Different baby.
The words echoed through my mind.
That evening, after everyone had gone to bed, I quietly opened the folder the hospital had given us.
Birth certificate paperwork.
Vaccination records.
Discharge instructions.
Insurance forms.
Everything looked normal.
Until one sheet slipped onto the floor.
It wasn’t ours.
The name at the top read:
Baby Girl Carter.
Different room number.
Different parents.
Different medical chart.
How had someone else’s paperwork ended up inside our discharge packet?
A simple filing mistake…
Or something much bigger?
My hands began to shake.
I slowly reached for my phone.
There was only one person who could answer my questions.
The hospital’s maternity director.
And for the first time since bringing Lily home, I realized Max’s terrifying words might not have been childish imagination after all.
