Chapter 4
Two officers stood on my father’s porch while Lauren cried behind them like she had been practicing in the car.
Marcus stood beside her with his arms crossed.
My mother stayed inside with Ava.
My father opened the door before I could.
“Robert Walker,” one officer said. “We received a report of a child being taken without consent.”
Dad looked at Lauren.
“You brought police to my house after what you did?”
Lauren sobbed harder.
“He took my baby.”
My baby.
The words almost made me step outside too fast.
Dad put one hand against my chest.
A quiet warning.
Not now.
Not like this.
The older officer looked past Dad at me.
“Sir, are you Ethan Walker?”
“Yes.”
“Is the child inside?”
“Yes. She’s sleeping. She has a fever.”
Lauren pushed forward.
“She needs her mother.”
I said, “She needs a doctor and a lawyer.”
Marcus scoffed.
“Listen to him. He’s losing it.”
The younger officer glanced at Marcus.
“And you are?”
“Marcus Reed. I’m the biological father.”
I laughed once.
Lauren’s face went pale.
The officer looked between us.
“You have paperwork proving that?”
Marcus hesitated.
Lauren answered for him.
“We were going to file tomorrow.”
Dad’s mouth tightened.
I stepped forward, holding the DNA report and Ava’s birth record.
“Then you may want to update your paperwork.”
Lauren’s eyes locked on the blue envelope in my hand.
Pure panic.
The older officer took the documents.
He read the DNA report first.
Then the birth record.
Then the guardianship letter Dad had pulled from the folder.
His expression changed.
“Mrs. Walker,” he said slowly, “this child’s birth mother is listed as Hannah Walker?”
Lauren wiped her face.
“That paperwork is complicated.”
“No,” I said. “It’s hidden. That’s different.”
Marcus leaned toward Lauren.
“What is he talking about?”
That was when I realized Marcus did not know everything.
He knew enough to betray me.
Not enough to see he had been used too.
Lauren whispered, “Marcus, please.”
He grabbed the DNA report from the officer’s hand before anyone could stop him.
His face drained as he read it.
“Zero?”
Lauren stepped back.
“Marcus—”
“Zero?”
The officer took the paper back.
“Sir, calm down.”
Marcus stared at Ava’s birth record.
“Hannah Walker? Your dead sister?”
I saw the moment his arrogance cracked.
“You told me she was mine,” he said.
Lauren’s tears changed.
They were not for Ava.
They were for herself.
“I had to.”
Marcus let out a sharp laugh.
“You had to?”
Dad’s voice cut through the porch.
“You both need to leave.”
The older officer held up a hand.
“Not yet.”
He turned to Lauren.
“Do you have legal custody documents?”
Lauren opened her purse with shaking hands.
She pulled out a folder.
I recognized it immediately.
The petition draft from our bedroom.
Not filed.
Not signed.
Not real.
The officer scanned it.
“This is not a custody order.”
Lauren’s face hardened.
“I am her mother.”
My mother appeared behind me.
“No,” she said.
Everyone turned.
Mom stepped onto the porch, wrapped in Dad’s old cardigan, looking like the lie had aged her ten years in one hour.
“I helped falsify parts of the hospital release,” she said.
Dad closed his eyes.
Lauren whispered, “Diane.”
Mom looked at her.
“You don’t get to use my shame anymore.”
The officers stiffened.
The older one said, “Ma’am, you should be careful what you say without an attorney.”
Mom nodded.
“I know.”
Then she looked at me.
“But my son deserves the truth.”
Lauren lunged verbally before physically.
“She gave Ava to me!”
Mom shook her head.
“I gave Ava to the wrong person because grief made me stupid. But Hannah gave Ava to Ethan.”
Marcus backed away from Lauren.
“You told me Diane forced you.”
Lauren spun on him.
“You were supposed to help me, not interrogate me.”
“Help you steal a trust?” he snapped.
There it was.
The word that changed the officers’ posture.
Trust.
The younger officer repeated, “Trust?”
Dad stepped inside and returned with Hannah’s estate papers.
“The child is beneficiary of a substantial trust. We believe multiple people have attempted to gain control of it through fraud.”
Lauren screamed, “That’s not true!”
Ava started crying inside.
My body moved before thought.
I turned from all of them and went to her.
She was sitting up on the sofa, red-cheeked and miserable, reaching for me.
I lifted her gently.
“I’m here.”
She tucked her face under my chin.
Outside, voices rose.
Marcus shouting.
Lauren crying.
My mother answering questions.
My father calling Rebecca Shaw.
I stood in the living room with Ava in my arms and felt the whole world split into two parts.
The noise outside.
And the child breathing against my neck.
That was when my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Then a text came through.
If you want to know how Hannah really died, check Lauren’s laptop before she deletes the folder named Brighton.
My blood went cold.
I looked toward the porch.
May you like
Lauren was staring straight at me through the open doorway.
And somehow, I knew she had seen the message too.
