Chapter 6 - The List of Mothers)
Emma's laptop was placed in the middle of Claire's dining table.
The memory card sat beside it.
Nobody touched it for several minutes.
They waited for Evelyn's colleague, attorney Samuel Reed, to arrive.
Samuel was a quiet man in his early forties who specialized in family law and administrative appeals.
When he entered, he looked at Emma's bruised eye, Noah sleeping in Claire's arms, and Brooke sitting alone near the window.
"I assume today has been complicated."
Emma gave him a humorless laugh.
"That's one word for it."
Samuel inserted the memory card into an external reader.
Folders filled the screen.
Most were labeled with numbers.
Brooke leaned forward.
"Those are case codes."
Samuel opened the first.
Inside were copies of medical records.
A birth certificate.
A home assessment.
A payment ledger.
And photographs of a baby girl.
Claire looked away.
Samuel opened another.
Then another.
Seven folders.
Eight.
Nine.
Some children were newborns.
Others were several months old.
The mothers shared a pattern.
Single.
Widowed.
Recently divorced.
Financially unstable.
Recovering from medical complications.
One was seventeen.
Another had limited English.
Another had spent three days in intensive care after delivery.
"Predatory selection," Evelyn said.
Samuel nodded.
"They chose people least able to fight quickly."
Claire's folder was labeled BNT 204.
Samuel opened it.
A photograph of Claire appeared.
She was leaving an obstetric clinic while visibly pregnant.
Claire stared.
"Who took that?"
Brooke shook her head.
"I don't know."
Another photograph showed Claire unloading groceries.
Another showed Emma helping her carry a crib box into the house.
They had been watched for weeks.
Samuel opened a document titled assessment.
Claire read the first lines.
Subject widowed.
Limited immediate family.
Moderate financial pressure following spouse death.
Postpartum complication likelihood elevated due medical history.
Expected resistance low if intervention occurs within fourteen days after birth.
Emma whispered, "Expected resistance low?"
Claire's hands tightened around Noah.
They had reduced her grief and pregnancy to a risk calculation.
Samuel scrolled farther.
There were entries connected to Michael's life insurance.
Claire frowned.
"Why is that there?"
He read silently.
Then his expression changed.
"They believed you received a large settlement."
"I did."
Michael had carried a substantial insurance policy.
Most of it remained untouched in a trust intended for Noah.
Samuel opened another spreadsheet.
"That may be why your case is different."
Evelyn came closer.
"How?"
"Other cases show payments from adoptive families."
Claire looked at him.
"And mine?"
"There's a second transaction."
He enlarged the row.
A transfer of seventy five thousand dollars had been scheduled from an account identified by the initials CBB.
Claire knew immediately.
"Carter Bennett Beneficiary."
Samuel looked at her.
"What is that?"
"Noah's trust."
Emma stood.
"They were stealing his money too?"
Samuel continued reading.
"If they controlled custody, they may have planned to petition for access to certain funds supposedly for his care."
Claire suddenly understood why Vanessa had asked about Michael's insurance.
Noah was worth more to them than the payment from an adoptive family.
He came with a trust.
"Who has access to that account?"
"Only me until Noah is eighteen."
"Any backup trustee?"
Claire nodded.
"My brother, David."
Emma frowned.
"David's in Singapore."
"Yes."
Samuel looked at the paperwork.
"These people rely on administrative confusion. If they obtained a temporary order and forged additional forms, they might have been able to create enough apparent authority to move funds before anyone stopped them."
Emma looked at Brooke.
"Who knew about the trust?"
Brooke whispered, "Richard."
"How?"
"I don't know."
Claire did.
Michael's estate planning attorney.
A man named Leonard Price.
He had handled the trust after Michael's death.
Claire called him.
No answer.
She called his office.
A receptionist answered.
"Mr. Price hasn't been with the firm for two months."
Claire frowned.
"What?"
"He resigned."
"Where is he now?"
"I don't know."
Claire looked at Samuel.
"Leonard had everything."
"Trust documents?"
"Insurance information. Noah's expected birth date. My address."
Samuel's face tightened.
"Then we need to find Leonard."
Brooke suddenly pointed to a folder near the bottom of the screen.
"Open that."
The folder was labeled LP.
Samuel clicked.
Inside were scanned bank transfers.
Several payments had been made to a company named Vale Family Consulting.
Each came from an account belonging to Leonard Price.
Emma stared.
"He sold them Claire's information?"
Samuel shook his head.
"Maybe more than information."
The final file was a signed statement.
Claire recognized Leonard's signature.
It falsely claimed Michael had intended to appoint an independent guardian over any future child if Claire became medically unfit.
Claire read the sentence twice.
"No."
Samuel looked at her.
"What?"
"Michael never said that."
"You're certain?"
"Absolutely."
Samuel continued.
The statement claimed Leonard had discussed the arrangement with Michael three months before his death.
Claire remembered that period.
Michael had been planning Noah's nursery.
They did not yet know Claire was pregnant, but they had been trying for more than a year.
He would never have secretly created a plan to remove their child from her.
Emma leaned over Samuel's shoulder.
"Can one fake statement really do all this?"
"Not alone."
Samuel scrolled.
"There should be supporting records."
Brooke whispered, "There are."
She pointed at another folder.
Samuel opened it.
A recorded audio file appeared.
The filename contained Michael Bennett's name.
Claire stopped breathing.
Samuel clicked play.
Static came first.
Then Michael's voice.
"If anything happens, I don't want Claire making decisions for our child."
Claire's face went numb.
The room disappeared.
For one impossible second, her dead husband's voice was alive again.
"I want Leonard to handle custody."
The recording ended.
Claire stared at the screen.
Emma whispered, "Claire?"
Claire shook her head.
"That's fake."
Samuel replayed it.
The voice sounded exactly like Michael.
But Claire knew the words were wrong.
"He would never say that."
Samuel looked thoughtful.
"Do you recognize the setting?"
"What?"
"The background noise."
He played it again.
Behind Michael's voice was a faint metallic rhythm.
Three taps.
Pause.
Three taps.
Emma listened.
"I've heard that."
Claire closed her eyes.
Then remembered.
Michael's old workshop.
He used to record voice notes there while restoring furniture.
The tapping came from a loose ceiling fan chain hitting a metal shade.
"That sound was in his workshop."
Samuel asked, "Did Leonard ever visit?"
Claire thought.
Then her stomach dropped.
"Yes."
"How often?"
"Once."
"When?"
"About four months before Michael died."
Samuel looked back at the audio file.
Claire suddenly remembered exactly why Leonard had been there.
Michael had called him to witness the signing of a new estate document.
A document that might contain the real instructions about any future child.
Claire stood.
"The workshop."
Emma stared.
"What about it?"
"Michael kept copies of everything."
"Where?"
"In a fireproof box."
Claire had not opened it since his death.
She rushed toward the garage.
Behind the old workbench sat the gray steel box.
Dust covered the lid.
Claire entered the combination.
Inside were tax records.
Property papers.
Michael's handwritten notes.
Then she found a sealed envelope.
Across the front, in Michael's handwriting, were five words.
For Claire if something happens.
Her hands began shaking.
She opened it.
Inside was a copy of a legal amendment.
Samuel read over her shoulder.
His eyes widened.
"This changes everything."
The amendment explicitly removed Leonard Price from any advisory role involving Claire or future children.
Michael had written a note beneath his signature.
Leonard has been asking inappropriate questions about our future family and finances. I no longer trust him.
May you like
Claire stared at the date.
Michael signed it nine days before he died.
