Anna looked at the photograph Nathan had brought.
Then she began.
On the night Claire and Elizabeth were born, a nurse discovered that one of the identification bracelets had been removed.
The hospital was crowded, and several newborn babies had been moved temporarily because of an electrical problem in the maternity wing.
When the staff returned the children to their rooms, two records no longer matched.
Anna had noticed the mistake.
She reported it immediately.
But before the hospital could investigate, Eleanor's private attorney arrived and ordered the records sealed.
Anna refused.
She believed the children needed to be identified correctly.
The following day, she was dismissed.
Before leaving, however, she had discovered something unusual.
One of the babies had been taken from the hospital by a woman who was not listed as a parent or guardian.
That woman had been paid to transport the child to another city.
Anna had tried to report the incident, but nobody would listen.
She eventually found the child through a social worker.
The little girl had been placed with a family under a different name.
Her new identity was Elizabeth Miller.
Anna had adopted her.
Claire stared at her.
“You adopted Elizabeth?”
Anna nodded.
“She was only three days old when I brought her home. I raised her as my daughter.”
Nathan looked stunned.
“Where is she now?”
Anna's eyes filled with tears.
“She lives in Chicago. She is a doctor. She has two children of her own.”
Claire could barely speak.
“Does she know?”
“No. I never told her the entire story. I wanted to protect her.”
Nathan looked toward Claire.
They had finally found the missing girl.
But the discovery raised another question.
If Elizabeth had been taken from Eleanor, then who had been raised by Margaret?
Anna opened a small drawer and removed a medical record.
The original hospital report.
She placed it on the table.
Claire read the document.
Then her eyes widened.
The report showed that the two babies had been correctly identified after birth.
But someone had deliberately switched their records before the discharge.
Claire had been registered under the name Elizabeth Caldwell.
The other child had been registered under Claire Bennett.
The silver bird necklace had originally belonged to Elizabeth.
The birthmark belonged to Claire.
The mistake had not been accidental.
Someone had deliberately exchanged the identities of the two children.
And the person who had authorized the change was not Eleanor.
It was Richard Caldwell.
Nathan stood up.
“My father?”
Anna nodded.
“He believed that if Daniel's child disappeared, the inheritance would return to the family. He also wanted Eleanor to believe her own daughter had died, because he knew she would never allow him to control the situation if she understood what had happened.”
Claire felt sick.
“My mother raised someone else's daughter?”
Anna gently shook her head.
“No. Your mother raised her own daughter. The records were changed, but the children were not switched physically. The documents were manipulated to hide their identities.”
Claire looked confused.
Anna explained that the silver bird had been placed around the wrong baby's neck during the confusion. The hospital had later used that detail to create a false identity trail.
The child Eleanor believed was dead had actually been taken away.
And the child Margaret had raised was always her biological daughter.
The truth was finally clear.
But there was still one person who needed to hear it.
Elizabeth.
Two days later, Claire stood outside a modern apartment building in Chicago.
Nathan was beside her.
Anna had contacted Elizabeth and explained that someone wanted to speak with her about her birth.
Elizabeth had agreed to meet them.
When the door opened, Claire felt her breath catch.
The woman standing before her looked remarkably familiar.
They had almost identical eyes.
The same blonde hair.
The same shape of their faces.
Elizabeth looked from Claire to Nathan.
“Are you the people Anna told me about?”
Claire nodded.
“My name is Claire.”
Elizabeth smiled nervously.
“I'm Elizabeth.”
For several seconds, neither woman knew what to say.
Then Claire held out the photograph.
Elizabeth looked at it.
Her smile disappeared.
“That's me?”
“Yes,” Claire whispered. “And that's me.”
Elizabeth stared at the photograph of the two newborn babies.
Then she looked at Claire's pendant.
“Why do we look so much alike?”
“Because we were born on the same night.”
Elizabeth invited them inside.
They spent the next several hours examining the documents.
When Elizabeth finally understood what had happened, she began to cry.
“My mother never told me I was adopted.”