Chapter 14 - The MotherWe found her.
Alive.
Living under another name.
She admitted everything.
My mother had been involved with Margaret long before I was born.
She had helped create the network.
She had disappeared after realizing what Margaret intended to do with it.
But she never came back for me.
That was the question I couldn't forgive.
“Why did you leave me?”
She cried.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“You left me with people who were destroying lives.”
“I was afraid.”
“So you let me grow up believing you were dead.”
“Yes.”
I shook my head.
“You don't get to call that protection.”
She lowered her eyes.
Then she handed me a file.
Inside were documents about Maisie.
And one photograph.
It showed my mother holding a baby.
The baby was Evan.
I stared.
My mother whispered:
“I gave him to Margaret.”
Evan looked devastated.
“You knew my mother?”
“Yes.”
“You gave me to her?”
“I had no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
My mother cried.
“I was trying to save your life.”
Evan stepped away.
“And instead you gave me to a woman who stole children.”
Silence.
Then my mother told us the final secret.
Margaret had not been the mastermind.
She had been working for someone else.
Someone who had never been arrested.
Someone who had been using wealthy families for decades.
And that person was now targeting Maisie.
“Who?”
My mother looked at me.
“The judge.”
I froze.
“What judge?”
“The judge assigned to Margaret's case.”
Everything went silent.
The same judge who had signed the guardianship papers.
The same judge who had approved the sealed adoption records.
The same judge who had dismissed two previous complaints.
He wasn't protecting the system.
He was part of it.
We had walked into a trap.
The next morning, the judge issued an emergency custody order.
Maisie was to be removed from my care immediately.
I stared at the document.
Evan whispered:
“We have to run.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“What?”
“We don't run.”
I looked at Lily.
Then at my mother.
Then at Evan.
“We end this.”
My phone buzzed.
A message appeared.
Bring Maisie to the courthouse at noon.
Underneath was another sentence.
Or everyone you love dies.
I looked at the clock.
May you like
11:17.
We had forty-three minutes.
