Chapter 4
The unknown sender agreed to meet us at a twenty-four-hour diner across from the hospital.
Maya insisted that I stay with Noah.
Emily went in my place.
For forty minutes, I sat beside my son’s hospital crib and watched his chest rise and fall.
Ryan was somewhere in the building, pretending to be a concerned father.
Diane had disappeared.
At two in the morning, Emily called.
“The woman who contacted you is Lucas’s ex-wife.”
Her name was Sarah Monroe.
She had spent years trying to prove that Diane manufactured the case against her.
After regaining custody of her daughter, Sarah began investigating New Horizons Custody.
“She says Diane finds desperate couples willing to pay huge amounts for private adoptions,” Emily said. “Then she targets vulnerable mothers.”
My blood turned cold.
“Are you saying she planned to sell Noah?”
“Not exactly. Sarah thinks Diane promised him to someone.”
The woman photographed with Ryan was named Olivia Grant.
She and her husband had tried to adopt for years.
They had paid New Horizons more than one hundred thousand dollars.
“Does Ryan know?”
“We don’t know.”
A soft click came from the hospital doorway.
Ryan stood there.
“What don’t you know?” he asked.
I ended the call.
He entered slowly, holding two cups of coffee.
“I brought you one.”
“I don’t want anything from you.”
His eyes moved to Noah.
“I never wanted him hurt.”
“You helped your mother build a case against me before he was born.”
“She said you were unstable.”
“And you believed her?”
“I saw how you acted.”
“How I acted when you left me alone? When you woke me every hour because you said feeding him was my job? When your mother criticized everything I did?”
Ryan set the coffee down.
“I thought temporary custody would force you to get help.”
“You emptied our bank account.”
His jaw tightened.
“That money paid legal expenses.”
“It went to your mother’s company.”
For the first time, fear flashed across his face.
“What company?”
I watched him carefully.
“New Horizons Custody.”
Ryan stared at me as if he had never heard the name.
Then he pulled out his phone and searched it.
His hands began to shake.
“She told me NHC was a legal consulting firm.”
“You signed documents without reading them?”
“She said she was protecting Noah.”
“No. She was selling control over him.”
Ryan backed away.
“That’s not possible.”
A woman’s voice came from the hall.
“It is.”
Olivia Grant stepped into the room.
Her eyes filled with tears when she saw Noah.
“My husband and I were told his mother had agreed to a private adoption,” she said.
I felt the air leave my lungs.
“I never agreed to anything.”
Olivia opened her bag and removed a contract.
The signature on the last page looked exactly like mine.
But I had never signed it.
Ryan took the pages from her.
His face collapsed.
“My mother gave me this.”
“You knew?” I asked.
“She said you signed it during your pregnancy, then changed your mind. She said you were too ashamed to tell me.”
Olivia shook her head.
“We were promised custody once the birth mother was declared unfit.”
Ryan sank into a chair.
Before anyone could speak, the hospital alarm sounded.
A nurse rushed past the door.
Then Marissa ran inside.
“Noah’s gone.”
I turned toward the empty crib.
The blanket was on the floor.
The window was locked.
On the mattress was Diane’s gold bracelet.
May you like
And a note containing four words.
HE BELONGS TO ME NOW.
