The Locked Records
Chapter 07 - The Locked Records
Evan answered the first question with a partial truth.
He claimed he learned Catherine Reed’s name only after the engagement. A private investigator noticed the bracelet in a photograph and connected it to Arthur’s missing daughter.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Hannah asked.
“I wanted proof.”
“You had eleven months.”
“I was afraid you would think I proposed because of the trust.”
“Did you?”
His silence lasted too long.
Evan answered the second question by blaming hospital protocol. He said executive access to prenatal records was common for security reasons.
Nora placed the audit trail in front of him.
Evan had opened Hannah’s chart at 2:13 a.m. from Blair’s apartment.
He stopped speaking.
The third question broke him.
“I never wanted you declared incompetent,” he said. “Blair said a temporary guardianship would protect the baby if you tried to leave.”
Hannah felt no shock now, only exhaustion.
“Protect the baby from whom?”
Evan looked at her stomach. “From uncertainty.”
“You mean from me.”
Arthur turned away in disgust.
Nora asked whether Evan signed a draft petition.
He admitted he had.
The document gave him control over Hannah’s medical decisions, finances, and expected inheritance for ninety days after delivery. It cited emotional instability, paranoia, and aggressive behavior toward Blair.
The corridor incident had been designed to create a witness list.
Blair had not merely wanted to humiliate Hannah.
She needed Hannah to react.
But Hannah had not struck her, shouted, or threatened anyone. She had fallen and asked for help.
That failure forced Blair to delete the video.
The district attorney obtained access to the locked records archive beneath the old maternity ward. Arthur had sealed it after Catherine disappeared, but someone had entered repeatedly using a retired administrator’s key card.
Inside, investigators found boxes labeled for destruction.
One contained maternity bracelets from 1994.
Another contained payment ledgers linking private adoption agencies to hospital employees.
A third held Catherine’s personnel file.
The final page stated that Catherine had been terminated for theft and delusional behavior.
The signature belonged to Arthur.
He stared at it for a long time.
“I never signed this.”
Nora examined the ink and handwriting.
“It was copied from another document.”
Beneath the false termination letter was a photograph of Catherine leaving the hospital through a service entrance.
She was pregnant, frightened, and accompanied by Linda Monroe.
On the back, someone had written:
TRANSFER COMPLETE. MOTHER RELOCATED. INFANT STATUS PENDING.
Hannah read the words aloud.
May you like
Then she noticed the date.
It was the day she was born.
