Chapter 7
Elise was found in a private care facility two counties away.
Registered under another name.
Declared mentally incompetent.
No visitors allowed except Edmund Vale.
Hannah nearly collapsed when she saw the building.
It was clean.
Expensive.
Quiet in a way that felt violent.
Elise sat near a window, thinner than her old photographs, hair streaked with gray, hands folded in her lap.
When Hannah entered, Elise looked up.
For one second, nothing happened.
Then her face broke open.
“Hannah?”
Hannah made a sound I had never heard from another human being.
She ran to her mother.
Elise held her and rocked her like Hannah was still a baby.
“My girl,” she sobbed. “My girl.”
I stood in the doorway with Detective Reeves and felt rage settle deeper than bone.
Edmund had stolen a mother from her daughter.
A son from his father.
Children from names.
Women from their own lives.
Elise told us everything slowly.
She had discovered files proving Edmund had arranged illegal adoptions for wealthy families.
When she tried to tell my brother, Edmund staged the boating accident.
My brother died.
Elise survived.
So Edmund had her drugged and hidden.
“I heard your son once,” Elise whispered to me later.
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“Edmund brought him there for a medical exam. He was so small. He said his name was Oliver. I tried to reach him.”
I covered my mouth.
“I’m sorry.”
She touched my hand.
“You found him.”
“No. Hannah did.”
Elise smiled weakly at her daughter.
“My brave girl.”
Hannah cried again.
For the first time, those tears looked like healing instead of breaking.
That night, Oliver met Elise by video.
He smiled shyly.
“You’re Hannah’s mom?”
“Yes.”
He whispered, “I thought moms always leave.”
May you like
Elise cried.
“No, sweetheart. Sometimes bad people build walls.”
