Chapter 10
Charges came fast.
Assault.
Fraud.
Identity theft.
Bigamy.
Elder abuse.
Witness intimidation.
Conspiracy.
Martin was charged too.
Dr. Price vanished.
That scared Lydia most.
“Doctors who disappear usually know where bodies are buried,” she said.
I wish she had been speaking figuratively.
She was not.
Police searched Dr. Price’s clinic and found destroyed files, hidden cameras, and medication logs tied to Robert.
They also found a locked cabinet with Clara’s birth mother’s name.
Rosa Miller.
Clara sat beside me when Lydia told us.
“My birth mother?”
“Yes.”
“Alive?”
Lydia paused.
“We don’t know yet.”
Clara nodded like she expected the world to be cruel.
But her hand shook.
I squeezed it.
“We’ll find out.”
Daniel moved into a hotel.
Robert offered to pay.
Daniel refused.
Good.
He needed to learn the weight of his own choices.
He sent me one message.
I am not asking forgiveness. I am giving police everything I know.
I did not answer.
But I read it three times.
A week later, police found Rosa.
Alive.
Living two states away under another name.
She had believed Clara died as an infant.
Evelyn had told her the baby did not survive.
Then fired her.
Then threatened deportation, even though Rosa was legally in the country.
Clara met her in a small conference room at Lydia’s office.
Rosa walked in holding a faded baby blanket.
Clara stood.
Neither moved.
Then Rosa whispered, “My daughter?”
Clara ran to her.
Their sobs filled the room.
May you like
I watched and cried.
Sometimes justice sounds like a mother saying a name she thought she had buried.
