Life Goes On (A Hunter Hayes Fanfiction, Book 2 of the Hardships Saga)

Chapter Fifty-Two

❝belong (pronounced bɪˈlɒŋ or buh-long), verb
to be part of a particular group of people.
eg. She doesn't belong.❞

Rose replayed the conversation with Paula in her mind.

"It... it was me..."

"Please, tell me what you're talking about. I don't understand-"

"The baby... Hunter Hayes' child... had a heart defect. She wasn't expected to live."

"You mean Elle?"

"No... I don't..."

"But... what?"

"I knew Hunter's mother from a long time ago. I couldn't bear to see him suffer anymore. He had already lost his wife and his second daughter. If he lost the first one too, Lilly would have died for nothing."

"So you... you..."

"I switched them. I switched the baby. But there were no other redheaded children in the nursery, so I got one with brown hair. It was the closest colour to Hunter's hair that I could see."

"Rosie?" asked Jon gently. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head. "How will we tell him?" she whispered.

"I don't know." He sat down beside her. "What do you know about the real child?"

"Well, we know she didn't die in the hospital. The baby survived in the infirmary for three months, then her parents took her home. There was only one redheaded child born that day, but we don't record hair colours. That's all we know about the child. And presumably, Elle has the DNA of the parents looking after Hunter's and Lilly's real daughter."

"How could Hunter overlook it, though? Didn't he see that the child had red hair when she was born?"

"I don't know. Maybe he thought it was blood. There was a lot of blood." She felt a tear trace down her cheek. "All this time... I've been comforted by the fact that Elle lives as a part of Lilly. Now... now I don't know what to think."

"What else can you try and find?"

"Well, the real child would have definitely had a small frame, maybe a low birth weight, if she had a heart defect. We can also look at children who were kept in the infirmary. But I don't know how I'll uncover that information without ruining the reputation of the hospital. If word gets out, we could be shut down for good. I mean, a midwife who switched a child out of pity for the father? Especially considering that that father..."

"Is Hunter Hayes," Jon finished for her. "What do you think he'll do with the information?"

"Honestly? I don't have a clue. I don't know if he'll want to find the real child or not. I don't even know if he'd be willing to give Elle away. She may not be his real daughter, but he still raised her as his own."

"As far as I'm concerned, she's his daughter," he said firmly.

"But what if the family of his real daughter feels the same? Surely they wouldn't just give her up and not expect their own child in return. Who knows what kind of conditions this child is living in? Maybe they don't even live in the US anymore. What do we do if that's the case?"

"You gotta realise this, though. This isn't your fault."

She groaned. "If only I hadn't been the one to find it. If only I hadn't been so stupid as to do a DNA test..."

"It's standard procedure. If you hadn't found it, some other doctor would have."

She shook her head. "Elle's not going to make it. You know that, don't you?"