“Mother.”

The woman stopped breathing.

“No.”

Her husband looked between them.

“Her mother is dead.”

The doctor shook his head.

“According to the records we found, she isn’t.”

The mother backed into the wall.

“My mother died giving birth to me.”

“That’s what your birth certificate says.”

The doctor held up another file.

“But this woman has been treated here under a different name for twenty-seven years.”

The mother stared at the security image.

The resemblance to her sister suddenly made horrifying sense.

“She looks like us because…”

The doctor nodded.

“She’s your mother.”

Her husband whispered,

“Why would her own mother steal the baby?”

The mother looked at him.

Then at the nurse.

Nobody answered.

Finally, the doctor said,

“She didn’t steal her.”

The mother’s face tightened.

“What?”

“The discharge papers were authorized hours before your daughter was born.”

Silence.

“That’s impossible.”

The doctor turned the tablet toward her.

There was another signature.

Not her husband’s.

Her father’s.

The mother stared at it.

“My dad?”

The doctor nodded.

“He listed that woman as the child’s legal guardian.”

Her voice broke.

“My father told me my mother was dead.”

Then her phone started ringing.

Dad.

She answered with shaking hands.

“Where is my baby?”

Silence.

Then her father whispered,

“You weren’t supposed to find out this way.”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“Find out what?”

A baby cried faintly through his phone.

The mother went completely still.

Her father took a breath.

“The woman you’ve called your sister your entire life…”

He stopped.

“…was never your sister.”