Part 2Reborn as a Baby, I Rewrote the Switching Script

The next morning, sunlight streamed through the curtains.

I had slept in my mother’s arms, though I hadn’t really closed my eyes all night. I acted like a perfectly well-behaved, angelic baby.

The first thing my mother did when she woke up was look down at me. She found me looking right back at her.

“Honey, look! She’s been watching me,” she said, delighted.

My father leaned in, about to touch me.

I immediately scrunched up my face, my lip quivering, my eyes turning red.

His hand froze mid-air, and he sheepishly pulled it back. “Okay, okay, Daddy won’t touch. Daddy’s just looking.”

My mother couldn’t help but laugh. “This little girl is my shadow. She won’t let anyone else near.”

Exactly.

I needed everyone to know: this baby only wants her mother.

No one was taking me from her arms.

During the morning rounds, the attending physician came in with a team. They gave me a full check-up and confirmed all my vitals were healthy. The newborn screening was also scheduled. It was done during the day, by the book, with the head nurse performing the procedure herself. My father watched the entire time, never leaving my side.

I noticed his expression was different from the night before. Last night, it was instinctual caution. Today, it was conscious observation.

After the doctors left, he said he was going to get breakfast and made a call in the hallway. His voice was low, but nestled in my mother’s arms, I could hear every word.

“I need you to look into someone for me. Brenda Wallace, a nurse at this hospital. And pull the security footage from the third-floor maternity ward hallway from last night.”

Good.

My father wasn’t a fool. The founder of a security tech company, he had a natural sense for these things. He was already on it.

At two in the afternoon, we had an unexpected visitor.

A woman in her early thirties, wearing a simple floral-print hospital gown, with a round, friendly face. She peeked her head in and knocked softly on the doorframe.

“Hi, Mrs. Summer. I’m Megan, from room 206 next door. I just had a baby girl yesterday too.” She smiled warmly. “Born on the same day, it must be fate. I thought I’d pop in and say hello.”

My mother, still weak from childbirth, was happy for the company. “Please, come in!”

Megan Fischer. Brenda Wallace’s cousin. The biological mother of the impostor, Jessica Fischer. Last time, she was the one who slipped her daughter into the Summer family and stole my life.

Now, she walked in, her eyes scanning the room and landing on me with a flicker of something I couldn’t quite place.

“Oh, your daughter is so beautiful and well-behaved. Can I hold her?”

She reached out her hands.

The hair on my arms stood on end. I let out a piercing cry, my face turning red, my limbs flailing wildly.

My mother quickly pulled me back. “Oh, I’m so sorry. She’s very shy around strangers. She cries if anyone but me holds her.”

Megan awkwardly withdrew her hands. “Oh, it’s okay, it’s okay. That’s normal for babies.”

She didn’t insist, and instead started chatting with my mother about parenting. They talked about formula, diapers, and postpartum meals. As she talked, she subtly inched closer to my mother.

Every time she got within three feet of the bassinet, I would start to whimper. When she backed away, I’d go quiet.

After the third time, my mother noticed too. She didn’t say anything, but she unconsciously held me a little tighter.

Megan stayed for about half an hour. As she was leaving, she said, “If you ever get tired, just call me. I can watch the baby for a bit. I’m right next door.”

My mother politely agreed. But after the door closed, she looked down at me thoughtfully.

“Sweetheart, do you not like that lady?”

I nuzzled her hand and blinked quietly.

My mother smiled, but there was a new seriousness in her eyes. “Okay, Mommy hears you. We’ll keep her away from you from now on.”

That evening, my father returned. His expression was grim. He closed the door tightly and spoke to my mother in a low voice.

“I had someone look into that nurse from last night, Brenda Wallace. She was only hired three months ago. Her resume, her education, her work experience—all fake.”

My mother’s eyes widened. “What does that mean?”

“And the security footage from the hallway last night—the cameras were malfunctioning during that exact time. Nothing was recorded.”

“I’ve been in the security business for twenty years. I’ve never seen a malfunction that convenient.”

The color drained from my mother’s face. She instinctively clutched me tighter, her voice trembling. “Are you saying… that person last night wasn’t here to do a screening?”

My father didn’t answer directly. He sat on the edge of the bed, taking my mother’s hand in one of his and gently stroking my head with the other.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ve already had my assistant file a police report and have the hospital upgrade its security.”

“From now on, when I’m not here, no one—and I mean no one—is to touch Sophie.”

My mother nodded vigorously.

I closed my eyes and pressed my face against her chest.

My father was already in motion.

Twenty years earlier than last time.

And all I had to do was continue being the perfect, mama’s-girl angel.