Chapter 10
My mother swayed slightly when she heard that.
My father reached out to steady her.
She moved away from him.
The detective continued asking about the badge.
Brian admitted that Evelyn had given it to them.
The outer door of the abandoned clinic had been broken for years. There was still a security door inside that required an authorized badge.
They used the badge to enter and locked the door after they went through.
Before they started the fire, I managed to break free from one of the men.
During the struggle, I grabbed the badge.
Brian tried to take it back, but the flames forced him to retreat.
“We went back afterward to look for it. We gave up when we couldn’t find it. We never expected her to keep holding it.”
The technician continued restoring the badge.
The information on the back finally became clear.
The initials were E.H.
Below them was a unique badge ID assigned only to Evelyn.
This time, the letter could not point to anyone else.
The police immediately began looking for Martha.
She had already left her home and taken all her luggage.
A large payment had recently appeared in her bank account.
The police found her at a bus terminal, preparing to leave under a false identity.
Faced with the bank records, phone records, and Brian’s confession, Martha did not deny the truth for long.
She first admitted that she had contacted the kidnappers for Evelyn.
Then she revealed what had happened twenty-two years earlier.
Evelyn and I had never been switched by accident.
At the time, Martha worked as a nursing aide at the Hart family’s private hospital.
She and my mother gave birth on the same day.
Martha knew her own daughter would grow up with nothing.
She also knew what kind of life the Hart family had prepared for their biological daughter.
During a busy moment in the maternity ward, she switched the identification bracelets on the two babies.
She left Evelyn with the Hart family.
Then she used a contact to falsify the records and send me into an illegal foster placement network.
My father stared at her.
“Where did you send our daughter?”
Martha lowered her head.
“The Southside. No one there would investigate where an abandoned baby came from.”
All the color left my mother’s lips.
I had never told them much about the nineteen years I spent on the Southside.
Whenever I mentioned my past, Evelyn became upset.
My mother always stopped me.
“That is all in the past.”
Those nineteen years were in the past for them.
They were never supposed to have been mine.
The detective continued questioning Martha.
“When did Evelyn learn the truth about her identity?”
“Years ago,” Martha answered.
“She was sixteen when she realized I had been secretly watching her. She confronted me and forced me to tell her the truth. We have stayed in contact ever since.”
Evelyn had known she was not the Hart family’s biological daughter.
She had also known that I was the real Claire Hart.
When I was found three years ago, she had not been afraid of losing her family.
She had been afraid that someone would uncover what Martha had done.
Martha admitted that Evelyn had been giving her money for years.
Before the engagement, Evelyn contacted her again and ordered her to get rid of me for good.
A copy of Martha’s statement was soon sent to Evelyn’s lawyer.
Evelyn still refused to admit anything.
Her lawyer released a statement claiming that Brian and Martha had accused her to reduce their own sentences.
The case could no longer be kept quiet.
The kidnapping, the arson, the deliberate switching of two babies, and the desperate calls for help my family had hung up on while I was trapped inside the burning clinic soon became national news.
Reporters gathered outside the Hart estate.
They asked my parents why they had kept the fake heiress beside them while making their biological daughter live in a guest room for three years.
They also asked Adrian whether his engagement to Evelyn still stood.
The Hart Group’s stock price began to fall.
The Hart Foundation faced growing public criticism.
My father finally decided to hold a press conference.
He planned to announce the latest developments in the case and explain the Hart family’s position.
The police were applying for an arrest warrant.
They told everyone not to alert Evelyn until it had been approved.
Evelyn insisted on attending the press conference.
She spoke to my mother.
“Everyone is waiting to watch the Hart family fall apart. I am still your daughter. I cannot hide.”
“Mom, you have to believe me. Everything Martha said was a lie. I would never do something like that.”
My mother looked at her without answering.
The next morning, Evelyn changed into a black dress.
She had a makeup artist cover the exhaustion under her eyes.
Then she removed her engagement ring and placed it in her pocket.
In the mirror, she still looked like the gentle and respectable Miss Hart who always put her family first.
She was ready to stand in front of the cameras and play the innocent daughter again.
She did not know that no one would defend her this time.