Chapter 6 - What Margaret Owed
Margaret Carter had spent most of her daughters’ lives appearing financially careful.
She clipped coupons despite owning a comfortable home.
She complained about electricity bills.
She drove the same sedan for twelve years.
After her husband Thomas died, she frequently told Emma and Claire that his estate was modest.
“He left enough for me to be secure,” she said.
Nothing more.
But Mara discovered Thomas had left considerably more.
A family trust worth almost nine hundred thousand dollars.
Claire and Emma were equal beneficiaries.
Neither daughter had ever seen an accounting.
Margaret served as trustee.
“Can she legally do that?” Claire asked.
“She can manage it,” Mara said. “She cannot steal from it.”
“Did she?”
Mara turned her laptop around.
Over four years, more than three hundred thousand dollars had moved from the trust into companies that appeared to have no business operations.
One company shared a mailing address with Agnes Family Services.
Claire stared.
“This started before I was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“Then the baby wasn’t the beginning.”
“No.”
Emma sat beside them.
“She owed St. Agnes money?”
“Or St. Agnes helped her move money.”
Mara showed them another record.
Six days before Claire gave birth, Margaret had received seventy-five thousand dollars from a company called Barrett Family Consulting.
The payment description read:
PRIVATE FAMILY ARRANGEMENT.
Claire stood so quickly that the chair fell backward.
“No.”
Emma caught her arm.
Claire shook her head violently.
“No. No. She did not.”
Mara remained quiet.
Claire looked at Lily.
“She sold my child.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“Yes, we do.”
“Claire.”
“What else does private family arrangement mean?”
Emma pulled her sister into her arms.
Claire fought the embrace for a second.
Then collapsed against her.
For the first time since they began investigating, Claire allowed herself to say the sentence aloud.
“My baby is somewhere without me.”
Emma held her tighter.
“We’re going to find her.”
“What if she thinks someone else is her mother?”
“She’s eight weeks old.”
“What if she cries and I don’t know?”
“You’ll learn.”
“What if she doesn’t want me?”
“She’s a newborn.”
Claire covered her face.
Emma looked at Mara.
“Find Barrett.”
There were dozens of families with that name.
But Barrett Family Consulting belonged to Luke Barrett.
Forty-one.
Financial adviser.
Married to Hannah Barrett, thirty-eight.
No known children.
Their public social media had been inactive for months.
Then Emma found an old post from Hannah.
A photograph of an empty nursery.
Caption:
Someday.
The post was two years old.
Mara cautioned them against contacting the couple immediately.
“If they have your niece, they may believe everything was legal.”
Claire’s anger sharpened.
“They paid my mother.”
“They may have paid an agency.”
“Seventy-five thousand dollars.”
“Private adoption expenses can be substantial. I’m not defending anyone. I’m saying we need to understand what they were told.”
Emma searched further.
A private neighborhood page contained a recent photograph of Hannah and Luke at a charity picnic.
Hannah held a baby.
A little girl.
Wrapped in a pale yellow blanket.
Claire stopped breathing.
Emma enlarged the picture.
The child was approximately eight weeks old.
Dark-blonde hair.
Small chin.
Claire put Lily beside the screen.
The resemblance was unmistakable.
Lily opened her eyes.
On the screen, the other baby had the same slight fold in the left eyelid.
Claire touched the photograph with one finger.
“Rose.”
Emma whispered, “We found her.”
Mara looked at both women.
“Maybe.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
May you like
She had never sounded more certain.
“That is my daughter.”
