Chapter 75 Annabelle
Annabelle
James jumped up from his chair when Annabelle walked into the hospital room.
“I’ve been so worried! Where were you?” His eyes widened when he saw Detective Stanton walking in behind her.
“I’m fine.” She looked over at Scarlett and back at James. She didn’t want to frighten her daughter. “You’re awake. How are you feeling, honey?”
“Okay.”
“Detective Stanton wants to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?”
Scarlett nodded. The detective approached the bed and held out his phone. “Is this the man who you met at the café?”
“Yes, that’s him.”
“Can you tell me what happened after you met him?”
Scarlett looked up at the ceiling for a moment.
“He knew my name. I realized he must have been pretending to be Ben. He had messaged me to meet him there on the same text chain we’d been using all along.
So I guess I was never really talking to my brother.
I freaked out and left, and he chased me. That’s the last thing I remember.”
“Chase Sommers is the man you believe was texting you?”
“I guess, if it wasn’t my brother.”
“Why were you using WhatsApp instead of regular text?”
“He emailed me and said we should move our chats to that app so it would be more secure. I thought I was talking to my half brother, and that he didn’t want his parents to know that he knew the truth.” She rubbed her eyes and yawned.
Annabelle was worried the questioning was taking a toll on her.
“Detective, I think she’s had enough for now.”
He nodded. “Okay, one last question. Did he threaten you in any way?”
“I don’t know. It’s kind of a blur.”
“Okay, thank you. I’m very sorry for all you’ve been through.” He turned to Annabelle and James. “Can I talk to you outside for a moment?”
They followed him out, and Annabelle closed the door to Scarlett’s room.
“Mr. Sommers is being booked right now, but he’ll most likely make bail. To be safe, I’m going to have a police officer stationed outside her door tonight. When is she being released?”
“We’re not sure yet. But I’m staying here until she is,” Annabelle said.
“Okay, good. This goes without saying, but please, if Mr. Sommers tries to contact you, don’t speak to him.”
“Of course she won’t,” James said, a vein bulging in his temple. “I’d like to kill that bastard!”
“James!” Annabelle shot him a look. What a thing to say in front of a police detective! “He doesn’t mean that,” she said.
“I understand,” Stanton said. “Both of you keep your distance. Let us handle it.”
“Detective Stanton, how do we find out if Chase’s son is my biological child? Scarlett thinks his name is Ben, but it’s Lucas. One way or the other, I have to know if my son is alive. Scarlett says she has a DNA report that shows she has a half brother.”
The detective exhaled. “You should start by contacting the hospital. If you have evidence or a strong suspicion that it was intentional, we could open up an investigation.”
“Okay, thank you.”
After he walked away, James turned to Annabelle. “I cannot believe this is the man you’ve been flying off to California with! How could you not know he was a fraud? It’s insane!”
She felt like she’d been punched. “Are you serious? How could I know? What are you accusing me of?”
He shook his head. “It’s beyond…”
“Listen, I don’t want you to say anything to Scarlett about Chase being the one who hit her. Let’s wait until everything shakes out and she’s stronger.”
“What the hell? Are you protecting him now?”
“Of course not! I’m just saying, there are a lot of moving parts here, and we need to untangle them first. Including figuring out what the hell happened the night I gave birth. You were there. I don’t understand how it’s possible that my son is actually still alive.”
“For all we know this guy hacked into the DNA site and made it look like he was a match to Scarlett. This whole thing could be an elaborate scam that targeted Scarlett,” James said.
But something told Annabelle that James was wrong. She searched her memory about that night. The hospital had been short-staffed. The doctor on call had never arrived. Could James have been so overwhelmed that he put the wrong bracelets on the babies?
“Annabelle, did you hear me?” James’s voice brought her back to the present.
“What?”
“I was talking to you.”
She crossed her arms. “I don’t think Chase made this up. He was going to show me his own test. Someone switched our babies.”
“If you’re right, then it must have been a mistake.”
“Aren’t there procedures in place to prevent that kind of a mistake? I distinctly remember an ID bracelet was put on him before he was brought to me. This had to be intentional. Do you have any idea who could have done this?”
James merely shook his head, but Annabelle could see it in his eyes. He was lying.