Chapter 13 - The Truth in the Locked Nursery)
Catherine Cole was alive.
Seventy one.
Former school librarian.
No criminal record.
Address unknown.
She had sold her home eleven years earlier and disappeared from ordinary databases.
But Rebecca had known her.
The micro SD card contained one image Reed had initially dismissed.
A small house.
White porch.
Green door.
No people.
On the back of the digital scan, Rebecca had written.
Catherine. Safe if everything fails.
Property records identified the house.
It belonged to a trust.
Location.
Ridgefield.
Three hours away.
Police arrived first.
Claire and Reed followed after confirmation the house was secure.
Catherine Cole opened the door before they knocked.
She was thin, white haired, and remarkably calm.
You finally found Emma, she said.
Claire stopped on the porch.
You know who I am.
I've known who you are for six years.
Anger surged.
Then why didn't you tell me?
Catherine's expression tightened.
Because every person who tried to expose Voss died, disappeared, or was threatened.
Rebecca contacted me three years ago.
She found my name in Margaret's files.
Catherine invited them inside.
The house contained books.
Hundreds.
No television.
No computer visible.
Claire remained standing.
Did you arrange Greenway Market?
Yes.
The admission shocked her.
How?
I knew Margaret shopped there twice a month. Rebecca told Lily what you looked like before she died. I mailed Margaret a store coupon and called anonymously pretending she had won a gift card that had to be collected that afternoon.
Claire stared.
You manipulated her.
Yes.
And me?
Catherine placed a Greenway flyer on the table.
Your purchase history is predictable.
Claire felt violated again.
You tracked me.
To save your daughter.
You could have called me.
Would you have believed a stranger claiming your dead child was alive?
Claire had no answer.
Catherine continued.
I needed Lily to recognize you.
The necklace was Rebecca's idea.
Rebecca planned this?
She planned most of it.
Before she died, she knew Margaret might never confess. She prepared Lily carefully.
Why wait fifteen months?
Because Voss was watching.
Catherine sat.
Victor Sloane became ill this year.
He wanted out.
He contacted me.
What did he say?
He had copies of payment records.
He agreed to testify.
Then he died.
Murdered.
Yes.
Did you kill him?
No.
Claire believed her.
Perhaps because Catherine looked too tired for deception.
Perhaps because Claire had become desperate to believe someone.
Reed asked.
Where are Rebecca's letters?
Catherine pointed upstairs.
In the nursery.
Claire frowned.
Nursery?
Catherine led them to the second floor.
At the end of the hallway was a locked door.
She opened it.
Inside stood an old crib.
Yellow walls.
Silver stars.
Claire stopped.
It looked disturbingly similar to the nursery she had prepared for Emma.
Catherine noticed.
Rebecca described yours.
Why recreate it?
For Anna.
Claire turned.
Catherine sat on the edge of the bed.
Jennifer was my daughter.
She was seventeen when she became pregnant.
The father was older.
Married.
She refused to tell me his name.
When Anna was born, Jennifer changed her mind about adoption.
But the baby disappeared.
Hospital officials told us Anna had experienced medical complications and been transferred.
Then they told us she died.
No body.
No funeral.
Claire's throat tightened.
Like Emma.
I spent two years searching.
Then I saw Caroline Ward in a magazine holding a toddler.
Anna.
I knew immediately.
Did Jennifer know?
Yes.
What happened?
She confronted Elias Ward.
Catherine's face changed.
He threatened her.
Months later she died from an overdose.
Was it accidental?
I don't believe so.
Can you prove that?
No.
Catherine opened a drawer.
Inside were letters.
Rebecca's.
Caroline's.
Victor Sloane's.
And one from Sarah Bell.
Claire stared.
You've been collecting evidence for twenty years.
Yes.
Why not release it publicly?
Because evidence without protection gets witnesses killed.
So you waited.
I built redundancy.
Copies.
Dead man's switches.
People who each knew only part.
Rebecca was one.
Sloane another.
Thomas eventually became one without knowing it.
Claire frowned.
Thomas?
Catherine gave Thomas documents two years earlier.
He was supposed to deliver them if Voss moved against Rebecca.
Instead Thomas panicked and hid them.
That explained his terror.
His guilt went beyond the original crime.
Catherine handed Claire a letter from Rebecca.
Claire opened it.
If you are reading this, then Lily found you.
I need you to understand something before you hate Margaret forever.
She stole your daughter.
There is no excuse.
But after she understood what Voss truly was, she spent years trying to keep Lily hidden from him.
Rebecca described Voss returning when Lily was two.
He wanted medical samples.
Blood.
Cheek swabs.
Margaret refused.
Voss threatened to expose the abduction.
Margaret paid him instead.
That was the money Daniel believed was blackmail against him.
Voss had been collecting payments from both sides.
Why did he want Lily's DNA? Claire asked.
Catherine's face darkened.
Because the network was not only about illegal adoption.
Reed leaned forward.
What else?
Catherine removed another folder.
Some children were chosen for specific families because of blood type, genetic compatibility, ancestry.
Claire felt sick.
Chosen?
Not every placement was random.
Why Emma?
Catherine looked at her.
That is the question Rebecca died trying to answer.
Claire's pulse accelerated.
Margaret said Voss chose Emma because she was convenient.
Margaret doesn't know everything.
Then why?
Catherine opened the folder.
Inside was Claire's prenatal medical record.
Claire stared.
How did you get this?
Voss had a copy.
Why?
Catherine turned to a page.
Blood type.
O negative.
Then another.
Daniel.
O negative.
Then Emma's neonatal lab.
O negative.
Catherine said.
One of the network's clients was searching for a newborn with a very specific genetic profile.
Claire whispered.
Who?
Catherine looked toward Lily, downstairs with an officer.
Emma was not originally intended for Rebecca.
Claire's skin went cold.
Then who was supposed to get her?
Catherine slid one photograph across the table.
A young couple standing beside Samuel Voss.
Claire did not recognize the woman.
She recognized the man.
Nathan Ward.
The photo was dated six years earlier.
Rebecca had not been the planned destination.
She had been the emergency replacement.
Claire looked at Catherine.
Why would Nathan Ward want my daughter?
Catherine answered.
He didn't.
His wife did.
For what?
May you like
Catherine's expression became grave.
For their son.
