The Girl Who Gave Her Brother a Hamburger

Chapter 3: The House With No Windows

The DNA results came back before midnight.

99.99 percent maternal match.

Claire read the report three times.

Then she walked into the clinic room where Noah was sleeping in a chair beside Emily. He looked smaller after being cleaned. Not less frightened, but more like the child he should have been all along.

Oliver.

Her son.

She covered her mouth to keep from sobbing loud enough to wake him.

The doctor placed a hand on her shoulder. "You need to call the police."

Claire nodded.

But she did not call the local officers who had failed four years ago.

She called a federal investigator her father once trusted.

When Noah woke, he told them about the house.

Not a house, really.

A place with no windows.

Children slept on thin mattresses. Adults changed their names whenever they misbehaved. Some children were adopted out. Others were moved at night.

"I was little," Noah said. "I forgot things."

"Who took you?" Claire asked.

He looked down. "A woman with red nails. She said my mommy didn't want me anymore."

Claire's heart twisted.

"The nanny," she whispered.

The nanny who disappeared the day Oliver vanished.

Noah nodded. "She worked for the man."

"What man?"

He hesitated.

Then Emily reached across the table and gave him the last fries from her plate.

Noah accepted them.

"Victor."

Claire went cold.

"My Victor?"

Noah did not answer directly.

"He came sometimes. He said rich children are worth more if they disappear young."

The room went silent.

Claire stood so quickly her chair fell backward.

For years, Victor had comforted her, held her while she cried, paid private investigators, and cursed the police.

He had been in her bed, at her breakfast table, raising Emily.

All while knowing where Oliver was.

The investigator arrived within the hour.

Noah drew a shaky map of the windowless house.

As the adults studied it, Emily suddenly spoke.

"Mommy, if Victor took Oliver, why didn't he take me too?"

Claire turned slowly.

The investigator looked at her.

Noah whispered, "He was going to."

Before Claire could answer, the clinic alarm went off.

A nurse rushed in.

"Mrs. Hart, men are trying to enter through the back door."

Noah grabbed Emily's arm.

"That's how they come at night."