Chapter 5 - The Father Who Came Too Late
Cole returned the next morning with an emergency petition for custody.
The court scheduled a hearing within forty-eight hours.
Until then, Sunny remained at Riverside.
Bear spent every permitted hour beside her.
The Iron Harbor Riders learned what had happened and began arriving one by one. They did not enter the NICU in a crowd. They waited quietly in the cafeteria, bringing diapers, bottles, and enough baby clothes for three children.
Mack Turner, Bear’s oldest friend, brought a small knitted hat.
Bear stared at it.
“You made this?”
“My sister did,” Mack said quickly. “I only chose the size.”
The hat had tiny motorcycle wheels stitched around the edge.
Bear placed it on Sunny and almost smiled.
Meanwhile, Claire searched the belongings found with the carrier. She reviewed every item, hoping to find something overlooked.
The yellow blanket carried no label.
The clothing was secondhand.
The silver star necklace looked familiar to Bear.
He had given it to Tessa on her sixteenth birthday.
On the back, he had engraved three words.
Always find home.
Bear held the necklace tightly.
“She wanted me to find the baby.”
“Then why didn’t she contact you directly?” Claire asked.
“Because she was afraid someone was watching.”
“Cole?”
“There was never anyone else.”
Later that afternoon, a detective named Maria Santos arrived to question Bear.
Police had located the vehicle used to bring Sunny to the hospital. It was abandoned near a bus terminal and registered to a woman named Laura Kim, one of Tessa’s former coworkers.
Laura had reported the car stolen the previous week.
However, surveillance footage showed Tessa entering Laura’s apartment two days before Sunny appeared at Riverside.
Tessa had been alive.
Bear gripped the edge of the table.
“Where is she now?”
“We don’t know.”
“Is she hurt?”
“We don’t know that either.”
Detective Santos hesitated before continuing.
“There is something else. Tessa withdrew twenty thousand dollars from an account shortly before disappearing.”
Cole had already informed police that Tessa suffered from unstable behavior and had stolen money from him.
Bear laughed without humor.
“That money belonged to her.”
“How do you know?”
“Her mother left her a trust. Cole knew about it before they married.”
The trust contained far more than twenty thousand dollars.
Emily’s parents had created it for Tessa, but full control would not transfer until she turned thirty or had a child. If Tessa died before gaining control, the money would pass to her surviving child under a guardian’s management.
Sunny’s birth had activated the trust.
Cole did not merely want custody of the baby.
He wanted control of nearly four million dollars.
When Bear explained this, Detective Santos immediately contacted financial-crimes investigators.
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Across the corridor, Cole watched through a window.
For the first time, Bear saw fear behind his confidence.
