Chapter 27 - The Sister at the Window
Leah agreed to a new DNA test conducted through an independent laboratory selected by Detective Bennett.
The results arrived four days later.
Jake and Leah were full biological siblings.
Martin had forged the original report not because the relationship was false, but because he wanted the legal recognition to depend on evidence he controlled.
Leah cried when Jake told her.
Not because she had gained a biological family.
Because the uncertainty had finally ended.
Jake invited her to Megan’s parents’ house. Leah spent the afternoon watching Grace stack wooden blocks and knock them down.
“I don’t know how to do this,” Leah admitted.
“Neither do I,” Jake said.
They decided not to force a perfect reunion. There would be no demands, no instant promises, and no rewriting of Leah’s life with the Mercers.
They would begin with dinner.
Then perhaps another dinner.
As the sun set, Megan noticed a vehicle parked across the street.
A woman sat behind the wheel.
Red hair.
Dark glasses.
By the time Detective Bennett’s officers approached, the car was empty.
Inside they found a burner phone and an envelope addressed to Leah.
The message contained only an address.
Leah recognized it as the nursing facility where Claudia Voss had lived before her death.
Beneath the address was a warning:
ASK WHAT CLAUDIA CONFESSED BEFORE MARTIN ERASED IT.
The nursing facility maintained recordings of final medical directives.
Claudia had created one six days before her death.
The file had been accessed by Martin, but a backup still existed.
In the recording, Claudia confessed to altering records and arranging illegal placements.
She also named Evelyn Shaw as the woman who recruited pregnant patients.
Near the end, Claudia whispered:
“Evelyn never forgave Andrew for choosing Lorraine.”
The woman selecting families had not been a stranger.
May you like
She had been connected to Jake’s father.
And Lorraine had still not told them how.
