“I was—that’s what I’m trying to tell you.” Serena knotted her fingers together.
Annie snorted. “I think I would have remembered if you’d been at the birth of my son. You’re delusional. You do need help.”
“I know it sounds crazy. I thought I was crazy when I first realized it. But it’s true. Finn is my son and—”
Annie cut her off. “No. Stop right there. This has gone on long enough. I heard you out, just like you wanted me to. I thought we were going to be friends. Then you tell me we stole your house from you, and that you’ve been stalking us for years and you don’t see anything wrong with it. Now you’re claiming my son is yours.” She stood, towering over Serena. “Do you not hear how off you sound?”
Annie’s phone rang, and she reached down to pick it up from the coffee table. It was Brody. As she picked up the call, she saw that she’d missed numerous texts from him and Sam.
“Annie, what’s going on over there? I’m still stuck in traffic.” The reception was better than before. “The news said there’s flooding along the Wailua River. A lot of debris got caught at the Wailua Bridge, creating a dam. Has the flooding gotten worse at the house?”
“Hold on, let me see.” Annie glanced over at Serena as she walked to the window, Marley trailing after her. She pushed the curtain aside and looked out. The canal was overflowing, already covering the three steps that led up to their backyard, and coming up over the lawn. “The water has come up over the steps from the canal.” She tried to keep her voice steady. As Sam had said, the main house and Ohana were built up high, not on ground level, and the backyard sloped down into the canal. It would take a lot of water for them to be flooded out.
“How high?” Brody spoke loudly to be heard over the noise of the storm on his end.
“It’s just over the back steps.”
“Do you feel safe? What about Serena? Did you ask her to leave?”
“I tried. But she’s still here. Did you call the police?” Annie looked at Serena again, whose eyes had widened at the word “police.”
Static fuzz came from the phone, and Annie looked at it. “Hello? Brody?”
And then nothing. They’d been disconnected. It was just as well. She didn’t know what to tell Brody about Serena. He was going to flip when he found out that she thought their son was hers.
She turned to address Serena. “I need you to leave. I’ve listened to you, and I’ve given you the benefit of the doubt. And I’m done.”
“Annie . . .” Serena pleaded.
Annie pointed to the front door. “Leave. Now. And if you don’t, the police will be here any minute. I don’t care how bad the storm is.”
“Please, no. I’ll drown if I go out in that.” Serena stood and faced Annie. “You have to listen to me. I know I went about this all wrong. I wanted to find the right way to tell you, but . . .” Her face dropped in defeat. “I always fuck everything up. But I have proof.”
“Right.” Annie narrowed her eyes at her. “You have proof. What proof can you possibly have, when Brody and I were both there when our son was born? What, you think I dreamed up the whole giving-birth part?” She gave a dry chuckle. “Believe me, I did not dream that up.”
Serena looked her dead in the eye and said, “They were switched at birth.”
36
Laptop ANNIE file
I watched you and I waited. I needed a plan. And one day, I looked at your son and something clicked in my mind. He always looked familiar to me and I kept wondering why. I kept thinking of children I knew, wondering if one of them reminded me of him. But that day, I finally realized why he seemed familiar. It was because he looked so much like me when I was little. He had the same cowlick at the crown of his head, just like mine. He has a dimple identical to mine in his right cheek. And he makes the exact same expression I do when he’s surprised.
I knew what people would say if I told them this. That I was grasping for straws. But I knew deep in my heart that he is my son. I didn’t have any proof, so I waited and I watched you all, when I wasn’t in the hospital. I found another job, but I lost it again, because I spent so much time up there. People thought I lived in the neighborhood, and I always made sure I wasn’t suspicious looking. I’d hide in the woods, where I had a perfect view of your back decks and yard.
And one day, my waiting and watching paid off. You’d just come back from the beach and your husband had stripped him naked on the back deck, to hose off the sand. You went inside and as he screamed and laughed, dancing in the cold water, I saw it. The same birthmark I had on my left butt cheek that looked like a strawberry. My heart pounding with excitement, I knew then I was right. I laughed out loud, but then clapped a hand to my mouth, not wanting to attract their attention. As soon as they were done and had gone in, I ran out of the woods and to my car in the beach parking lot, and drove right home to do research. Now that I had my proof, I had to figure out how it was possible. How did my son end up in your family? And if that was my son, then who was the little boy who had died over three years ago in his crib?
37
After those words burst out of Serena’s mouth, they stared at each other for a full moment. Marley whined at her side.
Annie stiffened her spine, which threatened to crumble, and took a deep breath. “Right. They were switched at birth. I don’t think that happens in this day and age. Hospitals are too careful.” Her phone dinged a few more times, and she knew she’d have to answer Sam soon. And Brody. But she didn’t take her eyes off Serena. “Lawsuits, you know?”
“I’m serious. I don’t know how it happened, but it did.” Serena’s voice was gaining strength, a resolute expression on her face.
“Right.” Annie turned away from Serena and looked at her phone. She’d had enough of this woman’s fairy tales. What had started off as a nice evening with a new friend had quickly spiraled into a nightmare. She’d answer Sam’s texts and then try to call Brody again. She hoped like hell that he’d gotten through to the police and that they were on the way here. She needed to get rid of Serena.
“Johnny’s birthday was February sixth.”
Annie looked up. That was Finn’s birthday. And when Serena said the year, her heart actually skipped a beat. That was the exact day that Finn had been born. Her breath caught for a moment. When she finally whooshed it out, it took her a moment, but she quickly recovered. “You’ve been stalking us for years. It’d be easy to find out when Finn’s birthday is.”
“They were born at the same hospital.” And Serena named the exact hospital where Finn had been born.
“Again, you could have found that out.” But a fissure of unease started at the base of her spine.
“About an hour apart.” Serena continued talking as if Annie hadn’t answered. “Finn was born at 12:01 p.m., and Johnny was born at 1:10 p.m.”
The bottom dropped out of Annie’s stomach. “How . . . What?” Finn had been born at 12:01 p.m.
Serena took a step toward Annie, but when Annie gave her a hard stare, she halted. “I’m not making this up. They were born in the same hospital on the same day at almost the same time. Our paths were meant to cross. There’s a reason why we both found the lake house. Why our lives are so similar. Why we were meant to meet.”