.
“This isn't Vanessa's.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Vanessa wasn't the one who had access to my mother's belongings.”
“Who did?”
He looked at me.
“Your father.”
I went completely still.
“My father?”
Adrian nodded.
“Your father was the last person outside my family who visited my mother before she died.”
“That doesn't make sense.”
“I know.”
“What did he have?”
“A box.”
“What box?”
Adrian looked toward Marco.
But Marco wasn't there.
He was standing at the far end of the hallway.
He had stopped moving.
His face was pale.
He lifted his phone.
Then walked quickly toward us.
“Boss.”
Adrian turned.
“What?”
Marco held out the screen.
“It isn't Vanessa.”
Adrian frowned.
“Who is it?”
Marco showed him a photograph from a hospital security camera.
The woman wearing my coat was walking toward the maternity elevators.
Beside her was another person.
An older man.
I recognized him instantly.
My breath caught.
“That’s my father.”
Adrian looked at me.
“Claire…”
My father had been dead for seven years.
But the photograph was dated six months ago.
May you like
And beneath it was a security note:
VISITOR IDENTIFIED AS THOMAS BENNETT.
