The Thirteenth Name

Twelve names. Thirteen babies. And a message meant only for her.On the morning of her twenty-eighth birthday, Claire Arden opens an envelope with no return address. Inside is a faded photograph of the nursery where she was born: Saint Ambrose Maternity Center, October 18, 1998. Thirteen newborns lie in their bassinets. The typed list beneath them names only twelve.On the back, in heavy capitals: YOU WERE NOT ONE OF THE TWELVE.Claire was adopted from Saint Ambrose. She investigates medical billing fraud for a living, and she knows an extra line in a record is never an accident. So she goes looking for the unnamed baby, certain it must be her.But the building is scheduled for demolition, and its last records are weeks from the shredder. The woman who arranged Claire's adoption is gracious, precise, and careful to say only what she chooses. And Claire's own mother is begging her to stop asking questions.Then a nurse who worked in that nursery leaves Claire a box. Inside, written in green ink, is a warning: The thirteenth wasn't the problem.Somewhere in those records, a child's life was rewritten. Claire is about to learn whose.