Chapter 3 - The Nurse Who Remembered Rebecca
The anonymous message changed everything.
Until that moment, Matthew had believed his biological mother’s death was a tragedy followed by a terrible decision.
Now, someone was suggesting Evelyn’s involvement had begun before Rebecca took her final breath.
Matthew called the number immediately.
It went straight to voicemail.
He sent a message.
Who are you?
No response.
He tried again twenty minutes later.
Still nothing.
I wanted him to rest, but neither of us could.
Isla remained beneath the phototherapy lights. Her condition was stabilizing, yet the doctors planned to keep her overnight.
Matthew sat beside me with Rebecca’s photograph open on his phone.
“She looks like me,” he said.
“She does.”
“I spent my whole childhood wondering why I looked like nobody in my family.”
“You looked like somebody. They simply hid her.”
He stared at the image.
“I used to ask Mom—Evelyn—why my hair was darker than hers. She said children who obsessed over appearances became vain.”
“That stopped you from asking again.”
“That was the point.”
At nine the next morning, William arrived at the hospital carrying a leather document case.
He looked as though he had aged ten years overnight.
His shirt was wrinkled. His left cheek carried a red mark.
Matthew noticed immediately.
“Did she hit you?”
William touched his face.
“It does not matter.”
“It matters.”
“I am not the person who deserves your concern today.”
He placed the case on the table.
Inside were photographs, hospital documents, employment records and letters tied together with an old ribbon.
Matthew did not touch them at first.
William sat across from us.
“Before you read anything, I need to tell you what I should have told you last night.”
“The message already warned me,” Matthew said.
William’s face changed.
“What message?”
“Someone told me to ask what Evelyn did the night Rebecca died.”
William lowered his head.
“I do not know who sent that.”
“But you know what they mean.”
“Yes.”
Matthew leaned forward.
“Tell me.”
William clasped his hands.
“Rebecca’s pregnancy became dangerous in the third trimester. Her blood pressure rose, and doctors warned that both she and the baby were at risk.”
“You mean me.”
“Yes.”
“Stop speaking as though this happened to strangers.”
William nodded.
“Rebecca was admitted three weeks before you were born. She asked me to choose her if complications forced a decision.”
I felt Matthew tense beside me.
“What did you say?”
“I promised her I would.”
“Did you keep that promise?”
“No.”
The word barely left William’s mouth.
He explained that during an emergency delivery, Rebecca began hemorrhaging. Matthew was born struggling to breathe and taken to neonatal care.
Rebecca needed immediate surgery.
William was in the hallway speaking with doctors when Evelyn arrived.
“How did she know?” Matthew asked.
“I called her.”
“You called your fiancée while the woman carrying your child was dying?”
“I panicked.”
William admitted that Evelyn had known about the pregnancy for months. At first, she threatened to leave him and expose the affair. Later, when she learned she might never have biological children, her position changed.
She offered a solution.
If Rebecca surrendered the baby, Evelyn would continue with the marriage and raise the child publicly as her own.
Rebecca refused.
She wanted her son.
“She had already rented an apartment,” William said. “She planned to move to another part of Nashville and raise you herself.”
“Did she ask you to go with her?”
“Yes.”
“And what did you decide?”
“I told her I needed time.”
Matthew laughed once, bitterly.
“She was weeks away from giving birth, and you needed time.”
“I was weak.”
“You keep using that word as though it reduces what you did.”
“It does not.”
On the night of the delivery, a doctor asked William to authorize a risky procedure while Rebecca was unconscious.
Before he could sign, Evelyn intervened.
“She told the doctor she was my wife,” William said.
“But you were not married yet.”
“No.”
“She lied.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn claimed Rebecca had no family and that William was too emotionally unstable to make decisions.
She pressured him to prioritize saving the baby.
“Could the doctors have saved both?” Matthew asked.
“They believed surgery gave Rebecca a chance.”
“What happened?”
“The authorization was delayed.”
“How long?”
“Thirty-seven minutes.”
The number hit the room like a physical blow.
“Why?”
“Evelyn argued with the medical team. She demanded legal clarification. She insisted Rebecca had previously expressed that the child should be prioritized.”
“Had she?”
“No.”
By the time William signed the proper forms, Rebecca’s condition had deteriorated severely.
She died during surgery.
Matthew rose from his chair.
“You let Evelyn delay treatment for thirty-seven minutes?”
“I did.”
“You stood there?”
“I was terrified of losing you.”
“You lost her.”
“Yes.”
“And then you rewarded the woman who interfered by letting her become my mother.”
William began to cry.
“I believed it was the only way to keep you.”
Matthew walked toward the door.
I caught his hand.
“Do not leave alone.”
“I need air.”
“Then I am coming with you.”
“You just had surgery.”
“And you just learned your father stood by while your mother died.”
William flinched.
Matthew looked at me, then sat again.
“Who sent the message?” he asked.
“I may know.”
William removed a folded page from the case.
“Rebecca had an older sister named Laura.”
Matthew stared at him.
“I have an aunt?”
“Yes.”
“Is she alive?”
“I believe so.”
“You believe?”
“Evelyn forced me to cut contact after the adoption.”
“Did Laura know I survived?”
“She knew.”
“Did she try to find me?”
“For years.”
Matthew’s voice turned dangerously quiet.
“And you stopped her?”
“Evelyn obtained a restraining order using false claims that Laura had threatened to abduct you.”
I covered my mouth.
Matthew looked physically ill.
“Where is she now?”
“The last address I found was in Franklin.”
William handed him the page.
At that moment, the unknown number called.
Matthew answered immediately and placed the phone on speaker.
A woman’s voice spoke.
“Is this Matthew Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Laura Hale.”
William closed his eyes.
Matthew gripped the edge of the table.
“You sent the message.”
“Yes.”
“How did you get my number?”
“Your father contacted an attorney yesterday. The attorney was someone I had asked to notify me if William ever tried to release Rebecca’s records.”
“You have been waiting?”
“For thirty-two years.”
Matthew struggled to breathe.
“Why did you never come for me?”
“I did.”
Her voice cracked.
“I came to the hospital the day after Rebecca died. Evelyn had security remove me. I filed for temporary guardianship. Your father testified that Rebecca wanted him and Evelyn to raise you.”
Matthew looked at William.
William did not deny it.
Laura continued.
“I lost the case. Then Evelyn claimed I had threatened your life. I was warned that any further contact could send me to jail.”
“Did my mother leave anything for me?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“A box.”
Matthew’s eyes filled with tears.
“What is inside?”
“Letters she wrote during pregnancy. A blanket she made. Ultrasound photographs. And a recording.”
“A recording?”
“She made it three days before you were born.”
Matthew could barely speak.
“May I have it?”
“It belongs to you.”
Laura agreed to meet us that afternoon at the hospital café.
Before ending the call, she said one more thing.
“Matthew, there is something else you need to know.”
“What?”
“Rebecca did not die without telling someone what Evelyn had done.”
“Who did she tell?”
“A nurse named Diane Foster. Rebecca regained consciousness briefly before surgery.”
“What did she say?”
“She said Evelyn had entered her room earlier that evening and threatened her.”
William looked stunned.
“What threat?”
May you like
Laura’s voice became firm.
“Evelyn told Rebecca that whether she lived or died, she would never leave the hospital with her son.”
