Chapter 4
Nobody moved.
Audrey stared at Poppy.
Poppy stared at the camera.
Elena’s face remained visible on the screen.
The woman looked as terrified as Audrey felt.
“Mommy?”
Poppy’s voice was barely audible.
Audrey crossed the room quickly.
She climbed the stairs and held out her hands.
Poppy backed away.
“Is she my other mom?”
Audrey swallowed.
“She gave birth to you.”
Poppy’s eyes filled with tears.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did Daddy?”
Audrey could not lie anymore.
“I think he did.”
Poppy’s face crumpled.
“Why does Daddy know everything and not tell us?”
The question cut deeper than anything Grant had done to Audrey.
Because Poppy was right.
Grant had built a hidden world inside their family.
Audrey crouched.
“Listen to me. You do not have to talk to anyone tonight.”
“Is she taking me?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Poppy threw herself into Audrey’s arms.
Audrey held her until the trembling slowed.
Then she called her neighbor, Dr. Melissa Hart, who had known Poppy since preschool.
Melissa arrived through the garage ten minutes later.
She took one look at Audrey and said, “What happened?”
“Everything.”
Audrey explained enough.
Not the money.
Not yet.
Just the woman downstairs.
Melissa knelt beside Poppy.
“Want to stay in your room with me and build that giant puzzle?”
Poppy looked at Audrey.
“You’ll stay here?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Poppy finally nodded.
Once she was upstairs, Audrey opened the front door.
Detective Harris entered first.
Elena remained outside.
Audrey looked at her.
“You knew Grant?”
Elena nodded.
“How?”
Her eyes lowered.
“Can we talk inside?”
Audrey wanted to say no.
Every instinct told her to protect Poppy.
But another instinct had become stronger.
She needed the truth.
“Come in.”
They sat in the dining room.
Elena chose the chair farthest from the staircase.
Audrey noticed.
“You don’t want Poppy to see you?”
“I don’t want to frighten her.”
Audrey studied her.
Elena was maybe thirty-four.
She looked older.
Exhausted.
There were shadows beneath her eyes.
A small scar crossed her left eyebrow.
She kept twisting a cheap silver ring around her finger.
Detective Harris placed a recorder on the table.
“With your permission, Mrs. Bennett.”
“Why are you here?”
“Grant Bennett is under investigation.”
“For fraud?”
Harris raised an eyebrow.
“You know about that?”
“I learned tonight.”
“From whom?”
“Daniel Reeves.”
That changed his expression.
“Then you know some of it.”
“Some?”
Harris glanced at Elena.
“There are two investigations.”
Audrey felt her chest tighten.
“What’s the other one?”
Elena answered.
“My adoption.”
Audrey stared at her.
Elena corrected herself.
“Poppy’s adoption.”
Audrey’s throat went dry.
“What about it?”
Elena’s hands trembled.
“I never signed away my daughter permanently.”
Audrey stopped breathing.
“That’s impossible.”
“I signed documents.”
“Yes.”
“But they weren’t the documents I was told they were.”
Audrey stood so quickly the chair scraped backward.
“No.”
Elena flinched.
“No.”
Audrey’s voice broke.
“I sat in a courtroom. A judge signed the adoption. We had a lawyer. Social workers. Background checks.”
“I know.”
“You can’t walk into my house six years later and tell me it was fake.”
“I’m not saying your love was fake.”
“Don’t.”
Audrey pointed toward the stairs.
“That is my daughter.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
Elena began crying.
Detective Harris stepped in.
“Mrs. Bennett, no one is removing Poppy tonight.”
“Tonight?”
Audrey turned on him.
“You said tonight.”
“Bad wording.”
“Then use better wording.”
Harris nodded.
“You’re right.”
Audrey sat again, but every muscle remained tense.
“Explain.”
Harris opened a folder.
“Six years ago, Elena was twenty-seven and struggling financially.”
Elena spoke softly.
“I was living in Phoenix.”
She looked at Audrey.
“Poppy’s biological father disappeared when I told him I was pregnant.”
Audrey said nothing.
“I worked until eight months.”
Elena wiped her face.
“I wanted her.”
The words hurt Audrey even though Elena had every right to say them.
“I wanted my baby. But I had no family. No insurance. I was behind on rent.”
“What does this have to do with Grant?”
“I met Margaret.”
Audrey froze.
Elena nodded.
“Margaret Bennett.”
“How?”
“She volunteered with a private maternity charity.”
Audrey almost laughed.
Margaret.
Volunteering.
For vulnerable mothers.
The hypocrisy made Audrey sick.
“She told me there were programs,” Elena continued. “Housing. Medical care. Temporary guardianship if I needed help.”
“Temporary?”
“Yes.”
Elena’s voice cracked.
“I got very sick after Poppy was born. Infection. Surgery. I was in the hospital for almost three weeks.”
Audrey’s hands turned cold.
“Margaret arranged everything while you were hospitalized.”
Elena nodded.
“She said a family could foster Poppy temporarily.”
Audrey remembered the adoption agency.
The documents.
The strange speed.
Grant had handled most of it because Audrey’s father was dying at the time.
“I was told Poppy’s birth mother had chosen closed adoption.”
“I didn’t.”
Elena covered her mouth.
“I came out of the hospital and she was gone.”
Audrey couldn’t speak.
“I called Margaret. She told me I had signed surrender papers.”
“And you didn’t fight?”
Audrey regretted the words immediately.
Elena did not become angry.
“I did.”
She looked straight at Audrey.
“For two years.”
Detective Harris pushed several documents across the table.
Police reports.
Court filings.
Letters.
Audrey saw dates.
Elena had reported fraud nine days after leaving the hospital.
She had petitioned a court.
She had contacted child services.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Every request had been denied because notarized surrender papers existed.
“What changed?” Audrey asked.
Harris answered.
“Three months ago, a retired notary contacted police.”
Audrey looked up.
“He admitted he never witnessed Elena’s signature.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“He was paid five thousand dollars.”
“By Margaret?”
“We believe so.”
Audrey felt nauseated.
“Does Grant know?”
Harris didn’t answer immediately.
That was answer enough.
“How long?”
“We have evidence he knew there was a problem before the adoption was finalized.”
Audrey grabbed the edge of the table.
“What evidence?”
Harris removed a printed email.
Grant to Margaret.
Six years earlier.
Mom, make sure the girl can’t come back later. Audrey has already bonded with the baby. If this falls apart after her father dies, it will destroy her.
Audrey stopped reading.
Grant had known.
Maybe he had told himself he was protecting Audrey.
But he had known.
And he had stayed silent.
Tears blurred her vision.
Elena whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Audrey looked up sharply.
“For what?”
“For coming here.”
“No.”
Audrey shook her head.
“You didn’t do this.”
It was the first moment they looked at each other not as rivals.
But as two women who had both been lied to.
Audrey picked up the email again.
“What does Grant want now?”
Detective Harris leaned forward.
“That is why we are here.”
Elena’s face tightened.
“Grant contacted me five weeks ago.”
Audrey stared.
“He found you?”
“He said he wanted to make things right.”
Audrey almost laughed.
“He offered me money.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
“For what?”
“To petition for custody of Poppy.”
Audrey went cold.
Elena continued quickly.
“I refused.”
“What exactly did he ask you to do?”
“Claim I never intended a permanent adoption. File an emergency challenge. Ask the court to place Poppy with me temporarily.”
The trust.
Audrey understood.
If Poppy was removed from Grant’s household before her birthday—
“She loses the inheritance.”
Elena nodded slowly.
“I didn’t know about the trust at first.”
“When did you find out?”
“Yesterday.”
“From whom?”
“Margaret.”
Audrey’s jaw tightened.
“She offered me more money.”
“How much?”
“One million dollars.”
Audrey stared.
Elena gave a broken laugh.
“I’ve spent six years wishing I knew where my daughter was. They thought I’d sell her for a million dollars.”
“Did you record it?”
Detective Harris answered.
“Yes.”
For the first time that night, Audrey felt something close to hope.
“Can you arrest Margaret?”
“We’re building the case.”
“What about Grant?”
“His financial fraud is more developed.”
“Where is he?”
Harris hesitated.
“Grant was interviewed today at our office.”
“So he wasn’t in Boston.”
“No.”
“Was he arrested?”
“Not yet.”
Audrey laughed bitterly.
“Of course not.”
“We need evidence.”
“You have evidence.”
“We have pieces.”
Audrey remembered the office.
“There may be more.”
Harris’s eyes sharpened.
“What do you mean?”
“Grant keeps paper files.”
“Where?”
“In his office.”
“Can we look?”
Audrey hesitated.
The house belonged to her.
The office was inside it.
But Grant still had personal property rights.
Harris understood.
“We can obtain a warrant if necessary.”
Audrey thought of Margaret breaking in.
Grant remotely opening the door.
Claire begging for an envelope.
“What exactly are you looking for?”
“Loan agreements. Communications about the trust. Payments connected to the adoption.”
Audrey suddenly remembered something.
A small black ledger she had seen behind tax folders.
She hadn’t opened it.
“There’s a locked filing cabinet.”
Harris leaned back.
“Don’t force it.”
“Why?”
“We need evidence handled properly.”
He stood.
“I’ll request a warrant.”
Audrey walked them toward the door.
Elena stopped.
“Can I ask you one thing?”
Audrey nodded cautiously.
“Is she happy?”
Audrey felt her throat tighten.
“Yes.”
Elena smiled through tears.
“Does she like music?”
Audrey stared.
“She sings constantly.”
Elena laughed softly.
It sounded almost like a sob.
“I did too.”
Audrey looked toward the stairs.
For one second she imagined Poppy as a newborn.
Elena waking in a hospital bed.
Reaching for a baby who was gone.
Audrey could not hate her.
That somehow made everything harder.
“She loves pancakes,” Audrey said.
Elena smiled.
“I hate pancakes.”
Audrey unexpectedly laughed.
Elena laughed too.
Then both women stopped because the moment felt almost forbidden.
Elena stepped outside.
“I’m not trying to take her from you.”
Audrey looked at her.
“What are you trying to do?”
“Make sure nobody ever takes her again.”
Before Audrey could answer, her phone rang.
Grant.
Detective Harris looked at the screen.
“Answer it.”
Audrey did.
“Where are you?”
Grant’s voice was low.
“On my way home.”
“You don’t live here anymore.”
“Audrey, don’t make this worse.”
“You forged an adoption.”
“I didn’t forge anything.”
“You knew.”
Silence.
“Audrey, whatever Elena told you—”
“She’s standing on my porch with a detective.”
Grant stopped speaking.
Then his voice changed.
“Do not let that woman near Poppy.”
Elena heard him.
Her face twisted.
Audrey felt disgust.
“You lost the right to give me orders.”
“You don’t know her.”
“And apparently I don’t know you.”
“Audrey.”
“No.”
She looked at Harris.
Then at Elena.
Then back toward the stairs where Poppy was safely out of sight.
“You need to understand something.”
Grant was quiet.
“This family is no longer yours to control.”
“You’re upset.”
“I’m finished.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
“Audrey, please.”
It was the first time he sounded frightened.
Good.
“You will communicate through my attorney.”
“Don’t do this.”
“You already did.”
She ended the call.
Ten seconds later, a text arrived.
Grant: You cannot keep Poppy from me.
Then another.
Grant: I am still her legal father.
Audrey stared at the words.
He was right.
And that terrified her.
Harris read her expression.
“What?”
“He’s reminding me he has parental rights.”
Elena went pale.
Harris’s jaw tightened.
“Do not let him take her anywhere tonight.”
“I won’t.”
Audrey’s phone buzzed again.
This time the message was from an unknown number.
A photograph loaded.
Audrey’s stomach dropped.
It showed Poppy outside her elementary school.
Taken that morning.
From across the street.
May you like
Underneath it were six words.
SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO TURN SEVEN.
