Chapter 7 - The Secret Behind the Nursery
Police searched Lorraine’s suburban house the following day.
What they discovered transformed the case.
Inside a locked desk drawer were copies of Jake and Megan’s financial documents. Lorraine had records of their bank accounts, insurance policies, and apartment lease. She had also printed information about grandparents’ custody rights and temporary guardianship proceedings.
In a folder labeled Baby Sullivan, investigators found an unsigned legal petition claiming Megan was mentally unstable and Jake was unavailable because of military service.
The petition requested that Lorraine receive temporary guardianship after the birth.
There were handwritten notes in the margins.
Establish emotional instability.
Document suspected affair.
Show unsafe behavior.
Separate before delivery.
Jake read the pages inside a private room at the police station.
Each sentence felt colder than the last.
Lorraine had planned to destroy Megan’s credibility, convince Jake the baby might not be his, and force them apart. Once Megan was isolated, Lorraine intended to argue that the child needed a stable guardian.
She had even contacted a private investigator to photograph Megan.
But the investigator had refused the job after Lorraine asked him to manufacture evidence. He provided police with copies of their messages.
One message from Lorraine read:
My son will believe what he sees. I only need the right picture.
Another discovery was more disturbing.
Lorraine had created a nursery in her own house.
There was a crib, boxes of diapers, clothing, bottles, and a hospital bag. A wooden sign above the crib displayed the name Andrew.
Jake and Megan had never chosen that name.
The baby was a girl.
Lorraine knew that because she had opened the sealed test results, but she had ignored them. In her imagined future, the child was a grandson named after Jake’s late father.
Jake stood alone in the unfinished nursery while an investigator photographed the room.
For years, he had excused Lorraine’s possessiveness.
After his father’s death, she depended on Jake for emotional and financial support. When he married Megan, Lorraine became increasingly critical, but Jake dismissed it as loneliness.
He now understood that his silence had allowed her behavior to grow.
Megan had tried to set boundaries.
Jake had repeatedly asked her to be patient.
She’s still grieving, he had said.
She just wants to feel included.
She means well.
Standing beneath the wooden name sign, Jake finally saw how often those sentences had protected Lorraine instead of Megan.
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He removed the spare key to his apartment from Lorraine’s key ring and handed it to the investigator.
“She will never enter our home again,” he said.
