Chapter 109
The Birth Room
Room Eight was a delivery room preserved beneath the hospital.
The bed was empty. A newborn photograph lay beneath the pillow. Rowan picked it up.
The baby had no face.
“They removed it,” Daniel said.
“They removed the photograph,” Claire answered.
The wall screen turned on.
Elise appeared in the bed, younger and conscious. Daniel stood beside her, holding a newborn wrapped in blue cloth.
“You were there,” Rowan said.
Daniel nodded.
“I was.”
“Why did you let them erase my face?”
“I did not know.”
“You signed.”
“I thought it was a privacy form.”
Elise's recorded voice answered from the screen.
“It was the first witness form.”
Mara appeared behind the camera.
“The child must be recognized by someone before the clinic recognizes her.”
Daniel said, “I recognize her.”
The system displayed a question.
WHO IS ROWAN VALE?
Daniel answered, “My daughter.”
The screen rejected it.
Elise answered, “A person.”
The screen accepted the answer.
Rowan placed her palm on the photograph.
The baby's face appeared.
It was her face.
The room opened into a corridor filled with birth records. Every child had a name, a parent, and a witness. Some witness lines were blank.
Claire found Ada's record.
The parent line read ROWAN VALE.
The witness line read CLAIRE ROWAN.
Ada looked at the page.
“I was born from her memory.”
Claire turned the page.
The final line had not been filled in.
WHO GIVES ADA A LIFE?
The answer waited in the next room.