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They both went silent for a moment.
“Look, Sloan, I’ve discovered some interesting bits of history for my clients, but this whole thing we’ve stumbled over is bigger than me. It’s bigger than the genealogy site I work for. I think . . . I mean, you need to talk with someone about this. I think you need to go to the police.”
“I think I’ll start with my parents.”
Sloan’s research assignment faded into the far recesses of her mind. She was wholly consumed with the mystery of what happened to her birth parents, and how baby Charlotte ended up as Sloan Hastings.
CHAPTER 9
Raleigh, North Carolina Thursday, July 11, 2024
SHE TOLD HERSELF TO WAIT UNTIL THE END OF THE DAY, UNTIL HER parents were home from work, but the nervous energy that buzzed through her body would not allow it. She walked into her parents’ dental practice, smiled at the staff behind the reception desk, and headed to her mother’s office. Her dad’s office was on the other side of the building, the orthodontic side, which had its own entrance and a second reception desk. Sloan’s backpack hung from her shoulder and contained copies of everything she and James had learned the night before about Preston and Annabelle Margolis, and their infant daughter, Charlotte.
Sloan was in the process of removing a few of the items—the covers from People and Events Magazine, both of which showed the once happy family of three. In the Events photo, baby Charlotte lay cradled in her mother’s arms while Preston and Annabelle stared down at their infant daughter. The photo looked to have been professionally taken, perhaps in celebration of Charlotte’s birth.
“Sweetheart?” Dolly Hastings said as she walked into her office. She wore her usual green scrubs with dental loupes hanging from her neck.
“Hi Mom.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I’ve got something I need to talk with you and Dad about.”
“Right now? We both have waiting rooms packed with patients.”
“I know. I don’t mean to mess up your day, but I need to show you something.”
Sloan offered enough urgency in her tone to cause her mother to slowly close her office door. Dolly Hastings sat behind her desk and picked up the phone.
“Hi,” she said. “Can you please ask Dr. Hastings to come to my office? Thanks.” Dolly looked at her daughter. “Your dad’s on the way.”
Sloan nodded. “Thanks.”
It took only a minute for her father to arrive.
“What’s going on?”
“Sloan has something she needs to talk with us about.”
“Sorry to barge in during a busy morning,” Sloan said. “But this can’t wait.”
“What is it, sweetie?” her father asked.
“My DNA profile came back.”
Dolly and Todd Hastings looked at each other. Then Sloan’s father asked, “You found your birth parents?”
Sloan nodded and pulsed her eyebrows. “Sort of. My DNA profile matched to a family from Nevada named Margolis. Does that name mean anything to you?”
Dolly and Todd Hastings looked at each other again and shook their heads.
“No,” Dolly said.
“We had only limited contact with your birth mother,” Todd said. “We never met your biological father. We were told he was out of the picture. But your birth mother’s last name was Downing, not Margolis. Wendy Downing. We’ve got the paperwork if you need it.”
“What else did you find?” Dolly asked.
Sloan pushed the Events Magazine cover across the desk so that it was in front of her mother. She handed the People magazine cover to her dad.
